Kaweah Delta Plans 6-Story Tower
On Acequia
Master Plan Calls For Move North, Then West

Visalia - Kaweah Delta hospital is now on a fast track to expand its medical campus in downtown Visalia with a new master plan that eventually covers portions of 15 blocks in Downtown. While that might be a 20 year plan in the next 3 and ½ years the hospital expects to push north of the existing main building constructing a six story medical tower on Acequia just west of the Pacific Bell building.

The new acute care wing would house the proposed Heart Institute and also have floors devoted to surgical care and maternity. Part of the northward push more than doubles the size of the hospital's emergency room and add a chest pain center as well. Tying the north wing to parking will be a pedestrian bridge crossing Acequia to a parking garage suite for 700 cars behind Buckman Mitchell, says Mann.

The parking garage is just the first of four needed to accommodate the expansion of the hospital to the west clear to Johnson in the next two decades clearly requiring a meeting of the minds between the hospital and the City of Visalia.

"We agreed now to hold a joint meeting March 4th," says Mann where both board will pour over the ambitious site plan both short and long term.

The long range plan calls for the layout of a new master plan for hospital emphasizing a medical campus not unlike a college campus with open green spaces, focus on the Mill Creek that runs through the campus and four acute care medical towers. The pattern is to designate behind Main St. parking lots for future parking garages that would benefit both the hospital and Downtown.

In addition, the campus calls for closure of Floral, West, Willis northbound and Willow westbound to unify the campus. (See site plan drawing).

Mann says it is the hospital's intention to contract with the city to ensure each has a commitment to follow through ending suspicion over whether the hospital would in fact remain Downtown long term. Just how much the hospital hopes to get from the city for their parking and infrastructure needs may become clear March 4.

Most observers expect that it will be a big number. The city does have the benefit of a redevelopment district to help pay for the costs.

The boon to downtown should be substantial given that the hospital expects the number of employees in the downtown to double and adjacent office space is likely to be in big demand for physicians and specialists use. Currently KDDH has over 1500 employees downtown.

Visalia mayor Jesus Gamboa says the council "will have to make some decision on just how much we can participate" - i.e. financially noting that the hospital "has a pretty good laundry list" of projects.

"Clearly the test will be if we can find some funding steams that can be tapped over 20 years" to build the new campus. Gamboa cautions that the council will have to weigh using whatever funds that might be available for this project instead of others in town.

Although the hospital is not suggesting they need the current city hall site for its own use, the two block area may be available if the city decides - reportedly in the next few months - where to relocate a new Civic Center somewhere to the west of Bridge St. If that happens allowing development of a private two block medical campus could help serve the new Kaweah Delta medical campus.

Already the Downtown PBID and Alliance group has expressed strong support for the plan and offered to fund $600,000 worth toward the cost of the first parking garage. Mann said he met with property owner Stan Simpson this week to attempt to show that a parking garage on the site adjacent Simpson's building (he owns some of the land on the site as well) could be a win win for Downtown.

The city and hospital had said the top of the new garage could be used for a medical emergency heliport.

"I've always thought we could work something out," downtown says council member Don Landers. Some years ago Kaweah Delta bought 100 acres at Caldwell and Lovers Lane as an "insurance policy" for a future hospital after the state suggested they might enforce tough new seismic standards on hospitals that would make some of the existing hospital buildings unavailable for acute care uses some decades down the road. That led to the hospital's three year study of alternative plans to site a new hospital that culminated in the past few weeks with the latest plan to build adjacent the existing hospital. Mann says some of the current building might in turn be shifted to a skilled nursing care once new acute care wings were built.

One other near term discussion is where to site a new administration building for the hospital clearing more space inside the current hospital for patient care. The hospital has set a discussion time line on this in the next few months.

The hospital has made it clear it wants to try to make it work downtown but that if it didn't they still might seek to buy land somewhere west of town for a future campus. The city has said it would likely not have money to help with infrastructure needs out there.

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Food Labels In Farm Bill

Tulare County - US consumers may soon know where the food they are buying at the supermarket comes from.

Both the House and Senate version of the new Farm Bill have provisions that mandate supermarkets put labels on fresh fruit and vegetables as well as meat and fish that displays what country that originated the product.

"We'd like to see consumers purchase California or at least US grown produce," says Tulare County Farm Bureau executive director Cheryl Lehn. "Since 9-11 it becomes a national security issue - like oil." Lehn says the country doesn't want to become dependent on foreign countries for its food supply and says US grown food "is the safest and the best." President Bush has heard the call telling cattlemen in Denver earlier this month "it's in our national security interests that we be able to feed ourselves. Thank goodness, we don't have to rely on somebody else's meat to make sure our people are healthy and well fed."

