October 23, 2004 Letter to the Washington Hospital Board
Washington Township Health Care District Board of Directors
Members of the Board
2000 Mowry Avenue
Fremont, CA 94538-1716
League of Women Voters of
Fremont, Newark and Union City
October 23, 2004
Dear Member of the Board,
After a detailed telephone discussion with WHS Board President Michael Wallace,
the Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters of Fremont, Newark and Union
City consented to meet in a special session on Friday, October 15, 2004 to
re-examine the League’s neutral position on Measure FF. As you
are probably aware, in our action and advocacy role, the League is nonpartisan
but uses our positions to advocate for or against particular policies in the
public interest. The League does not take a stance on an issue unless
we are able to apply standards deriving from positions we have developed from
study, discussion, and consensus among our members.
We examined Measure FF in terms of our statewide positions on State and Local
Finances that refer to long term debt financing and a provision that encourages
accountability to the public by the body that collects the revenue and delivers
the service or capital improvement. We also referred to a position on
debt financing for long term projects to repair and retrofit existing public
facilities and structures when other means of financing are not available.
The League has a position that efficient and economical government requires
well-defined channels for citizen input and review. Measure FF does
meet the standards for our position on repair and retrofit of existing facilities
and structures. It is weakened by the lack of a provision for the
proposed oversight committee to operate independently from the hospital governing
board, who appoints committee members. Further, although the hospital
board states in its FAQ’s that “These projects will be financed through
a combination of sources including the hospital’s existing budget, cash
reserves and revenue bonds,” the League is unable to determine that the
bond provides for a publicly visible process for determining how much of the
cost would be covered by “other means of financing.”
After thorough discussion, the League Board of Directors determined that although
the measure aligns with League positions on retrofitting and repairing existing
structures, it does conflict with League positions in support of accountability
to the public by the unit of government that collects the revenue and that which
delivers services. Whenever any level of League finds a conflict
between positions it must remain neutral on an issue.