TDH Takes Different Approach as Cutbacks Loom

Tulare - While some hospitals are laying off employees and making other cutbacks in anticipation of large reductions in Medi-Cal and Medicare income, the Tulare Local HealthCare District is taking a different first step.

Shawn Bolouki, who became Tulare District's chief executive officer in March, has signed a $290,000 contract with an Oakland company that will do an operational assessment of the hospital district to determine how it can become more efficient and increase revenue.

Hospital board members ratified the contract with HFS Consultants on June 25.
“I don't want to start cutting services or cutting positions without a thoughtful process,” Bolouki said. “Every single department in this hospital will go through this review.”

Fourteen consultants from HFS will take three to four months to do the study, he said. “Reports are going to come in phases and they will present their findings and recommendations to the board.”

This type of study basically “gives you a very clear view of your facility,” Bolouki said.

When he interviewed with the board for the CEO job, he said he told directors he thought there were inefficiencies in the hospital's operations, but “if you want me to spend my time looking at each department, it's going to take a long time.”

Bolouki and directors have said it is imperative for the hospital district to quickly gain better control of its operating costs as it prepares for a $120 million expansion. Voters approved an $85 million bond in 2005 and the hospital district will have to find a way to come up with the remaining amount.

The hospital has not made money from operations since 2005, hospital officials have said.

The district's statement of revenue and expenditures through May 31 showed a $1.3 million loss in this fiscal year's operating budget, which was actually better than the $2.5 million loss that had been projected.

With the addition of $2.7million in non-operating revenues, such as interest and property taxes, and of $150,488 in capital grants and contributions, the bottom line was $1.4 million in the black.

Bolouki said he will take the 2008-09 budget to the board later this summer, after the hospital has a better picture of what reimbursement numbers are going to be.
Tulare District already has learned it will receive $1.5 million less in Medi-Cal income under the Governor's current budget proposal.

Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, which faces a $7.2 million reduction in Medi-Cal revenues, has laid off 51 employees in addition to freezing 94 other full-time jobs.

The California Hospital Association (CHA) reports Medi-Cal reimbursements already rank “dead-last” among the nation's Medicaid programs, which are designed to care for the economically disadvantaged.

Rates paid to California doctors and hospitals are almost 25 percent less than the national average and hospitals on the average lose 22 cents on every dollar they spend in providing care to Medi-Cal patients, the CHA reports.

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August Start Date for Outlet Center Expansion

Tulare - A slowdown in the economy and high fuel prices do not seem to be having a negative impact on Preferred Outlets at Tulare, where construction of the shopping center's next phase is expected to begin in August.

Patty Rocha, manager of the center that includes more than 50 stores, says business has been consistent.

“People are looking for value and what better place than an outlet center,” Rocha said. “We're going to get through it [the tough economic times].”

The center was issued its construction permit in December for the $10 million expansion, which is expected to take at least 10 months to complete. Don Chapman, managing director of operations for Ariel Preferred Retail, explained the company took out the permit early to avoid making changes to meet the 2008 building codes.

“Our target date is to break ground in early August,” he said last week. Ariel Preferred Retail, which owns several outlet centers across the nation, purchased the Tulare center in 2006. The expansion will add 30 to 40 more stores.
“Leasing for the next phase has gone very well. We're really excited about it,” Chapman said.

Because of the downtown in the economy, getting stores to commit to projects is taking longer, he said. “Tenants are very deliberate, but the outlet industry is still expanding.”

Besides the fourth expansion of the center, Ariel Preferred Retail Group has purchased property across of Retherford Drive for two more expansions and may be eyeing another four acres for even more growth.

Realtor Craig Smith said he is listing four acres of property immediately between the Hillman property and what the outlet center already owns. That property begins basically where the block wall along Leland ends. The Outlet center owns 2.8 acres of frontage along Retherford, then another 19 acres along where Covina Street will run from Retherford to Hillman Avenue.

“We have another 40ish acres we control,” Chapman said. “We believe that is enough for future expansion.” However, he added, his company would be interested in the four acres.

The center opened in November 1995 with 138,647 square feet of retail space. Phase II, completed in November 2003, added another 31,400 square feet and Phase III, which opened in November 2005, added another 56,358 square feet, bringing the total to 226,405 square feet. Galaxy Theatre was added in 2004.
Phase IV will add another 164,000 square feet of retail space and additional parking for the center.

The plans approved by the city show two roundabouts on Retherford Drive, the first at the existing main entrance and the second at the newest entrance on the north end. The stoplight installed there will be moved to the future Covina Avenue extension from Hillman.

The Boot Barn, a store that carries almost any brand of boot a person can think of, is nearing completion and the city has approved a restaurant for immediately south of The Boot Barn.

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First American Closes; Upset Brokers
Call Revheim ‘Best in Business’

Tulare - Tulare branch manager Dianne Revheim wasn't happy but she wasn't bitter Friday as First American Title closed its doors at 99 South Tower Square for good.
“It's just a sign of the times,” Revheim said about the corporate decision that leaves Tulare with only one title company and her without a job at a firm she had worked for since 1975. She said the company has been in Tulare since 1969 or 1970.

“The market is so unpredictable now that management is having to make decisions that it never thought it would ever have to make,” she said. She is also the senior certified escrow officer as well as branch manager in the two-person joint escrow unit.

Tulare's real estate community reacted with surprise and keen disappointment to the closure and was very upset to learn that Revheim, whom they called “the best in the business,” no longer had a job with the company.

“She really knows her stuff and is very, very tuned in to the agents and their files and how you actually work with your clients,” said Kyle Rhinebeck of Zeeb Commercial Real Estate.