If the shopper knows the fruit is grown in California or the US - the upshot is that they might just be ready to pay a little more since they know US food safety standards are much higher than the rest of the world.

Imported food into the US has been a major problem for US agriculture. Imported food has increased by 20% even as our ag exports have fallen by 12% between 1996 and 2000 according to a recent California Farm Bureau report.

US producers, including many who grow specialty products in the central valley, have complained in the past few years about a rising tide of imported farm products typically subsidized by the government selling in this market for lower cost than we can produce it. Farmers feel a labeling system just might help level the playing field.

Kings County farmer Chuck Nichols says labels could help his pistachio business since California's main competitor is Iran and labeling in the market saying the nuts are a product from Iran may convince shippers to buy the local pistachio. Still Nichols says "I'm not holding my breath" waiting for the measure to become law. "Just about everyone in agriculture is for it," he notes but "it also is opposed by retailers who have a potent lobby."

The concept of mandatory labeling has been around for years and has been included in farm bills in the past without success. But this year it appears to enjoy both strong Democratic and Republican support and has an aura of patriotism...populist ideology, food safety and consumer's right to know thrown in for good measure.

It also appears popular with a phone survey by the publication The Packer did a phone survey of 1000 households that found 78% support the country of origin labels.

Nisei Farmer's League president Manuel Cunha who met with VP Dick Cheny this week says labels don't go far enough. "There is the whole food safety question," says Cunha. Grocers are telling our farmers they must fill out paper work telling where the water came from and if the farmworker who picked the crop had washed their hands, how the food was grown, he says. "What about the foreign food? And do they require that the produce guy at the supermarket wash his hands?"

The state's consumer is about to get an organized Buy California Products effort funded by both the federal and state fund. American beef producers are likely to begin putting American flags on their beef. But the requirement for the import of goods to be labeled with the country of origin labeling - required by most of the US trading partners in their countries - would be a good idea here.

Who pays to label the product? The current plan is to have the label be applied at the retail level - probably a major reason why retailers are upset about the idea.

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Courthouse Security Plan

Visalia - You won't be able to take off in a jet plane when you visit the Tulare County Courthouse within a few months. But the security system you will need to pass through just to get in the building will feel just like a big city airport.

That's the word from presiding Judge Darryl Ferguson who says the courthouse will be upgraded in 90 days with a phase-one plan that includes exterior and interior cameras and video monitoring, a deputy posted as a security guard in the main entrance to the courthouse by the information booth who will monitor a security screen, a card identification system that all employees will carry also to be implemented within three months of a construction contract.

Within six months, Judge Ferguson says "full airport-type security" will be in place in the courthouse including x-ray machines and inspections by guards also with limiting access to the building to two locations, one each, on the east and west ends.

Ferguson says the state "has recognized our problem" and fully funded both phases to the tune of over $1 million.

On Tuesday, February 26, Ferguson will be making a presentation of the plan to the Board of Supervisors outlining the planned security measures. "This is their building and we need their approval," says the judge.

"We have needed to improve security at the courthouse for a long time," says the judge. "Besides the events of September 11th, there have been numerous incidents in the courthouse where suspects carried weapons and even a judge was shot at." He emphasizes the heightened security wasn't just good for employees but for the general public.

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Chess Game Over Dairy Permits
Nearing End?

Tulare County - Years of delay over a backlog of new dairy permits in the central valley may be nearing an end as key projects in both Tulare and Kern counties are expected to get their building permits in the next few months.

In Kern County the two Borba dairies were back in court again this week and a judge has indicated he will make final ruling in the next 90 days that would allow expansion to 28,000 cows. That project has been under environmental review since 1998 after a series of lawsuits by environmental groups. The groups have used the CEQA process - the California Environmental Quality Act - to suggest that the project's environmental impacts have not been adequately studied - particularly air pollution impacts.

In Tulare County the Rob Hilarides Dairy near Lindsay is expected to be approved by the Planning Commission in March (likely March 13) and then by the County Board of Supervisors by May or June after Hilarides with the help of the Dairy Industry Alliance prepared an environmental impact report on the project.

