Issues meeting notes

6/21/07

Health Care System and Station Area Plan

Our first guest was Jim Araby, a union representative for Sutter and Kaiser workers, working with other groups to build a community voice to participate in the next stage of healthcare systems. There’s petition circulating to promote: 1) Keeping Sutter Hospital open until replacement service areas are complete and making sure indigent care continues to be provided; 2) Protecting the workers being displaced by Sutter’s closure and protecting the Family Practice Residency Program that feeds new doctors into our local healthcare system and 3) Urging the Supervisors to convene a Community Healthcare Oversight Committee to pursue the principles above. The community voice would be institutionalized in the latter committee, so the private entities can’t just confer alone, with only their own interests driving the result.

Our Executive Board will vote about whether to sign on as a supporting organization.

We next heard from Michael Allen, who is President of the North Bay Labor Council, a field representative for State Senator Pat Wiggins, chair of the Accountable Development Coalition (in which CCSR participates), and also has announced his candidacy for Santa Rosa’s City Council.

The subject was the ADC’s efforts to ensure that the developer selected by the city and the SMART Board, Michael Dieden, follows through with promises made for the SMART property development. Because of the housing sales downturn, increasing construction costs and the pull-out by the Junior College from their planned Culinary Arts Program on this site, Mr. Dieden recently proposed significant changes, including reduction in housing numbers and construction of a parking structure. The ADC continues to pursue goals such as higher density housing, reduced parking and increasing transit access to the site.