By Tony Hicks – The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved $75 million in Measure X money for a list of capital projects for Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.
The board in November approved many of the recommendations from its Measure X task force – including $5 million for a 3,000 square foot expansion of its psychiatric emergency services facility – but waited on many bigger projects until members could get more details.
Measure X is a half-cent sales tax approved by Contra Costa voters in 2020. The money began accruing in April, when the county’s Measure X advisory board began meeting.
The ballot measure’s purpose was keeping “Contra Costa’s regional hospital open and staffed, fund community health centers, emergency response, support critical safety-net services, invest in early childhood services, protect vulnerable populations, and for other essential county services.”
Supervisors on Tuesday approved spending $30 million to expand the center’s office complex by 40,000 square feet, $25 million for a new public health lab, $15 million on a new parking structure with 325 additional spaces, and $5 million to expand the hospital’s interventional radiology suite by 5,000 square feet.
District 4 supervisor Karen Mitchoff said she understood public concern over spending so much so soon, but these one-time expenditures would cost more down the road.
“The sooner we build something, the less expensive it is, and so this $75 million – while it will be spent out of Measure X funding – when Measure X funding comes in in future years, this expense will not be there,” Mitchoff said. “And so there will be the ability to fund programs that are next on the list of priorities.”
Measure X sales tax revenue is projected to be more than $238 million through the end of fiscal 2022-2023. The county is withholding 20 percent of the money in a reserve fund.
The ballot measure will also provide money to re-open East County fire stations, spend more on youth centers in east and central counties, and provide another $5 million toward Contra Costa’s community crisis initiative.
During the first year of ongoing Measure X funding (April 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023) another $40 million will go to the medical center and $10 million toward the local housing trust fund, including funding for homeless housing and services. Other priorities include $4.5 million for wildfire mitigation, $3.5 million to re-open and staff other county fire stations, and $2.5 million for climate sustainability projects.
Well at least they are working on the parking at the hospital. It is hell finding parking. I remember this lady arrived like 20 minutes late for her appointment due to not able to find parking. They automacally canceled her appointment, they did not care. I have seen 2 car accidents and 1 parking rage. I thought they should have built a 2 level parking lot there.
I was on an employee committee when they were building the new hospital. We asked about parking. There were 2 issues at the time. One was money (of course) the other was the City of Martinez would not allow a multi-level parking garage. I guess the city finally gave in
More freebies for those who don’t want to work.
Not everyone using county service get a free ride. People PAY to have CCHP. CCHP is a health plan offered to county employees and as of Jan 1 those employees will be paying over $500 for single coverage and almost $700 for family. Lots of small businesses offer CCHP to employees as well due to low or no co-pays.
Old Timer like so many on here you speak without doing any research.
The state, not the county oversees hospitals. So, the state would be responsible for giving permission for DSP to close and basically leave west county without adequate support.
“The sooner we build something, the less expensive it is, and so this $75 million – while it will be spent out of Measure X funding – when Measure X funding comes in in future years, this expense will not be there,” Mitchoff said.
I think I see the source of the problem. It appears to be contained in the logic demonstrated in the above sentence.
Expanding psych emergency by 3000 sqft isnt enough to qualify as even a bandaid. The psych department needs a larger focus than this. As usual a serious issue is being overshadowed by the need for 40,000 sqft of MORE OFFICE SPACE for the super important jobs that dont need to exist. These “County Officials” are completely out of touch with reality. Complete Idiots IMO.
Part of the “office space” deal is an attempt to bring Patient Accounting from Center Ave to the hospital campus where it should have been all along.
Not sure why they are building the new PH lab as the current one (by the ER) was built in 2002. I had many tire repairs because of that building
Karen Mitchoff is an embarrassment for this county.
Judicial Watch has identified CC as one of the counties out of compliance with federal laws overseeing the maintenance of accurate voter rolls and they have sent a letter to the county elections office prior to initiating a lawsuit
It said that the rolls have not been updated for several years and that this significantly increases chances for vote fraud
I wonder how BOS plans to address this
Will they spend money to initiate a program to clean out the voter rolls?
With mail in ballots and ballot harvesting legalized it is imperative that the means to create fake ballots is taken away from those that would seek to subvert the election process – a key Marxist strategy
I guess that $20K for a typing job paid off.
Now they can spend the money.
But,
nothing gets spent until the proper people are appropriately greased.
That’s just the way it works in a corrupt political system.
Helen Allen would be so proud.
All of her students are doing so well with the rants.
I cannot believe that we keep giving more and more to the dregs of society. Keep not working and you apparently get everything for free. Sigh.
Ever hear of the “working poor”. Those that need medical help but make a couple of bucks a month too much to qualify for MediCal? Elderly that cannot afford a MediCare supplement? People who have lost health insurance due to job loss?
@Oh, please – “Dregs?” You mean the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors, correct? 😉
Seriously, the vast majority of patients at the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center are Hispanics who don’t speak English. It seems to me the primary mandate of the Regional Medical Center is to serve undocumented aliens at taxpayer expense. People who work there tell me the majority of patient-facing staff are bilingual, including doctors and nurses, and the patients are 90% Hispanic with little or no English.
Based on the traffic I see driving by that place, most of all what it needs is a multi-level parking structure. But I’m sure that goes against everything the powers that be want.
Unfortunately private hospitals shutter all the time in low income areas. When the, “customers,” are only paying with Medi-Cal and CCHP, the hospitals get paid a super reduced rate for their services, so the corporate entities that run the hospitals shut ‘em down, and look for, *ahem,* “greener pastures,” if you will. This is one of the many problems with having privatized health care. Look at the central part of the county…. Two John Muir Hospitals, A Kaiser, San Ramon Hospital, and CCRMC. Always follow the money…