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Children's Hospital seeks help on rebuilding through county-wide parcel tax
Measure A on Feb. 5 ballot would partially finance state-required seismic upgrades, expansion

by Jeb Bing

Children's Hospital of Oakland, one of the country's largest and the only hospital and research center serving children exclusively in Alameda County, is asking voters to approve Measure A on Feb. 5.

Measure A, which appears on the Presidential Primary Election ballot behind the ballots for presidential contenders, would impose a parcel tax of $24 a year on homeowners throughout Alameda County to provide half of the $700 million needed to rebuild and expand Children's Hospital to meet earthquake retrofitting requirements by 2013 as required by state law. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has endorsed the measure.

"Without this needed funding, Children's Hospital will have to surrender its license and close because we won't be able to meet state requirements," Frank Tiedemann, the hospital's president and chief executive officer, told the Weekly in an interview. "None of us wants that to happen."

Still Tiedemann's and the county supervisors' objectives to win at the polls are formidable. To pass, Measure A will need a vote by two-thirds of those voting (66.6 percent). Although opposition has been light, many voters in the county have never used the services Children's Hospital provides, and many don't even know where it's located.

The tax, which would impose a $100-a-year parcel tax on small non-residential properties and $250 on larger ones, in addition to the $24 annual tax on residential properties, would last for 35 years and provide $300 million to "The Children's Hospital Construction Fund," which would be maintained by the county. Homeowners 65 years of age or older could request each year to be exempted from the tax.

With the construction fund and other funds available to Children's, Tiedemann said the plan is to build a new 12-story-high medical facility on land between 52nd and 53rd streets near the hospital's main facility in Oakland. The hospital would continue to operate its current facility during construction, which would start in 2010 and must be completed by 2013 to meet the state's deadline for seismic upgrades.

The expansion project would increase the hospital's capacity from 171 pediatric beds now to approximately 250 private patient rooms.

"This is an historic time for our hospital and the community that depends on our services," Tiedemann said. "The construction of our new medical center provides a long awaited opportunity to match the excellence of our medical staff with a superb facility. We're treating an increasing number of children with some of the most complex and serious illnesses. We need a new building to give them the best possible healthcare experience."

Tiedemann said Children's has treated thousands of children from Pleasanton and works closely with pediatricians and hospitals in the area to handle patients who need specialty care. At one time, Children's was considering property in the Tri-Valley for its new facility, but decided to stay in the location it's occupied for 100 years that is convenient to two freeway off-ramps and public transportation.

At the same time, he added, Children's is planning to expand its Pleasanton specialty care center, located at 5820 Stoneridge Mall Road, where it provides a wide range of specialty pediatric care.

Tiedemann said the Oakland facility is only one of eight children's hospitals in California and one of only 50 throughout the country. A nonprofit hospital, Children's of Oakland also operates the largest non-university-related pediatric research center in the U.S., with 300 scientists and a $50-million budget. The research center will stay in its current location, and the existing hospital facility will be turned into an outpatient center if Measure A passes.

For more information about Children's Hospital building plans and Measure A, see your Alameda County Sample Ballot or sign on to www.childrenshospitaloakland.org

Posted by Jack Forder, a resident of another community, on Jan 28, 2008 at 10:22 am

Neighbors are very upset with the unplanned expansion of CHO.

For anyone who'd like information on why, please see the website for Livable Oakland:

www.livableoakland.com

Let's vote NO on Measures A and B and tell private corporations they'll have to look elsewhere for their expansion funds. Tax payer dollars should go to county hospitals, police, libraries and schools- not 193ft towers in low-key residential neighborhoods.

Posted by Susan Parker, a resident of another community, on Jan 28, 2008 at 4:23 pm

NO PUBLIC MONEY WITHOUT PUBLIC AND NEIGHBORHOOD INPUT!! Children's sprung this on our neighborhood and is now threatening eminent domain to home owners not willing to sell to them. How can a PRIVATE corporation get homeowners to pay for their EXPANSION and also take away their homes??? It is not a rebuild OR a retrofit. The money is going toward a monstrous 196-foot tower capped with a helicopter pad. Childrens Hospital serves clients throughout northern California and yet ONLY Alameda County residents and businesses are being asked to pay for it. IT'S NOT FAIR!!! Make Children's Hospital accountable to the residents of Alameda County. Vote NO on Measures A and B. Go to www.livableoakland.com for more info.

Posted by Yasmin, a resident of another community, on Jan 28, 2008 at 9:07 pm

Children's Hospital Oakland doesn't act like a public entity (it's a very closed institution) yet wants $300 million of our tax dollars.

It's secretive about its long-term growth plan, and has been creeping northwards for years, taking over homes and turning the neighborhood into its office space.

Children's never has done any community outreach in its own neighborhood. It presented its plan for a 12-story high-rise as a done deal at a community meeting where a couple of people discovered their homes were in the footprint.

Children's went around the backs of Alameda County supervisors to get Measure B on the ballot. They had to add Measure A because B would have been challenged in court

It's scary when a private enterprise uses eminent domain to take homes.

These are just some of the reasons to vote No on A and B

Posted by Anonymous, a resident of another community, on Jan 29, 2008 at 4:08 pm

I agree that the CHO should NOT use public funds. I oppose parcel taxes for this. I wish people in my neighborhood removed their YES on A signs.

Posted by Katina, a resident of another community, on Feb 3, 2008 at 2:34 pm

I am disappointed and saddened to see a private hospital with such an objectively positive mission behaving with the ethics and morals of a cigarette company.

The hospital snuck behind the County's back to put these Measures on the ballot. It then unveiled a plan to build a 200-foot tower with helipad in a neighborhood of single family homes - with no input from neighbors. It even plans to take homes by eminent domain to do it.

Worse, as a private entity, it wants taxpayers to fund this project for the next 35 years. What other private company will be lining up to use public tax money as its piggy bank?

The Board of Trustees of the Alameda County Medical Center has unanimously voted to oppose Measures A & B. This is $300 million we need to fund and retrofit our own County medical facilities like Highland, to fund police and fire services, to take care of abused and neglected children. County taxpayers already shoulder the burden of reimbursing the Children's Hospital for the Medi-Cal patients it treats. We should not pay for its decision to expand rather than do a smaller retrofit.

CEO Frank Tiedemann, Sr. VP Mary Dean, and Head of Trauma Jim Betts have all stated that the hospital will not leave Alameda County if these Measures fail. Yet, through their $1 million ad campaign, they continue to use vulnerable children to perpetuate the lie that they will.

We must demand that the hospital be a good neighbor. The hospital must treat Alameda County, its residents and its children with dignity and respect. And, like all other non-profits, the hospital should seek a private bond, not a public tax, to finance its projects.

We can demand this by voting NO on Measures A & B.

Posted by anonymous, a resident of another community, on Feb 5, 2008 at 10:19 pm

If Children's Hospital Oakland sees 60% of it's patients from Alameda County, of which a large percentage is uninsured, how is this not a public service.

This is our children.