Funds to Convert Camarillo Hospital Slashed

Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday slashed $607,000 from the state budget that had been earmarked to plan the conversion of Camarillo State Hospital into a four-year university, a move that Cal State officials said could slow--but will not halt--development of the long-awaited campus.

In signing the $68-billion budget, Wilson siphoned that money from a larger pool for the proposed Cal State Channel Islands campus. The governor left $1 million this fiscal year for ongoing design and development of the university on the grounds of the now-shuttered state mental hospital.

While Cal State planners said the remaining money should be enough to continue their work, Wilson’s tightfisted approach drew the wrath of state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo). He said he worries that Cal State trustees could get the wrong message about the state’s support for the conversion project.

“It’s not a knockout blow, but the trustees are looking for signals to increase their comfort level,” said O’Connell, noting that the conversion proposal could go before Cal State’s Board of Trustees next month.

“This was one of those potential signals,” he added. “The trustees say they want this warm and fuzzy feeling about support in Sacramento. I could have given them 607,000 reasons why they should feel warm and fuzzy tonight.”

State officials, however, said Wilson’s actions are not indicative of the governor’s support for turning Camarillo State Hospital into Ventura County’s first four-year public university.

Rather, they said, the cost-cutting move was among more than 100 line-item vetoes--totaling $314 million--handed down Monday morning.

In fact, Wilson said in his veto message that he supports studies underway to determine whether the state hospital should be turned into the Cal State University system’s 23rd campus.

“I just wouldn’t read too much into it,” said Kevin Eckery, a Wilson administration spokesman in Sacramento. “If the governor wanted to send a message against the project, I think he would have blue-penciled the whole thing.”

A state university has been on the drawing board in Ventura County for more than three decades, yet a series of setbacks has delayed those plans.

But when Wilson last year announced closure of the state mental hospital at Camarillo, Cal State officials launched a bid to transform the facility into a college campus.

That effort has been greatly aided by O’Connell, who has introduced a bill to transfer the state hospital property to the Cal State University system after trustees approve the conversion project.

As the state’s budget process geared up earlier this year, Cal State planners had been counting on a $1-million allocation to map out the developing university.

But as chairman of the Senate’s budget subcommittee on education, O’Connell rooted out another $607,000 in May from other Cal State campuses to give planners more flexibility to design new uses for the newly available land and buildings on state hospital grounds.

Those planning the Channel Islands campus believed that money was theirs until the budget ax fell Monday morning.

“It won’t significantly delay us, but it could make us put off some of the planning we have to do,” said Handel Evans, president of the developing Cal State Channel Islands campus. “But all we are worrying about at the moment is going through the trustees in September and getting into the governor’s budget for next year. We’ve got to keep our eye on the ball.”

For O’Connell’s part, he said he was “completely floored” by the governor’s decision, especially in light of a recent revelation that Cal State planners would be forced to scale back hospital renovations and launch the campus for less money.

As initially proposed, Cal State officials planned to renovate 300,000 square feet at the hospital site for a cost of $40 million to $45 million. Bracing for budget constraints, they have reduced the planned renovations to 200,000 square feet, a change that would save $10 million to $12 million.

O’Connell said the money that Wilson drained out of the Cal State University budget could have gone a long way toward helping launch the campus.

“It’s a travesty,” the senator said. “Clearly there’s demand. Clearly there’s need. Clearly the funds are justified. Clearly the funds are available. How can a man who calls himself the education governor cut money for such a worthy effort?”