LOS MEDANOS: Bankruptcy Settled, Fate Of Healthcare Board Challenged

      While a federal judge yesterday approved Los Medanos Community Hospital District's bankruptcy plan, critics are saying the "district is a drain on taxpayers and should be dissolved." The San Francisco Chronicle reports that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Edward Jellen approved the hospital district's "plan to repay approximately $17 million of the claims against it, with creditors getting 37 cents on the dollar." Now that the bankruptcy issue is settled, Dan De Miglio, who "is part of a slate of three challengers" seeking seats on the district board, says the hospital district should "pack it up." He said, "We pay in our community twice the annual taxes to a closed hospital than we do to our own school system -- that's pathetic. The hospital provides absolutely zero services to our town." But Al Prince, chair of the district, said the debt "is cast in stone. For anyone to pretend they can dismantle the district and those debts would go away is ludicrous." Prince argued that the district needs to remain in place "until its bond debt is paid off" (Heredia, 10/9). Click here to read past CHL coverage of the Los Medanos hospital dispute.