Lawsuits by the upstart environmental group, The Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, (CRPE) asked the Borba's to detail all impacts and even the cumulative impacts of all the dairies - an uncertain science most agree, leaving room to argue in almost every case that dairies are not doing enough to protect the environment. Lawsuits in Kern, Kings and Tulare counties among others have stalled new permits leaving at least 80 projects in Tulare County alone in limbo.

Tulare County having been sued by CRPE settled with the group and has agreed to pursue a study of the cumulative impacts of valley dairies - something the Hilarides dairy EIR does not address.

Whether doing a cumulative impact report is likely or not Hilarides is a test case for the Dairy Industry Alliance who has backed dairy projects by helping to fund their legal battle with CRPE in a case that could end up in front of a Tulare County judge later this summer.

This time the dairy industry expects to be in a stronger position with a permit to build in hand and the burden of proof put on CRPE to convince a judge an injunction is needed to stop the project.

CRPE has forced the dairy industry to push forward studies of the impacts of manure on ground water and air emissions along with other impacts.

CRPE head Luke Cole got involved as poverty lawyer when some Arvin farmworkers complained the odors and flies from nearby dairies made them sick, says a news article in California Lawyer detailing CRPE's battle in the central valley. CRPE also challenged the proposed Boswell dairy in Kings County resulting in the project being dropped.

The loss of hundreds of jobs as a result has made some question how Mr. Cole's efforts have helped fight poverty?

Still, as a result of CRPE's legal hammer and focus on the potential pollution problems and wide examination of new technologies fixes to reduce many problems manure offers are being developed most agree. But the technologies aren't quite there.

The DIA is helping a second big dairy near Tipton who will soon be heard by the Planning Commission hoping to follow in Hilarides footsteps and move forward in expanding the dairy industry here.

The uncertainty over just what the air emission impacts are makes it hard to suggest if enough is done in cases like this or just what best available technology is, say dairy industry sources.

In the case of the Boswell dairy for example, CRPE argued that anaerobic digesters weren't proven technology when Boswell suggested they would use them to mitigate any air pollution problems, for example.

Now scores of new dairies are looking at methane digesters as well as other technology to limit any problem manure might bring. But Mr. Hilarides notes that manure as a rule "is not a problem but a blessing."

"We import tons of commercial fertilizer for our crop land when we have some of the best fertilizer right here." Hilarides says the problem becomes when dairies don't have enough crop land to spread the manure on.

Hilarides says the new UC/COS dairy in Tulare will work on new technology including methane digesters so that "we don't have to waste all that time on technology that may not work."

Meanwhile the county continues work on its Supplemental EIR that will be released for public review within a few months so that each dairy in the County who wants to expand doesn't have to pay for their own EIR.

Hilarides for one doesn't expect CRPE to be satisfied with the new County effort - one reason why he has chosen a path of doing his own EIR with the help of the Alliance.

County officials are hoping the log jam over dairies is lifted resulting in a flood of the economic impact that dairies have in Tulare County - the state's number one dairy county. A recent report suggested the dairies generated 12,000 jobs directly and 122,000 jobs statewide in dairy related industries and processing statewide.

Right here two of the biggest construction projects ever are underway at Lemoore's Leprino cheese plant and Tulare's Land O'Lakes/Mitsui cheese and whey plant that a number of experts say will be hurting for milk in a few years if the log jam isn't broken.

In Tulare County where so much of the crop base is depressed because of low prices, dairies are the only glimmer of hope for raising land values west of Highway 99.

A switch from low value crops to feed-based that can nourish the dairy cows and their replacement animals.

"This delay is causing lots of hardship not just to me," says Rob Hilarides, but the three landlords who have rented the lands to Hilarides while he has waited three years to develop his new dairy. The family farm plans to build a cheese tasting room and will offer tours of the dairy to tourists who visit the site on Rd. 188.

The industry's positive impacts include a cluster of economic activities that include not just feeding and care of around 1 million total animals but the disposal of the cows creating another added value - an opportunity for the meat industry here.

Here again, a state-of-the-art project -Western Meat Packing - has been stymied with a CEQA legal attempt to kill a project that will bring some 200 full time jobs to an impoverished Goshen.

Already accounting for about one third the $3 billion farm crop economy in Tulare the actual economic impact of the entire industry from supply to after - processing of milk into a myriad of products right here - is difficult to quantify.

