UMC defends use of newsletter

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, June 4, 2001 | 10:52 a.m.

A controversial ballot measure to bring a public children's hospital to Clark County goes before voters Tuesday, and officials at University Medical Center said using a county-paid newsletter to promote the issue was not inappropriate.

The newsletter, the first distributed by UMC this year, cost about $95,000 in taxpayer dollars. Marcia Holmberg, assistant administrator for inter-governmental relations at UMC, said the newsletter was first turned over to the Clark County District Attorney's Office for review to ensure it didn't violate election laws.

UMC has an obligation to the people it serves to inform them about the ballot measure, Holmberg said. UMC has received hundreds of calls from people seeking more information about the issue, she said.

"The whole intent was to make sure it was informational and factual," Holmberg said.

Other public agencies also have used newsletters to discuss election-related issues, including the Clark County Library District, Holmberg said.

Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, who has opposed the ballot measure, said UMC shouldn't have used the newsletter as a forum.

"UMC is a governmental agency, and government agencies shouldn't be involved in politics," Williams said. "What they sent out appeared to be campaigning.'

Paul Brown, director of the Southern Nevada office of the Progressive Leadership Alliance, said the mailing's contents weren't neutral enough and appeared more like a campaign brochure than a newsletter.

"It's unfortunate that this might overshadow the need for the children's hospital,"said Brown, who added that he is favor of the ballot measure.

Dr. Kenneth Misch, director of pediatrics at University Medical Center and one of the leaders of a coalition determined to bring a public children's hospital to Clark County, said he wished people would focus more on the young patients such a project could help.

Misch, along with four other pediatricians, formed the Caring for Children Coalition to promote the ballot measure, which would provide $80 million in tax dollars for a free-standing children's hospital.

"Everyone's bickering about whether or not this would make money, which is something no one can really know the answer to and it shouldn't even matter," Misch said Friday. "The truth is that there's no better cause for us to be spending those dollars on than kids."

The coalition was formed because UMC is prohibited by law from campaigning for a ballot measure that, if passed, could directly benefit the hospital.

Most of the opposition to the ballot measure has come from the private Sunrise Hospital, which currently provides the bulk of the pediatric hospital care in the county.