COUNTY DROPS BOND PLAN FOR MEDICAL CENTER : SUPERVISORS PLEDGE TO SEARCH FOR FUNDING TO UPGRADE FACILITY.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

The County Board of Supervisors scrapped controversial additions to Ventura County Medical Center on Friday while vowing that their fight to repair and improve the county hospital is far from over.

At an emergency meeting Friday, supervisors rescinded plans to issue $28.7 million in bonds to finance the construction of a new laboratory, kitchen, parking lot and utility building.

A ballot measure promised by Community Memorial Hospital would delay work for 18 months, a delay that supervisors say could cost the hospital its right to operate.

``If we wait that long we will lose our accreditation and go out of business,'' said Supervisor Frank Schillo. ``They know that. They can say whatever they want, but the bottom line is they want to put us out of business.''

A spokesman for Community Memorial Hospital, however, said the supervisors shelved the project because they feared the results of allowing voters to decide its fate.

``The county just wants to build the bureaucracy bigger,'' said Douglas Dowie, senior vice president of Public Affairs for Fleishman-Hillard Inc. ``They say the voters are confused or ignorant, but they spoke very clearly on this issue.''

Supervisors said they do not know what their next step will be, but promised to investigate other sources of financing as well as the use of other county facilities and partnerships with other private hospitals.

They promised to devise a new strategy for repairing the hospital by mid-December.

``We will not put this whole thing on hold,'' said Supervisor Maggie Kildee. ``I can't believe that we should sit on our hands and do nothing while the kitchen and laboratory fall apart.''

The facility has been put on notice that it must repair and expand its laboratory by March of 1998 by the College of American Pathologists, said Samuel Edwards, director of the medical center.

The 75-year-old building that houses the kitchen is literally crumbling, he said, and subject to inspection every 90 days.

The decision means the loss of $17 million in state and federal funds already promised to the county, said Supervisor John Flynn. Property taxes would not have increased because of the project, Flynn said.

``People immediately think that taxes will go up to pay off the bonds, but that's just not the case here,'' he said. ``All that will happen here is that some other county in the state is going to get this $17 million.''

But Community Memorial lawyers insisted voters make the decision.

``You're saying that just because there's a pot of money out there, we should spend it, regardless of what the voters think,'' said Jim Gross, an attorney representing Community Memorial. ``That is wrongheaded.''

Flynn replied that attorneys and public relations staff hired by Community Memorial have prevented Ventura citizens from getting their due.

``Mr. Gross will go back to Sacramento and proudly say to his colleagues at his law firm, `I kept Ventura County from getting $17 million,' '' Flynn said. ``And they will tell him he earned his money.''

But the accusations amount to sour grapes from public officials who didn't get what they wanted, said Dowie. The actual will of the voters is demonstrated by the 12,000 signatures Community Memorial collected in less than a week, he said.