Little Hoover Commission to update Special District Report

Sequoia Healthcare District CEO, Lee Michelson, is attending "Working Group" meetings set up by the ACHD to respond to the challenges from the Little Hoover Commission, as well as from the Assembly and Senate Committees.

Your tax dollars at work.

From: Jack HickeySHD [mailto:jhickey@sequoiahealthcaredistrict.com]
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2016 10:38 AM
To: Lee Michelson
Cc: Dave Price; Jon Mays; mdianda@bayareanewsgroup.com; rhine@AlmanacNews.com
Subject: ACHD "Working Group" created in response to Little Hoover Commission

Lee, is the Sequoia Healthcare District sending representatives to these Working Group meetings?



“In response to the challenges from the Little Hoover Commission, as well as from the Assembly and Senate Committees, the ACHD Board of Directors established a Working Group comprised of the leadership of Healthcare Districts statewide. The goal of the Working Group is to review the changing role of Healthcare Districts, enhance accountability and improve transparency. The Working Group met on July 12th and 26th to discuss how ACHD can take a leadership role in effectively communicating the position and importance of Healthcare Districts in the State's changing health care environment. ACHD will continue to keep all of our Members informed and engaged, as this important work progresses. The Working Group will continue to meet in August.”

Jack Hickey


From: Lee Michelsen
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2016 10:42 AM
To: 'Jack HickeySHD'
Subject: RE: ACHD "Working Group" created in response to Little Hoover Commission

I am attending

Please, people -- vote this man out of office.

This November, voters will have an opportunity to vote incumbents Katie Kane and Kim Griffin out of office. If that happens, you won't have to vote me out of office, the office will be shut down!

"you won't have to vote me out of office, the office will be shut down!"

Been promising that for a decade, Mr. Hickey.

And along the way, you've blocked the opportunity for younger, more accomplished representation to take the ball and run, and actually get the goal accomplished.

Give up your seat. Let someone who can actually achieve the goals you've promised for a decade take over. No more just sitting there, taking up space when we need action.

Don't you believe in term limits, on principle?

Just another big government politico who wants to keep his seat!

Principles.

No, Hickey -- you're the one who should be given your walking papers by the voters.

You. Not Katie Kane and Kim Griffin. YOU.

Two meetings of the ACHD "Working Group" were held in July, one in San Diego that the CEO did not go to and one in Sacramento that he did attend.

The CEO did attend an August 9th meeting at Beach Cities Healthcare District in Redondo beach. He will be attending a meeting on August 30th in Sacramento

“ACHD has been requested to provide written and oral testimony at the Commission's public hearing on Thursday, August 25, 2016, at 9:30 a.m., at the State Capitol, in room 437. ACHD staff is preparing written testimony on behalf of our members; the team will also be providing oral testimony on the 25th.”

CEO Michelson will not be attending the Hoover Commission’s August 25 meeting

The California Channel will have a live broadcast of the Little Hoover Commission's public hearing on Thursday, August 25, 2016, at 9:30 a.m., at the State Capitol, in room 437.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Using results of the "Working Group" meetings set up by the ACHD to respond to the challenges from the Little Hoover Commission(LHC), ACHD responded to an LHC request for written testimony. Here is an annotated excerpt from the ACHD written testimony:

ACHD strongly believes that decisions regarding local agency governance, services, and use of resources are best made at the local level. State law, in fact, makes Local Agency Formation Commissions (LAFCO) responsible for orderly formation and development of local agencies based on local conditions and circumstances. Governed by local elected officials, LAFCOs are best suited to evaluate the needs of the community and the efficacy of the local agencies that are tasked with providing community services. Further, the LAFCO process is open and public, designed to be a deliberative process with broad stakeholder participation. That said, we recognize there may be challenges for LAFCOs and Healthcare Districts alike in collaborating on mandated reviews. Healthcare Districts want to work with LAFCOs to improve this process, and are currently discussing options for doing so in the context of our working group.

In terms of the Legislature’s role in addressing concerns with Healthcare Districts, or any special district, we have strongly suggested that the Legislature refrain from legislation addressing a concern about a specific Healthcare District until a local process and dialogue has taken place. See: Web Link
We have expressed our strong concerns with legislation aimed at dissolving or otherwise managing a District without a local conversation first. Doing so undermines the role of LAFCOs at the local level and bypasses the important stakeholder process that allows for more informed decision-making. Further, while Healthcare Districts do not exist in every legislative district in the state, it is important that the Legislature have a better understanding of the role of Healthcare Districts in the provision of health care services throughout the state. We agree that both the Association and our members can do a better job at communicating the roles and responsibilities of Healthcare Districts to the public at large, including members of the Legislature and other state officials.

