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El Camino should
compromise
As a member of SEIU Local 715, I would like to comment on the bargaining impasse with El Camino Hospital. I’m very disappointed that it’s come to this, after 16 weeks of collective bargaining. I am at least heartened that we’ve come from being a minor irritation to a major one for the hospital, though that wasn’t the goal.
I’d hoped that we’d find some common ground from our differences and find a way to come together in the middle ground, molding and shaping ourselves into cohesiveness and strength. As we made concessions to find that middle ground, management remained shapeless lumps refusing to budge from their position, and would often say, “We’re happy with things the way they are; we see no need to change.”
As time goes by, people change and grow. A phrase that our CEO recites over and over again in his forums is “Employees are the hospital’s best asset.” We could have been, and still can be, the hospital’s greatest ally. El Camino, don’t go down that stubborn, hateful road!
Ed Miller
Mountain View
Vote yes on El
Camino Bond
In response to a recent letter (July 2) from Chricelle McCloud of Sunnyvale suggesting a no vote for the proposed bond issue for rebuilding El Camino Hospital, I would suggest that she consider that the present hospital, which was opened in 1961, was financed primarily by a bond issue that was overwhelmingly approved by residents of the communities served by the hospital.
After the 1989 earthquake, the hospital was required to repair and retrofit its buildings to meet or exceed newer earthquake requirements. This work has been an ongoing project, without any additional public bond issues.
Unfortunately, while the hospital was in the process of a lengthy, expensive program of rebuilding its facilities, the state’s building requirements for making the hospital earthquake safe were updated, with more stringent and costly restrictions.
The hospital administration has made the decision that it would be more practical to build a new hospital on the same site than to continue correcting and rebuilding the existing facility to meet these new codes.
Much to the credit of the hospital administration, they have announced that they have a substantial reserve fund that would be used to pay half the cost of the building of the new hospital, with the other half to be paid for with funds from the proposed bond issue.
We are not, as suggested by McCloud, being asked by the hospital to “pay them to build a new state-of-the-art hospital.” We are being asked to share the cost of building a new hospital, and we, and they, would be remiss if they did not plan and build it with every possible state-of-the-art equipment available.
True, as McCloud points out, tough times require tough choices — but we are being asked only to share the building costs, not to shoulder the full construction cost as residents did, willingly, over 40 years ago.
When the bond issue is put on a ballot, consider the value received, as compared to the taxes being proposed by Gov. Davis, as mentioned in McCloud’s letter. Vote yes, and know that you are investing in the value of your community with a new, modern, state-of-the-art hospital!
Richard Billings
Mountain View
Self-centered attitudes
about pools plan
Having been born and raised in Los Altos (1949 to now) I find it most distressing that the city does not have a pool, due to the self-centered attitudes of the the Rosita Neighborhood Coalition population.
These individuals bought their home when there was a pool at the Covington site. Most (I would speculate to say) of these RNC folks have not been in Los Altos very long, maybe 10 years.
Others have been in the neighborhood a very long time and well know that the pool will not harm the environment.
RNC in my opinion is costing the city a great deal of time and money. It is their responsibility for these expenditures.
The RNC group has been postulating false statements and, in some cases, lies about the pool project for the last two years. In fact, there is even a suspicion that for one or two of the most outspoken RNC folks’ objections goes beyond having the pool at the Covington site (since they swam almost every day at the old site) because of some personal dislikes for some of the residents who have worked so hard to help the city build a pool for the community.
Unfortunately this is what Los Altos has become over the years. “It’s OK as long as it is not in my back yard.”
Ross Bridges
Los Altos
Worker does work
at hospital
We are co-workers of Maria Cazares, who was featured in our union’s ad about per-diem employees being denied health benefits at El Camino Hospital.
It is the hospital which has provided misinformation in your editorial (July 9), as is evidenced in the claim that Maria Cazares is not an employee of the hospital. It is appalling that the hospital would attempt to discredit her by saying “she doesn’t work here.”
Is that the only way they could explain their position on denying her health benefits and a permanent position?
Jesus Mendoza, San Jose
Jorge Valle, San Jose
Teo Valencia, Redwood City