How big an impact is new dairy operation? Using Ohio State University numbers for a 2500 cow dairy the Ranch Co. - local dairy brokers - estimate that for construction alone the cost is $8.6 million. As far as operations are concerned the study suggests $7.6 million in annual milk sales, $4.3 million in sales to the dairy to keep the operations going and $1.6 million in new household spending for a total economic impact of $13.5 million annually. At the time the dairy study back in 1999 there were only 27 new dairy projects pending in Tulare County. The construction impact of the 27 new dairies is $232 million and the operations for all 27 amounts to over $364 million. None of those includes the economic value of what happens to milk after it leaves the farm which is a mega number as well.

While not all the 80 permits awaiting approval are new dairies, many are and the cumulative impact of not building these job creators make a huge difference in the Tulare County economy including thousands of jobs.

How many cows are waiting to be milked? The Hilarides EIR estimated (Sept. 2001) that if all the pending projects were built the county would add over 219,000 cows to the milking herds of Tulare County already numbering around 340,000 head or a 64% increase the amount of milk produced. There's an economic stimulus package!

In the end the dairy industry in central California will grow but likely be more environmentally friendly than it was before all this started. So do we have CRPE and Luke Cole to thank for that?

Western United Dairyman manager Michael Walsh says the dairy industry "was already moving in that direction" in part because animal confinement issues as it relates to the environment have been in the process of scrutiny and study for the past few years. He notes that dairies have been proactive on "demonstrating good stewardship" with the adoption of the UC sponsored Dairy Quality Assurance Program where dairies voluntarily comply to meet high standards in their operations. Technology changes and incentive programs to utilize waste have helped offer alternatives to old waste management practices. Clearly CRPE have been in part riding a wave rather than creating it.

Opponents of CRPE's approach says their real goal is to shut down the dairy industry painting them as faceless factory farms. This despite the fact that virtually all of them are family farms. In a recent exchange between Mr. Cole and State Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) Ashburn told meeting that Cole's real mission was to use the dairy issue to fund raise. "I think there's a scam going on," Ashburn said "and you are at the center of it." But Cole replied that "I think the scam is that - you defend the dairy farms while taking their money" according to an account in this month's California Lawyer.

There is big money at stake in this battle one side suggesting the survival of the farm economy here and the other side pointing to the air pollution problems the dairy industry creates. WUD's Marsh is incredulous when it comes to this claim pointing out that the Bay Area where Mr. Cole resides sends far more pollution to the central valley than the dairy industry. "We're perhaps 1/100 of a percentage of the problem," says Marsh telling Mr. Cole to stop driving down here in his car to sue us when he ought to join a suit against the Bay Area. This week the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District did just that announcing a suit against the state for not forcing the Bay Area to put tougher smog controls on their cars. The smog migration is thought to cause 10 to 20% of south valley air pollution problems.

Farm leader Manuel Cunha who met with Vice President Cheney this week says air pollution issues as it relates to California agriculture was one of the top subjects discussed. He noted the need for "good sense" to lead pointing to the Bureau of Reclamation's early decision to shut off water to the Klamath area "a bed on bad science." Cunha says it is unfair to designate a cow as a factory as CRPE's lawsuits have alleged. "The Clean Air Act was never intended to cover agriculture," says Cunha who sees this intrusion on the dairy industry as one example to single out farmers.

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Judge Race Gets Rough

Tulare County - The March 5 primary race has only one contest for Superior Court Judge with current judge Glade Roper being challenged by Visalia attorney Tom Watson. While earlier campaigning debates have focused on traditional issues like experience and crime fighting strategies, Watson let loose with a tougher contention this week, that Roper has financial ties with a Porterville drug testing firm that has a contract that serves Roper's Drug Court. "As I understand it, Roper has had sole power to hire the drug testing firm" Global Drug Testing Services, Inc., and "it turns out that two of Roper's children benefit financially from the contract," says Watson who repeated the charges at a public forum in Porterville this week.

Roper called the charges "gutter politics" questioning the last minute nature of their timing.

"I had nothing to do with selecting the company," Roper counters, leaving that to the Probation Department who contracted with the firm some 3 and ½ years ago. Then, this December Health and Human Services put out a new competitive bid process reminds Roper - that included testing firms from outside the county. "The county did the evaluation" before it again selected Global Testing for a new contract in January, he says.

As to any work for his kids, Roper says "my adult daughter volunteered there one summer ending up getting minimum wage," and that he had no apologies for that. Glenn Roper - a computer consultant does some service for the drug testing company.

Roper says the charges stem from sour grape competitors who lost the contract in fair competition.

Roper is well known as judge presiding over the drug court - a program that is widely regarded as a success. "I don't think Sheriff Wittman and all 15 Tulare County judges would endorse me" if they thought he was doing anything wrong.

