In the Coastal Post's second in its series on the volatile November 7 mid-term elections, we'll explore a few of the important Marin County issues and propositions.
The Marin Healthcare District Board (MHDB), which oversees Marin General Hospital (MGH), has become even more important now that the split between MGH and Sutter Corporation appears to be a go. The District's Board of Directors will be overseeing the new version of Marin General amid attempts by Sutter Health to take away MGH's traditional pool of patients. Voters have a choice between seven candidates for three open seats. There are two slates and two independent candidates.

The so-called "doctors slate" consists of two candidates, Dr. Larry Bedard, a former MHDB director (1992-'96) and an emergency physician at MGH for 21 years. Completing the slate is Dr. James Clever, retired Chief of Staff of Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center in San Francisco. Dr. Clever has served on the Board of the Visiting Nurses Association and is currently on the Board of the Redwoods Retirement Center in Mill Valley.

The two have been put forward by the Alliance to Save Our Hospital. They mutually name the restoration of the public trust in MGH as paramount. They also prefer to build a new wing instead of retrofitting the present building whose repairs are needed to comply with earthquake safety standards. As is to be expected, the "doctors slate" is the more "conservative" grouping, although in Marin that's somewhat of a misnomer.

Friends of the Marin Healthcare District endorse what's referred to as the "friends slate." While the slate declares differences with the powerful Marin Safe Health Care Coalition it is closely related. MSHCC is the organization that fought tooth and nail to keep MGH from being swallowed up by Sutter Corporation. Sutter's dissolution from MGH is the Coalition's victory.

This slate consists of Dr. Jennifer Rienks, a health policy analyst at the UCSF Medical School with ten years experience in family and community medicine, Kathleen Russell, a small business owner with experience in public policy and problem solving and Jonathan Frieman, a charitable nonprofit executive with experience in business administration.

The trio pledges to have a full-time trauma surgeon and to improve relations with Kaiser so members get a fair price at MGH instead of leaving the county. They pledge to eliminate exorbitant fees, give greater care to all Marin residents and commit to a Green hospital. They also support funding a new wing. In fact, the only candidate who supports retrofitting the wing rather than rebuilding is independent candidate Lori Wood. Wood, a former secretary for the Hospital Board would like to reject or revise the settlement between Sutter and the District Board to make it fairer to MGH. The second independent candidate is Richard Holland, a commercial Realtor, who has worked for seven years at the Public Health Institute in Berkeley. He wants the new wing built and feels that MGH can't compete unless it displays a high level of quality care.

Dr. Bedard is the most contentious of the candidates. Although found innocent of conflict of interest charges, he was recalled from the Hospital Board for running a medical business that supplied contract emergency services to MGH while working in that department. It was the "Friends" folks who questioned his ethics and there are mutual bad feelings. A similar situation involves Lori Wood who resigned after fifteen months as the district's secretary in a tiff with board president Dr. John Severinghaus.

The most qualified candidates are Dr. Clever, with his prestigious service as Chief of Staff of Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center, and Dr. Rienks with her service as a health policy analyst at UCSF Medical School. Individually, they represent both sides of the issues coming before the Board. Together, their professional experience spans the modern medical community.


Measure R-Rail Transit
The most controversial local measure on the ballot is Measure R, the Sonoma-Marin rail transit district rail project, SMART. This measure authorizes the construction, operation and maintenance of a passenger rail line and bicycle/pedestrian pathway along Highway 101. It would run from Cloverdale to Larkspur and connect with the Larkspur Ferry to take commuters to San Francisco. The measure requires a quarter of a cent sales tax for 20 years and a two-thirds voter approval in both Sonoma and Marin counties.

This measure is causing a nasty split among environmentalists, motorists and both political parties. Backers include Lynn Woolsey, Jared Huffman, Al Boro, Steve Kinsey and the Sierra Club. No on R endorsements come from Supervisors Hal Brown and Susan Adams and Marin Audubon Society President Barbara Salzman.

The vast majority of residents of both Marin and Sonoma would love to see some type of light rail system running along the Highway 101 Corridor. The problem, according to the opposition, is the present plan calls for a diesel train which would contribute to pollution and thus, on it's own, is turning off voters.

Another huge problem is that similar measures have already been put to the public. Each measure was voted down for one central reason. There was no plan to smoothly bring commuters into San Francisco or over to the East Bay. No matter how it's spun, the vast bulk of daily traffic goes into and out of those two destinations. Any other plan is a mere nibbling away at the problem.

What SMART supporters are also forgetting is that transferring and waiting for connections is not fun and adds an additional half hour to an hour to most trips. The journey itself is fast. It's the waiting that's deadly, especially during inclement weather. We also find a practical problem in that for over a decade, Larkspur's City Council has opposed any rail line crossing Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to the ferry terminal. Because of its opposition, there will be a gap of 425 yards from the end of SMART to the ferry.

The SMART set answers that the makeup of the Larkspur City Council will change eventually and "a new generation of Larkspur officials hopefully will see the community benefit of a seamless SMART-ferry connection matched with the obvious commercial advantages to Larkspur Landing."

Those in opposition also contend a commuter rail might be good for Sonoma but Marin would receive little benefit with no service in Southern or Western Marin. The bus line would also have to compete for funding with the rail line. Research has shown that the majority of riders would come from Sonoma County. Advocates point out that Sonoma is slanted to pay its fair share. Over 70% of trips will take place in Sonoma and the majority of the working track will be there. To balance things out, Sonoma reportedly will pay 72 percent of SMART's cost.