“She can tell you what's going on with your file without even looking at it,” Rhinebeck said, adding “the life blood of agents is having a strong escrow officer to get the job done.”

Others agreed. “My gosh, we're getting rid of a legend in our town,” said Ida Walters of Ida's Direct Mortgage. She called the news “pretty devastating.”
Phil Vandegrift of Target Realty said the reason this “feels like a death in a family” is that Revheim is so well respected for her abilities and trusted.

“She is not just an escrow officer,” Vandegrift said. “She's a life partner in a very complicated industry.”

Rhinebeck, Vandegrift and others met with First American officials late last week to try to convince the company to stay.

“We met with the regional title manager today [Friday], who said the decision was made at a corporate level,” Rhinebeck said. “There's a general mood sweeping across the state and people are closing offices all over.”

Vandegrift, who is also vice mayor, said all of the Tulare Redevelopment Agency's land transactions are run through First American Title, which is why the brokers also took the regional director Friday to meet with city officials.

“We wanted to further bring the point home and encourage them that, given a change in the market, we want their business back in town,” he said. “We have a lot going on in this town…just because they may be consolidating, they can't be forgetting.”

Vandegrift and others said Tulare, with its population of more than 55,000, deserves at least two title companies and the industry deserves competition.
Just a couple years ago when the economy was better, Tulare had five title companies, he said, adding now only Chicago Title, which merged with Fidelity Title a few years ago, remains.

Revheim and Vandegrift both said they think media reporting on the economy has played a role in corporate decisions to close offices.

“The media is scarring everybody to death,” Vandegrift said. “People at the decision-making ebb of business society believe that if everybody quit talking doom and gloom, we might not have doom and gloom.”

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Encore Offers Tea Parties During
‘Beauty and the Beast’ Run

Tulare - The Encore Theatre Company has scheduled 15 performances of the Beauty and the Beast beginning Monday and is offering the community a number of fun ways to become involved with the summer show.

The stage play, based on Disney's classic animated film, features a number of beloved characters, including Belle, the Beast, Gaston, Cogsworth, Lumiere and, of course, Mrs. Potts.

The show will run through 22 with evening performances at 7 p.m. and matinees at 2 p.m. on July 13 and 20. Tickets are $12 for floor and $15 for box seats.

Encore also has scheduled tea parties with Mrs. Potts and other characters at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 12, and Saturday, July 19, at the theater, 324 South N St. Guests are invited to dress as their favorite Disney character.

Reservations are a must and tickets are $15, which covers tea, finger sandwiches, dessert, activities, photographs with a favorite character and a souvenir autograph book. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Adopt a Character

Adults who want to get involved with the production are invited to adopt a character from the show. Mayor characters are available for a $100 adoption fee, while minor characters, such as the towns people or serving pieces, can be adopted for $50.

Adoption fee includes an adoption certificate, a family portrait taken with your character and recognition of the adoption in the Encore lobby and program during the entire run of the show.

Proceeds from the tea party and adoption program will help pay for costumes and the staging, which are more expensive than normal.
For tickets and info: 686-1300.

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City to Consider New Plan for
County Storage Yard Property

Tulare - A troubled housing and loan market derailed plans to create a mixed income neighborhood on the former county storage yard property in West Tulare last year and now a new proposal from a different company is on the table.

The original plan proposed by Casa Partners of Sacramento called for 60 owner-occupied, single-family homes at affordable and market-rate prices on the seven acres between D and E streets, north of Elm Avenue.

Pacific West Communities' plan is to construct 58 single-family homes, which would be rented to low-income residents who would have the opportunity to buy them in 15 years.

The property is owned by the Tulare Redevelopment Agency, which has worked very closely with Pacific West for months. The agency's board, after a lively discussion at its regular June 11 meeting, approved the plan in a 6-1 vote. The project goes to the Tulare Planning Commission Monday.

Agency board member Art Cabello opposed Pacific West's plan, arguing the project would put too many homes on too little land, even if it does conform to the city's new small-lot development ordinance.

“I don't care what the city ordinance has to say about it,” Cabello said. “It's too, too dense.”

Pacific West

Pacific West Communities, which specializes in the construction and rehabilitation of affordable workforce housing in the western U.S., is represented locally by housing consultant Tim Sciacqua, a former executive director of the Tulare County Housing Authority, who redevelopment project manager Betsy McGovern said is well-respected in the affordable housing field.

The plan Sciacqua presented showed:
• 58 single- and two-story homes, ranging in size from 1,061-square-feet to 1,934 square-feet. The minimum lot size was 4,500 square feet.
• 13 two-bedroom, 39 three-bedroom and six four-bedroom houses.
• Two-car detached garages, off the alley ways, for each home.
• A park area on both sides of Alpine Avenue at the mid-point of where it cuts through the development.

Cabello argued the development doesn't conform to the larger lots already developed in the area and would create congestion, traffic and safety problems. He said the project should be reduced to 40 or 42 homes.

The project barely pencils out financially at 58 homes, Sciacqua said, adding the company has met every city requirement and has altered its plans three or four times to make it acceptable.

Other board members praised the plan because of its affordability to low-income working families and the opportunity it gives them to eventually buy their home.
“I think this is doable,” member Bill Cooke said.

While all the homes in the new neighborhood will be rentals for at least 15 years, McGovern said this will be a much different situation than in older neighborhoods which have many absentee owners who rent out their homes.

Property managers will maintain all the front yards and all the open space until the properties convert to home ownership, “so it's going to be a well-kept neighborhood,” she said.

The agency is working on a disposition and development agreement with Pacific West and the approval process for that document is expected to begin within the next six weeks, she said.

If the conditional use permit and the agreement with the agency are approved, construction could begin in early 2009, McGovern said.

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