By Bruce Barton

A Saratoga man’s lawsuit against the El Camino Hospital District over its $148 million bond election could jeopardize plans to rebuild the hospital.

Superior Court Judge Kevin McKenney last week delayed a hearing by at least a week involving Saratoga resident Aaron Katz, who is suing the hospital district for denying his right to vote on Measure D in the November 2003 election, which provided taxpayer funds toward the $339 million rebuilding project. Katz is an attorney who owns condominiums in Mountain View.

Jon Friedenberg, the hospital’s vice president of research and development and president of the hospital foundation, said the lawsuit could “literally threaten the entire project.”

Friedenberg said the bonds won’t be rated and issued when there’s a lawsuit pending. This could delay rebuilding until there’s a ruling.

“If it goes to trial, the impact could be quite devastating,” Friedenberg said. “He (Katz) thinks that landowners should get a vote. But he’s holding up the (wishes) of 70 percent of the voters.” Measure D passed with 70.82 percent of the vote, garnering 20,612 votes for to 8,491 votes against (29.18 percent).

“We’re confident we’ll prevail in court,” Friedenberg said. “But how long is it going to take to prevail in court?”

Katz also has sued over the successful 2004 Mountain View-Whisman School District bond measure, and he has two other suits going against the West Valley-Mission Community College District and the Campbell Union High School District bond measures, also contending he should have been able to vote as a landowner.

He reasons that since the property owners and not tenants are paying the parcel taxes, they should be allowed to vote.

“The only persons who are primarily affected or interested in the outcome of that type of election are landowners,” Katz wrote in an e-mail to the Town Crier. “Why then are we asking non-landowners to approve a new tax against real property, which if approved, taxes someone else other than themselves?”

Hospital officials, however, are focused on getting their project off the ground. The hospital is rebuilding to update to current medical technologies, but primarily to comply with state seismic standards put into place in the wake of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The hospital has until 2008 to rebuild facilities to comply with the stricter standards or risk being shut down.

Friedenberg was quick to point out this scenario was highly unlikely under the Katz suit. But he remained irritated - and concerned - by it.

“We’d be going to market with our bonds and getting the funds necessary to break ground and start the project,” Friedenberg said, if not for the Katz litigation.

He’s hoping for a ruling, as soon as this week, that will essentially throw the case out of court.

A hearing is set for Friday when a judge is scheduled to consider consolidating the hospital and Mountain View-Whisman cases. A trial is set for May 2.

If this drags out, Friedenberg said, the suit “threatens our schedule and - threatens our meeting our seismic standards. We want a ruling.”

Katz will likely appeal if a judge rules against him, which would further risk the construction timeline, Friedenberg said.