To administer the drug court the system requires regular testing to offenders to ensure they keep off drugs for the course of their rehabilitation and oversite. In the latest contract the county estimates the number of drug screenings required to be around 60,000.

If Roper didn't have a hand in selecting this firm he was active enough to write a letter to an out of state drug testing firm who was seeking a contract in 2000 suggesting the "Tulare County Adult Drug Court is not in need of the service your company provides."

This happened after a grant to Drug Court expired and Chief Probation Officer Stan Gephardt tried to work with a private firm BI. The idea brought complaints from Global Testing that if the county was considering privatizing the Porterville firm might be better suited.

Roper says Drug Court has been a success and that county ended up deciding to keep funding the program after the grant money was lost "because we showed them how it saved money." The board decided to keep funding two probation officers to help with the court. The program now is "self funded" says Roper as offenders pay the cost of the their continued testing.

Roper says Watson has no other issues "and that's why he is slinging mud."

Watson says he too has endorsement from the Tulare County Deputy Sheriff's Association and the Tulare County Police Chief's Association. Roper notes that Watson has no jury trial experience. Watson has been city attorney for Porterville, Lindsay and Woodlake and remains assistant city attorney for Tulare. He says Porterville's high crime rate - drug arrests at the same amount as a much larger city like Visalia - show that more needs to be done to fight the problem.

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Big Beef with Beef Inspectors

The state agency charged with tracking the branding of cattle to ensure that none of that old-west type cattle rustling is going on - is having to do a little self examination now. Complaints from both private owners of cows and a state beef trade group has prompted an audit of the agency that is on-going, says acting branch chief Darren Carter. Mr. Carter is expected to be appointed to branch chief of the Bureau of Livestock Identification (BLI) - a part of the California Food and Agriculture agency.

The purpose of the organization is to protect cattle owners from theft, loss or misappropriation of their cattle. The agency's budget is financed by the livestock owners themselves through a $1.90 per head fee collected by the inspectors from BLI on cattle that is sold.

Complaints from a Kings County dairyman resulting in a lawsuit being filed say two employees of the Bureau of Livestock Identification violated agency rules by having a financial relationship with a livestock facility owner who these same state inspectors are charged to regulate.

The complaint says one brand inspector actually worked for the stockyard. Even more seriously the dairyman, Joseph Manni, has sued A and M Livestock Auction and the brand inspector Terry Pochop for fraud and deceit. The allegation alleges that the brand inspector and the auction house conspired to falsify documents costing the plaintiff over $50,000.

The suit filed in December 2001 - pending in Kings County Superior Court - follows a series of legal actions by the dairyman after he went out of business.

Attorney for Mr. Manni, Michael Farley, claims they have certificates from the brand inspection process that point to the fact that cash was paid for the inspection but not turned into the state.

Complaints about alleged Bureau employee misconduct have been offered to Assemblyman Mike Briggs and others last year.

The legal investigation apparently stimulated some interest by the trade group California Beef Council who is interested in seeing that money paid by livestock owners in the state is properly accounted for. The state group monitors the Beef Check-off program.

An audit by the California Beef Council of the Bureau was carried out in late August of 2001. A memo from the visit by beef representatives to the Bureau suggested the following:

1. The database of collections appears to be incomplete - not all the brand certificates in each book are accounted for.

2. There are inadequate controls in the database.

3. There doesn't appear to be regular reporting of inspection/collection information.

4. At the time of the visit the databases showed approximately 18,000 brand certificates that were outstanding - that is they had not been sent to the Sacramento collections office. But 14,000 showed up in databases showing the certificate had been issued but the fees not collected. The upshot is that the accounting practices and system don't appear to be well integrated.

5. The Beef Council report asks the agency to investigate any missing certificate to ensure they were properly accounted for and the fee remitted to both the BLI and CBC.

6. In the report to the BLI the Beef Council executives did not suggest cattle rustling but they did suggest that "certain brand inspectors are not collecting assessments and brand fees in a timely manner. For example, some assessments have taken longer than two months to collect, some more than two years."

Mr. Carter says he expects the completion of the audit and any agency action would come soon. "We are aware of complaints from both livestock owners and the Beef Council and once a new director is in place there will be some action taken." He said that already the agency has changed the reporting procedure with individual brand inspectors reporting directly to himself. Beef Council reps tell the Voice that the agency has already made improvements in their accounting process.

No one from A to M was available for comment at press time.

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