Washblog

Looking Through the Political Static
Hemstad and Bowman's campaign flyer nearly convinced me to go ahead and vote for the incumbents. It states that VMC increased property taxes by 600%, possibly leaving an impression that total property taxes, not just a slice of them, were increased. And it neglects to mention that the taxes in this hospital district where I live had started out about 600% lower than the same taxes in neighboring Hospital districts. (1) Its byline: "Stop Misuse of Public Funds. Lower Taxes." conjured for me the tax revolt mentality that invites voters to disinvest in their own communities and to see government as the enemy.

I was really just about to fill in the ovals for the incumbents when it occurred to me that I was risking a vote on prejudice.  Maybe Hemstad and Bowman were real reformers. Their flyer, after all, was probably created by a consultant -- and is actually pretty standard political fare.

What was needed, I realized, was a due-diligence check.  If no signs of trouble were apparent and Hemstad and Bowman appeared qualified and sincere, I decided, it really probably was time for the incumbents to go.

So I spent some time searching PDC and newspaper archives and Googling the candidates. I also spoke with both Hemstad and Bowman. Carole A. Anderson did not return my call. What I learned made me glad that I looked. I conclude that, through all of the static that so easily clouds any political story, there is a clear indication here that the current situation at Valley Medical Center, and in particular, the relationship between the current Hospital Board and the administration of the hospital needs some close attention -- from people who have managerial experience, preferably in the governmental and health care fields - and who are not already on that board.

A Bit of History about Rich Roodman, Valley Medical Center's Administrator and Carole A. Anderson, Chair of the Hospital Board
Valley Medical Center's Administrator, Rich Roodman, who is responsible for paying the bulk of the PDC fines levied this week, looks like he could use some close oversight that he may not be getting from the current hospital board. First, there's the matter of his salary. According to the PI, he made $502,324 in 2005, considerably higher than that of Harborview chief David Jaffee, who makes $310,200, and UW Medical Center administrator Kathleen Sellick, who makes $299,196. (1)

More to the point, Roodman appears to have previously committed serious -- and expensive -- misconduct as administrator of the hospital. In 1991, the Seattle Times reports, the hospital's insurers paid $279,000 to settle a case in which Roodman was judged by a King County Superior Court jury to have engaged in a conspiracy against a Valley Medical Center executive. Carole Anderson was the Board Chair at the time and defended his actions, stating that she disagreed with the court decision and also, presumably, a three-judge state Court of Appeals panel that upheld it. (2)

Hemstad and Good Government
Hemstad's campaign site is a good one, with substantive information on his background and lots of links.  He is the City Manager for Maple Valley and looks like he's diligent and committed.  In 2006, he alerted Maple Valley's City Council that I-933 would have significant impacts on their city, likely causing a reversion of the city's zoning to its pre-incorporation state.  In a recent Seattle Times guest column he alerts the public to A Little Donut Hole Creating a Big Problem for Maple Valley.  Minutes of Maple Valley's City Council meetings show that he's an active voice for guarding against run-away development that could overwhelm the city's capacity.  In a guest column in the Seattle Times this past April, Hemstad urged attention to the need to upgrade SR 169. The public record shows that Hemstad is a person who cares about the community.

I wrote Hemstad asking a bit more about his background.  What was the name of the public affairs company he founded in Central Europe that is mentioned in the voters pamphlet?  What other U.S. senators did he work for?  The public affairs company, he answered in an email I received this morning, was Eklektik, founded in 1993.  Eklektik eventually grew to be one of the biggest public affairs firms in the former Communist countries of Central Europe and health care was its biggest single area of consulting.  PR Week, Hemstad wrote, called Eklektik the biggest specialized health care public affairs company in Central Europe.  Hemstad came back to the United States in 2002 to be with his father, who had health issues.

In addition to working for Senator Daniel J. Evans, Hemstad also worked for Senator Slade Gorton when he took Evans' seat in the '88 election.  He stayed until Gorton got his own team in place.  Then he worked for Senator David Durenberger, a moderate Republican from Minnesota. Before Washington D.C., he was a research analyst for the Office of Program Research for the Washington House State Government Committee under then-chair Helen Sommers.

