Politics cloud debate over need

Adrienne Packer

Friday, May 18, 2001 | 4:57 a.m.

The pro-children's hospital pin fastened to Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny's lapel represents more than her stance on an upcoming $80 million ballot question.

It demonstrates a year's worth of controversy, politics and persistence.

On June 5 Clark County residents will finally have an opportunity to vote on the multimillion-dollar bond to fund the public children's hospital that for a year has been beaten down by critics and resurrected by Kenny and her supporters.

If approved, the free-standing facility would be built on the University Medical Center campus. It would become the country's fourth county-operated children's hospital.

Kenny and UMC pediatricians insist it is imperative for a county with a population of 1.3 million to have a hospital to treat ill children rather than force families to seek medical treatment out of state.

Although studies have shown the need for a children's hospital and have backed claims that UMC can financially support an independent facility, politics and personal interests have clouded the debate.

Kenny and UMC Chief Executive Officer Bill Hale -- without UMC board members' approval -- commissioned a $17,000 survey more than a year ago to gauge interest in the project.

County commissioners learned of the project when survey results were found on an office fax machine.

Commissioners, forced to vote on the bond question when it appeared on their agenda with little notice, rejected a feasibility study and delayed the project by keeping it off November's general-election ballot.

They said they were blind-sided because Kenny put them in an awkward and politically unpopular position in which it appeared they were opposed to a children's hospital.

Their accusations weren't completely off the mark.

Kenny's close friend North Las Vegas City Councilwoman Stephanie Smith quickly jumped on the children's hospital issue to try to doom incumbent Mary Kincaid, her opponent in the District B commission primary.

Two months after the commission's decision, fliers depicting seriously ill and severely wounded children appeared in voters' mailboxes with the assertion: "Stephanie Smith will build the children's hospital. Mary Kincaid won't."

Because commissioners weren't involved in initial studies of the hospital, they voted to delay the project and form their own task force.

The task force eventually found the hospital is not only feasible, but needed. Whether the findings override the controversial manner in which the hospital was introduced will be determined June 5.

Most commissioners agree the bond question would have a better chance if the process was open and included all Las Vegas Valley pediatricians rather than a core group.

"I think anytime you have a more deliberate comprehensive process that includes all stakeholders, the outcome will be more readily acceptable than if it were done in a different way," Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said.

Kenny, who told hospital supporters their "vote was eclipsed by an inside political baseball game," said she has no regrets about how she introduced the proposal.

When asked whether she believed infighting between commissioners was the reason the measure didn't make it on the November ballot, Kenny referred the question to her colleagues.

"They have to look to themselves and how they've behaved," she said.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said since the children's hospital has been thoroughly studied by consultants and county financial experts, she is comfortable with it.

"I was concerned about the way in which the whole thing was handled. It was all hush-hush, and when we got it on the agenda, there was no substantial backup information," Atkinson Gates said.

"But the point now is it will be before the voters in two weeks, and a children's hospital would be valuable to this community. Now that we have it, we have to embrace it."

Kenny said that regardless of the means in which the project has been put forward, Sunrise Hospital -- a privately owned facility opposed to the UMC plan -- would eventually come forward to wield its political clout.

"Sunrise is going to oppose any notion of a children's hospital because it would hurt (its) bottom line," Kenny said.

Sunrise Hospital, whose administrators have been quiet since a county Debt Management Commission's ruling four months ago, wasn't the only perceived threat to the county children's hospital.

Clark County-Las Vegas Library District officials hoped debt management commissioners would approve their request to place a $46 million bond question on June's ballot.

Five commissioners, including Kenny and Smith, didn't attend the meeting. The panel is composed of 11 area elected officials. Their absence left the board without a quorum, thus killing the library bond request. Other debt management members wondered whether the no-show was to keep the children's hospital bond from having competition on the ballot.

When asked about her absence, Kenny quickly pointed to her colleague Myrna Williams' refusal to hold a special debt management meeting that would have allowed the children's hospital bond to be placed on the November ballot.

"I don't think any responsibilities were shirked," Kenny said of the lack of a quorum for the library district's request. "What was a slap in the face was when Myrna Williams didn't have a special meeting for the children's hospital. That was a slap in the face."