Tennis club owner drops ValleyCare suit Tennis club owner drops ValleyCare suit (April 05, 2002)

Hospital expansion projects move forward
by Jeb Bing

Pleasanton businessman and Livermore tennis club owner Kim Fuller has dropped his suit against ValleyCare Health System after nearly two years of legal and regulatory complaints against its expansion programs in Livermore.

The move clears the way for ValleyCare to proceed with $70 million in projects, including a $19 million expansion of its ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton. It also removes any financial impediments that could have blocked the sale of bonds and other funding needed to pay for the expansion work.

Still, Fuller's actions delayed by more than a year construction of a new medical office building in Livermore, a LifestyleRx fitness center, renovation work at Valley Memorial Hospital, and completion of the first and third floors of the new patient wing at the Pleasanton hospital.

Although specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed, both sides were reported to have agreed not to take legal action against the other on issues involving the expansion and building projects.

Last year, Fuller lost a suit in Alameda County Superior Court that claimed an environmental impact report approving the ValleyCare project in Livermore was wrong. He filed an appeal of that decision in the California Appellate Court last month, and it was that appeal that he has now dropped.

Meanwhile, ValleyCare continued to improve its financial performance, with earnings of $647,000 in February, 86 percent above forecast. That brought year-to-date totals for its July 1-June 30 fiscal year to $2.3 million, still 20 percent below earnings forecasted for this period and under the $2.7 million earned in the same seven months a year ago.

Ken Jensen, Chief Financial Officer, told the health system board of directors that total revenue for the first seven months of the 2001-2002 fiscal year was $80.5 million, compared to $68.6 million in the same period last year.

In other action, Bill Hughes, chairman of the ValleyCare Foundation board of trustees, presented a check for $809,000 to the VHS board. The money came from fund-raisers, grants and the hospital auxiliary.