My visit to the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) raised questions about Hemstad's fundraising. This month, Hemstad received a $14,000 donation from Washington Taxpayers Association.  That is a PAC that I believe is connected with Senator Pam Roach.  The PAC doesn't appear to be filing electronically, as I had to go into "view actual reports" to learn where that $14,000 came from.  It looks like it's all from one individual, Mike Dunmire, a Washington business owner who backed the recent Initiative 900 (Performance Audits of Government).  My first thought was, here's that anti-tax sentiment again.  My second thought was that this was a bit ironic, considering that Hemstad's page links to a 10/16/07 Voice of the Valley article declaring Hemstad's support for campaign finance reform.

I asked Mr. Hemstad about the donation. He explained that Senator Roach did help his campaign secure the funds -- and that his support has been bipartisan in the race.  He mentioned the support of Democratic Representative Chris Hurst, as well. The donation, he said, was made after large amounts of money came in to the campaign of the incumbent.  His campaign did not have the funds to match Carole Anderson's mailings.  I went back to the PDC database and found that, indeed, Carole Anderson received $20,000 in July from various medical companies, bringing her total fundraising to about $30,000.  The donation to Hemstad's campaign merely raised his total to a comparable amount.

Anderson's donors appear at first sight to be local companies. And perhaps most of them are.  But, I did a quick search on just one of them, Valley Radiologists, and found that it is a subsidiary of a $161 million company called Radnet, Inc.. [Update: In 12/4/07 and 1/22/08 emails, Beth Williams of Valley Radiologists wrote to me that her company is not affiliated with Radnet. As of 1/23/08, Reference USA lists Valley Radiologists (which it identifies as employing Ms. Williams as Administrator and Finance Executive) as a $5-10 million affiliate of the $161 million Radnet. This is probably in error.] All the companies donating to Anderson's campaign can be presumed to be pursuing economic interests with those campaign investments.  It is unknown to what extent those private interests might align with the public interest.  The donation from the Washington Taxpayer Association PAC, on the other hand, looks likely to be motivated by public interest.

Hemstad wrote more about these funds in this morning's email:

"On what prompted the $14K donation from Washington Taxpayers -- Valley Medical did a mass mailing that I believe was again clearly campaigning by the Hospital (Chris Clifford has since filed a new PDC complaint about this violation and the PDC has looked into it enough to decide to accept it and investigate...) (3) and should be listed as an in-kind donation to the incumbents (which, of course, govts can't legally do...).  That mailing came out approx Oct. 11-13.   This helped prompt several additional donations to my own campaign as people were deeply upset w. the level of Hospital spending and it was important to have resources to be able to respond.  As our reform message is being received so well, I'm confident we'll win even if outspent 3 or 4 to 1.  However if it is 10-1 or more (which, w. the direct hospital expenditures it was looking like), the chances of success go down quite a bit...

"I still believe that campaign finance reform is badly needed for these special purpose districts (as is enforcement of regs already in place - the recent PDC ruling should help a bit) and that a limit on donation size be put in place.  However with the massive spending by the hospital and as the incumbents were running as a team, these funds were necessary to be able to get out some semblance of publicity (esp. as it has been so hard to get the traditional media to pay attention to this race).  Rep. Jarrett and I have talked about how this potential legislation could be structured and will likely work together to get some sort of reform bill to the legislature next year.

"On donations, I think it is interesting that both of the incumbents have only received donations from groups w. direct ties to Valley Medical.  This is a very circular and entrenched situation.  The incumbents' average donation is over $2300.  That is stunningly large.  I have approx. 10x the donors of either of the incumbents, but my average donation is about 1/10th of theirs (and that is even w. the 14K from Wash. Taxpayers)."

Hemstad explained that he plans to increase the accountability of the Hospital Commission.  It's extremely difficult now, he said, to track what the commission is doing, as it doesn't record its meetings or post advance agendas or minutes.  He subscribes to the Commission's email distribution list, and finds that sheds little light.  I told Hemstad that the "lower taxes" motto on his flyer concerned me because I feel that there is a political movement to try to discredit and defund government -- and that this is often associated with the anti-tax message.  I asked if he was philosophically anti-tax or anti-government and he said that he is "very much for infrastructure investment". His support comes from a wide base representing many views, he said.  He can't speak to all those views, but he can assure me that he and his supporters agree that the hospital should be accountable to the public.

More from his 10/27 email:

"Lastly, I'm running not because I'm anti-government (heck, I run a government for my day job), I'm running because I think that local government if run right and run transparently can and should be a very positive force in the community.  When governments flagrantly break the law and abuse election laws that might lead to short term gain (as it did for Valley in passing its '05 increase, but doing so via emergency election w.o. a voters' pamphlet and heavy illegal spending) but it definitely breeds cynicism throughout the population and discredits public service.  I'm running because it is the right thing to do."

