EDEN HEALTH DISTRICT | Legislation that could be the first nail in the Eden Health District’s coffin was signed last week by Gov. Jerry Brown. The new law, authored by East Bay Assemblymember Rob Bonta, requires the struggling Eden Health District to allocate a minimum of 80 percent of its operating budget for health-related expenditures. The narrowly-tailored bill only pertains to the Eden Health District, which covers much of Central Alameda County.
Following a years-long legal battle with hospital provider Sutter Health over ownership of San Leandro Hospital, the healthcare district’s financial situation has been precarious in recent years. After losing the lawsuit, Eden Health District was ordered to pay $20 million in damages to Sutter Health spread out over 10 years.
In addition to no longer overseeing a hospital, which was its original duty when voters created the district in 1948, its grant-giving ability has also been severely limited in recent years. Much of its income comes from medical office properties the district owns in Castro Valley and Pleasanton. The healthcare district is not funded by any taxes. Nearly two years ago, Eden Health District spent just 12 percent of its budget outside of administrative costs.
“The Eden District now essentially functions as a commercial real estate management operation, rather than a healthcare provider for the public,” said Bonta. “Unfortunately, the mismanagement of the district and failure to meet the stated mission has gone on for too long and has violated the public trust by spending a disproportionate amount of their budget on administrative costs and not on helping people.”
Bonta’s bill faced little opposition through the legislative process before being signed by Brown on Sept. 21. Hayward Assemblymember Bill Quirk also offered legislation related to Eden Health District this session. Quirk’s bill would have been far more punitive and ask for an immediate dissolution of the healthcare district. That bill, however, was shelved, in favor of Bonta’s legislation.
But the push by Alameda County officials and local mayors to dissolve Eden Health District may only be beginning. The Alameda County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), which oversees the boundaries of jurisdictions in the region, is currently discussing the district’s future, including the possibility of dissolution. A final report commissioned by LAFCO is scheduled for January 2017, according to a timeline offered last month. LAFCO’s next meeting is Nov. 10.
ebcitizen.com 
By MW:
Related to the post of 10:51:
In regard to government and getting maximum value out of tax dollars, the Bay area is the world's leader and champion at totally ignoring truth, quality and efficiency, and instead only taking into consideration such things as political connections and how much money and favors this or that person or organization, and in one way or another, funnels and provides to the politicians.
That is why the Bay area's big boys, and including Willie Brown and SF mayor George Moscone, never stopped protecting, defending, and fawning over Jim Jones, and later of Jonestown infamy.
It is the reason that Nadia Lockyer (in other words Bill Lockyer's wife), and who in addition to being an extreme alcoholic, a professional pathological liar, and an extreme drug addict, is also one of the stupidest people of all time, was not only hired by the Alameda Cou8nty DA's office BUT ALSO EVEN MADE A MANAGER IN THAT OFFICE.
It is the reason that Nate Miley's children have been repeatedly hired by various AC offices for well paying positions that they have absolutely no qualifications whatsoever for.
It is the reason that even though for years the extremely politically connected Yusef Bey was regularly kidnapping teenage girls off the street and holding them for years as his slaves, none of the bigshots in AC government had even the slightest interest in putting a halt to Bey's criminal activities.
It is the reason that the stooges, lemmings, rubberstamps, and puppets on a string in various departments in SF city government that pretend to be involved in “inspections,” “regulation,” and “public safety” approved the design of The Leaning Tower of Millennium.
To sum up, while at one time San Francisco was head and shoulders “above” any other major city or county in the entire country when it came to sleaze, fraud, corruption, phony and choreographed “investigations,” and illegal backroom fixes in exchange for under the table bribes, however in recent years Alameda County has been making a lot of “progress” in catching up to SF in that regard, and I am confident that if we keep working hard at it eventually we can be just as corrupt as San Francisco.
