1 Subcommittee of the City Council and
Alameda Health Care District Board
Meeting Notes
February 14, 2023
4:00pm via Zoom
Attendees:
• Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft
• Jennifer Ott, City Manager
• Alameda Fire Chief Nick Luby
• Dr. Robert Deutsch, President of Alameda Health Care District/Division • Jeff Cambra, District Board member
• Mark Frantzke, COO
• Deborah E. Stebbins, Executive Director
• Mario Harding, Admin Officer
1. Call to Order/General Introduction
Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft convened the meeting at 4:07 pm with self-introductions.
2. Oral Communication Non-Agenda (Public Comment)
Speakers may address the Subcommittee in regard to any matter over which the Subcommittee has jurisdiction or of which it may take cognizance that is not on the agenda
-There were no public comments
3. City/District Issues
3-A 2023-2796 Minutes of the Subcommittee Meeting
The minutes of October 20, 2022 were accepted Chief Luby motioned to approve and seconded by Mr. Frantzke; there were no objections and the minutes were unanimously approved.
3-B Hospital Seismic Upgrade
Governor Vetoed AB 2904 Bill
Alameda Hospital was hoping that there could be a five-year extension offered to Hospitals who would suffer financial hardship from the retrofit expense. The hospital is looking into hiring a structural engineer who could verify the hospital would be safe in the event of an earthquake. The Mayor wanted to remind the attendees of the corners cut in Turkey and the damage done by the earthquake and its horrendous situation with exemptions given to seismic codes. Saving money is one thing, but saving lives is another. Let’s not take seismic safety lightly.
Discussion shifted to hoping for the best, but then planning for the inevitable to pay for the $100 million for seismic work and improvements to infrastructure. The planning committee should be focusing on how to raise money for this project.
Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft suggested that Ms. Stebbins reach out to Assembly member Mia Bonta to begin the conversation.
2 3-C District Alameda Health System Joint Planning Committee
Dr. Deutsch mentioned that the committee is comprised of school, emergency services and Alameda High School. Money is really what is needed. In 2020 they did a seismic evaluation and it confirmed the building would not collapse, the people in it are safe, however, the Hospital could suffer from interruption of services. 2030 requires operations to be business as usual.
At the first planning committee meeting the committee reviewed statistics, the engineers seismic report, discussed possible options and scheduled a meeting for the end of March.
Ms. Stebbins shared statistics about Interaction with the Alameda Hospital Acute care – which has 66 beds, high occupancy of 30 to 40, including transfers from Highland Hospital.
Without Alameda Hospital where would these patients go for long term care?
Alameda Health Care District is looking at how to configure services which include mental health services. Currently they are not looking at Federal Funding.
Chief Luby asked if any other local hospitals have complied with the seismic upgrade.
Oakland, San Leandro and Highland all have not met the seismic code upgrade as of yet.
San Leandro has been suffering from neglect so they are trying to bring that hospital up safety standards.
It was suggested that they reach out to Congresswoman Barbara Lee who has a district office locally and in Washington DC.
There are 7 nursing homes on the Island serving over 500 individuals. It is obvious that we need to have a local hospital to serve them.
4–D Discussion of Subcommittee purpose, future agenda items and proposed meeting schedule.
It was decided that Chief Luby, CM Ott and Ms. Stebbins would work on a statement of purpose for the committee for consideration and feedback from the other committee members.
The group would like to continue to meet semi-annually.
Future meeting topics to include:
• Disaster preparedness
• Seismic upgrade
• Seismic preparedness and coordination
• mental health services
• status of VA
• collaboration on outpatient services
• CARE Program update
3 • or any urgent topic as needed.
The committee will leave the door open to allow meetings to be scheduled if needed.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:55 pm. City and District staff will confer to set a date for the next Subcommittee meeting.
Respectfully submitted:
Jodi Owens
Executive Assistant
City of Alameda