Bowman: Valley Medical Center is a Great Hospital
Bowman does not seem to be reporting to the PDC yet.  And she doesn't have a web site.  Her statement in the voter's pamphlet gives little information.  She filled in some of these gaps during our conversation.

Bowman is challenging Gary Kohlwes, a former Superintendent of Renton Public School District.  Kohles was not on the hospital board at the time of the 1991 conspiracy judgment against Roodman.

I don't see a PDC filing for you, I said.  Have you done any fundraising at all?  Bowman explained that she's raised about $3,600 and that the PDC filings are in the works.

I asked if she could provide a little background on why she was running.  Who had recruited her?

Valley Medical Center is a great hospital, Sue Bowman said.  It has a great reputation.  She has nothing but wonderful things to say about the hospital and the people who work there.  Her husband was a patient there for years and she learned first hand that its patient treatment is extraordinary.  The current commissioner, Gary Kohlwes, she said, is "an incredible person".  She's not challenging Kohlwes, Bowman said, because he hasn't done a good job. He has done a good job.  She's not running because the commission has been secretive.  It hasn't.  However, it has perhaps become apparent that the operations there could be "just a little bit more above board."

New ideas are great, Sue Bowman said.  Change is good.  She's seen that over the years in the mental health field, in her profession.   'I get the feeling in the neighborhood,' she said, that change on the commission "might help the public feel more ownership" in relation to the hospital district and VMC again.  She is very aware of hospital issues, having served on the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (a nonprofit organization that accredits hospitals to meet Medicare and Medicaid certification requirements).  She mentioned several issues that are of particular interest to her, emphasizing the continual challenge that most hospitals have maintaining a good staff to patient ratio.  The budget could use a little more scrutiny, she said.  The community could feel more welcomed to attend the board meetings.  After all, this is their hospital.

Where did you work, I asked, and what were your actual positions, what did you do?  Bowman explained that she worked for Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.  She was a program administrator for mental health services. She administered and helped to develop programs that assisted mentally ill people to "prolong their lives in the community."  Do you mean to stay out of the hospital, I asked?  Yes.  For example, she developed or oversaw a pet program, a music program, and an adult daily skills program.  Volunteers also came in to help patients with community living.

The voter's pamphlet statement for Bowman states that she founded a nonprofit music organization for children.  What program is that, I asked.  Opera by Children is a program of Utah Festival Opera. It's an outreach program, she said, that sends educators into schools -- at no charge to the schools -- to help children write their own 15-minute operas.  It's been shown to help children "soar academically".  She brought the program to Washington, she said, and is the administrator or Northwest Opera by Children.  Here's a description of that  program at Tiffany Park Elementary Seattle Times School Guide.

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NOTES

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1. "King County has two other public-hospital districts. Kirkland- based District 2 (Evergreen Hospital Medical Center) levies 59 cents total. King County Hospital District 4 (Snoqualmie) levies 61-cent total. The other public hospitals in King County, Harborview and UW Medical Center, don't have their own property tax rates.  The 2005 levy raised the rate from 9 cents per $1,000 assessed value -- well below the community standard -- to 59 cents -- comparable to the other hospitals.  It was a big jump for homeowners, meaning that the owner of a home assessed at $300,000 would pay $177 a year rather than $27."
   From: LEVY SEEKS BOOST FOR HOSPITAL ; TAX COULD ADD $12 MILLION A YEAR FOR RENTON'S VALLEY MEDICAL; [FINAL Edition]
   GORDY HOLT P-I reporter. Seattle Post - Intelligencer.  Apr 11, 2005. pg. B.1
2. $279,000 IS PAID TO EX-AIDE -- RECORDS DESCRIBE END TO VALLEY MEDICAL SUIT; [FINAL Edition] BOB ORTEGA. Seattle Times. Seattle, Wash.: Jun 13, 1991. pg. D.4 and SETTLEMENT IN ALLEGED CONSPIRACY -- VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER WON'T APPEAL JUDGMENT, Seattle PI, 6/5/91.
3. A previous Washblog story outlines Chris Clifford's recall petition against Seattle Port Commissioner Pat Davis and gives background on his professional and activist life: Port Commissioner Recall: What Will it Take?