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The Grand Jury was right. It's Eden Township Healthcare District that got many things wrong including spending so much money on administration!
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@ 10:26pm-are you the Eden Township Board member who is also a Davis Street Resource Center board member? The funds should be distributed to the organizations that have the best health outcomes, not the most politically connected ones.
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The Grand Jury got many things wrong!
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Get rid of Eden Health District. Read the Grand Jury Report which blasted the mismanagement of the District and called for their dissolution.
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Look into the real facts. The above statement is incorrect. The consultant hired by LAFCo will tell the true story concerning the administrative costs and their budget. When there's a 20M settlement it affects the budget!
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When the District spends most of their budget on administrative costs; it is time to dissolve!
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The investments in real estate in Dublin, Castro Valley and San Leandro (not Pleasanton) give the District income to support education and services in the Eden Township area. So the real question is, do the people want the assets of the District to go to just two hospitals to support them for 2 years, or do they want the District to support local communities who are underserved for the foreseeable future? After Sutter is paid off the District will have $2M/year to go back into the community. The District hasn't collected taxes since 1977 and has a current partnership with Davis Street Resource Center to support their clinic in San Leandro. The people should decide where they want their money to go and NOT the politicians!
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I find it very interesting that the folks who supported the District's lawsuit against Sutter now are the ones wanting the District to be dissolved. This is nothing more than a “Money Grab” by the same folks.
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The income from real estate investments in Castro Valley and Dublin (not Pleasanton) is what made it possible for the District to keep San Leandro Hospital open before it was sold to Sutter. So, I guess the real question is do we want the District dissolved and its assets to go to help two hospitals for a short time ( approximately 2 years) or do we want the assists to keep making money and support health education and services to the underserved in the Eden Township Area for the foreseeable future. After Sutter is paid off the District will have approximately 2M a years to send on support and education to the community. Let the people decide and not the politicians just looking for “money” because they made promises they couldn't keep or haven't spent the county's money wisely!
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By MW:
In regard to assertions by Bonta that Eden, and which is supposedly in the health care business, is actually far more into being a commercial real estate business than a healthcare provider:
Among major metropolitan areas, the Bay area is the nation's “champion” and “leader,” and it's not even slightly close, in organizations that are as phony as can be and not even slightly similar to what they supposedly are. And most of the time the local judges and DA's offices let them get away with it. That is why such an extremely high percentage of the very sleaziest and most extreme scam artists set up business in the Bay area, and Jim Jones, and later of Jonestown infamy, was just one example.
(NOTE: For people who don't remember any of the details of Jim Jones' somewhat earlier years, before Jones and many of his followers moved to Jonestown in Guyana, Jim Jones was extremely active in the Bay area and in Bay area politics. Jim Jones also had extremely close relationships with Willie Brown and San Francisco mayor George Moscone. And Moscone and Willie Brown also gave Jones testimonial dinners, and at which they praised him to the skies and also “informed” and “educated” the general public to not pay any attention to any of Jones' detractors, and they also reassured the general public that Jones was as honest, wonderful, and trustworthy ac could be, since even years before the Jonestown Massacre some people realized that Jim Jones was nothing more than a phony, sleazeball, parasite, and world class scam artist, and even though Moscone, Willie Brown, and the SF Comical never stopped defending, and in fact also extremely enthusiastically praising, Jones.)
To sum up, if I wanted to operate a business that was a big scam operation and as phony as could be, I would select the Bay area to be my headquarters, and to help ensure staying out of prison would: one, cultivate close relationships with the local politicians and spend some money regularly taking them and some of the reporters working for the SF Comical out to dinner; two, make election campaign contributions and also send a small percentage of the money I scammed and embezzled to the local charities; three, hire a PR firm; and four, also hire the sleaziest and most politically connected local law firm I could find to destroy anyone who had the gall and nerve to tell the truth about my operation.
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Eden Health District should have been dissolved after they sold San Leandro Hospital.
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