Politics boiled over at Tuesday’s Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting after health care consultant Chriss Street gave a presentation on establishing a local medical school to help grow the number of physicians in the North State.
Supervisor Kevin Crye, who chairs the board, became irritated after Supervisors Matt Plummer and Allen Long asked questions and raised some concerns over Street’s proposal.
Long was wary of the potential cost to a county that doesn’t have the money to expand its current jail and will be looking for money to build an alternative custody campus that Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson has proposed.
Too, at last year’s budget hearings, supervisors asked department heads to find places where they could trim their budgets.
“I’m a strong advocate for a medical school, but you’re looking for a partnership with the county, and the county will have to fund this upfront to the tune of $30 (million) to $50 million you said for the escrow, which could eventually get returned if you meet accreditation and some of the different features to this,” Long told Street. “But then you throw in the cost of the building, the land and all the other things, this could easily be a $60 million venture upfront that the county … that we’re going to have to debt service that and I have great concerns with that.”
Crye countered that Street’s work is an exploratory mission and said it was “comical” that “we’re beating this up as if we’re contributing $200 million today to a project.”
Street is being paid $40,000 for his work and so far, the county has given him about $7,000, Crye said. Street is working with Redding City Councilman Dr. Paul Dhanuka, who pitched the idea for a medical school to the city council earlier this year. Street also presented at that meeting in support of Dhanuka’s idea.
“Let’s not forget, Dr. Dhanuka won (his city council seat) by a far greater margin than any of us up here and he ran actually wanting to do big things as it relates to medical care in our community,” Crye said.
“All we’re doing right now is saying, can it be done,” he added.
Plummer said he supports the process but the community needs to ask questions,
“I think by asking the hard questions, digging into the details, looking at the other examples, testing them, that’s how we’ll actually get to something that is successful. It’s not to undermine it, it’s actually to strengthen it,” Plummer said.
Street was hired in February for a term of six months. The hire prompted some community leaders to ask why county officials brought on the former county executive officer job candidate.
Shasta County retired Public Defender Jeff Gorder is suing County Executive Officer David Rickert and the supervisors over the $40,000 agreement, claiming the process was a “ruse” and illegal.
When Street was hired, Brandon Thornock, CEO of Shasta Community Health Center, said it sounded like the county was going to hire Street to lobby for a medical school in the area.
“This gentleman is not going to be able to tell anyone in the health care community in any unique way to further enhance our abilities to recruit doctors and clinicians,” Thornock told the Record Searchlight at the time.
On Tuesday, Street said a medical school in Shasta County could address the local doctors’ shortage because it would “recruit, educate and return” medical students to the area.
Street said building a medical school in Shasta County would draw students from all over far Northern California and the county could go after federal grants to get the money to build it.
In a video Street played as part of his presentation, Simpson University President Norm Hall told the audience that his school would be interested in building a medical school.
“We’re excited about exploring this notion of a medical school,” Hall said. “Now, we need to turn our attention to funding (and) partnerships with hospitals.”
Hall said he has agreed to partner with Dhanuka and further work on the idea of building a medical school in Shasta County.
Dhanuka, who also addressed the board, said a medical school would give students in the region the option of staying home if they want to pursue a medical degree.
“We have absolutely great students in our area,” Dhanuka said.
Dhanuka also said he wants to grow local residency programs, including surgery, obstetrician-gynecologist and psychiatry.
Plummer made a motion to revise Street’s contract to include, among other things, letters of support from Dignity Health, Shasta Regional Medical Center and Shasta Community Health Center. But the motion failed 3-2, with Crye, Corkey Harmon and Chris Kelstrom voting it down.
After the meeting, Dhanuka, who is president of the North Valley Medical Association, said he reached out to the area’s major health providers, and the conversations so far have been positive.
David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly “Buzz on the Street” column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Feud intensifies over how to pay Shasta County medical school proposal
Reporting by David Benda, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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