Our working group effort may also result in the need for statutory changes to the Healthcare District authorizing statute. In these instances, where we anticipate the need for modernizing and updating the enabling act in the Health and Safety Code, ACHD would respectfully request the Legislature’s assistance in achieving such changes.
Additionally, ACHD is committed to working with stakeholders, including the California Special Districts Association, the California Association of Local Agency Formation Commissions (CALAFCO) and others in this process.

That government is best which governs least – Thoreau

I have been invited to the "...roundtable discussion to further explore the landscape of Healthcare Districts, with a focus on those Healthcare Districts that have received attention from local grand juries, the Legislature and others. The roundtable discussion will be held on Wednesday, November 16, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Lower Level Conference Room of 925 L Street, Sacramento."

From the Desk of Ken Cohen, Executive Director

As outlined in last month's ACHD Advocate, The Little Hoover Commission is reviewing California's vast network of special districts.

As part of their study, the Commission has identified Healthcare Districts for a more in-depth focused review, following its initial introductory hearing on August 25 about special districts in California. In turn, ACHD provided written and oral testimony at the initial Commission meeting on Thursday, August 25, 2016. Watch that hearing here Web Link and find all written comments submitted to the Commission here Web Link

The Commission has also scheduled a roundtable discussion to further explore the landscape of Healthcare Districts, with a focus on those Healthcare Districts that have received attention from local grand juries, the Legislature and others. The roundtable discussion will be held on Wednesday, November 16, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Lower Level Conference Room of 925 L Street, Sacramento.

Of note, at the business meeting following the hearing on the 25th, several comments were made by Commissioners regarding their perceived need to consolidate or eliminate Healthcare Districts. While largely based upon misinformation and lack of understanding of the role of Healthcare Districts under state and federal healthcare reform, Healthcare Districts will need to remain vigilant in our efforts to inform and educate local and state elected and appointed officials.

As previously reported, in response to the challenge from the Little Hoover Commission, the Assembly Local Government Committee and the Senate Governance & Finance Committee, the ACHD Board established a Working Group comprised of the leadership of Healthcare Districts statewide to review the changing role of Healthcare Districts, enhance accountability and improve transparency. The Working Group has met four times and developed the following four strategies for the ACHD Board to consider: Messaging, Modernization of Healthcare District Law, Credentialing/Certification of Healthcare Districts, and Enhancements to LAFCo. The specific layout of these major strategies will be discussed at the ACHD board retreat on October 4-6.

A special thank you to the members of the Working Group who participated in the above process, for working collaboratively to enhance and protect the interests of Healthcare Districts and for their support of the Association.

Here is the result of the ACHD "Working Group" effort to thwart the efforts of the Little Hoover Commission, LAFCo, the Grand Jury and the Legislative Analyst's Office to resolve the issue of Hospital Districts which sold their hospitals.
These District's morphed into Healthcare Districts and continued collecting the property tax dollars intended to support the hospitals, and began dispensing those taxes to charitable causes as though they were a philanthropic foundation.

Web Link

Nothing better to offer us here, Hickey?

Stop:

at least he has something to offer. Do YOU?

Uh, Menlo -- offering up the same nonsense, over and over and over again, does NOT qualify as "offering something."

Now go back to shilling for Gary Johnson -- or is it John Kasich this week?

stop:

conveniently sidestepping the question. Do you have anything to offer?

You're cute, Menlo.

All you do here is criticize others (except for your crush Hickey), and when you're called to account, you complain.

I should call you Donald from this point forward.

Knock yourself out stop. You still haven't answered the question (big surprise) what have YOU done to make a difference? Besides come on here and trash someone that has tried?

You really don't get it, do you, Donald? Hickey has spent 14 years *claiming* that he wants to shut down the Sequoia District. What has he *actually* done? Other than a lot of self-promotion, and stunts such as having himself listed on the ballot when his term wasn't up for election, he hasn't done much.

But I guess in your eyes, Hickey is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

stop:

what have YOU done to make a difference? Easy to sit behind your keyboard and trash Jack for "not doing anything." What have YOU done. No answer necessary.

Term limits are a hot button for libertarians, no?

So Trump calling for term limits makes him more libertarian than Hickey.

Ha.

If the Sequoia Healthcare District had term limits, Faro and Griffin would have been long gone, and very likely, so would the district. Term limits are intended to overcome the unfair advantage of incumbents. In the case of the Sequoia district, that means the majority of 4 on the board who benefit from the district's PR and Annual Report. As minority member, I have no such benefit, and am an exception to the "incumbency" problem.

My only alternative is to elect 2 candidates to capture seats from those incumbents.

Help me out. Vote for Lois Garcia and Harland Harrison.

How hilarious -- Hickey insists that he isn't an incumbent, since after all, he is "in the minority."

14 years in office, and he isn't an incumbent?

Riiiiiight.

Of course, Hickey hasn't done the cause of Lois Garcia and Harland Harrison any favors when he decided to put his face front and center on the campaign advertisement for both candidates that ran in yesterday's Palo Alto Daily News.

Of course, since it's all about Hickey....