PRIVATE HOSPITAL MAKES NEW OFFER TO PUBLIC RIVAL.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

Representatives of Community Memorial Hospital released a plan Tuesday they said is designed to finally put to rest the fierce public debate between the private hospital and the county hospital across the street.

Softening rhetoric that has grown outright combative over the course of their continuing feud, Community Memorial lawyers offered to pay $3 million toward repairs of the Ventura County Medical Center. In exchange, the private, nonprofit hospital would gain control of the public facility, with the county retaining the clinics and residency program.

County officials said the partnership proposal was unlikely to end the longstanding dispute. Calling the proposal ``simplistic and superficial,'' Ventura County Medical Director Pierre Durand said the acrimony of past relations has soured any potential partnership.

``We have given three years exclusively to Community Memorial for discussion,'' he said. ``All we have done is spend more than $5 million without any results.''

Representatives for Community Memorial said they were rebuffed in attempts last week to present their plan privately to county attorneys and administrators. They made the plan public at a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday in an attempt to kick-start negotiations, said spokesman Douglas Dowie.

``What we want is to end the dispute,'' he said. ``Since they won't talk to us, we have to come up with a way we can open dialogue.''

County officials maintain that they must complete repairs to the 75-year-old hospital or face closure by state health and medical authorities. The laboratory, kitchen and utility building at the hospital are literally crumbling and subject to frequent inspections, officials said.

Community Memorial representatives led a referendum drive in October to block a proposed $28.7 million improvement project at the public hospital. Representatives argue that repair plans represent unfair competition at a time private hospitals are aggressively pursuing ways to fill empty hospital beds.

After supervisors rescinded their building plan under threat of a referendum, officials began informal discussions with other private health-care providers. County Supervisor Frank Schillo said officials would prefer to keep their health-care system entirely public, but the opposition campaign by Community Memorial left them few options.

``They forced us to look at other alternatives,'' Schillo said. ``We're not going to stop talking with everyone else just because Community Memorial comes in and makes a proposal.''

Specifics of the plan presented Tuesday were negotiable, Dowie said, adding that the county should not immediately dismiss the offer to talk.

``Who else has stepped forward and said we will put money up to help solve their problem?'' he said. ``We're trying to show that the No. 1 priority of the Community Memorial board is to end the dispute.''