Hospital board to see election zone maps

Sierra View abandoning at-large voting

Directors on the Sierra View Local Healthcare board and the community will get their first look at proposed board member boundary maps when they meet Tuesday.

Hospital CEO Donna Hefner said the maps will be presented for discussion at approximately 5 p.m. Tuesday during the board’s regular monthly meeting.

The district decided last year, after being presented with the threat of a lawsuit, to go to zone elections in November of 2018. With five board members, the district will be divided into five zones.

Demographers have been working on the zone maps and hospital attorney Robert Krase said they will present three different versions for review.

Krase said one map keeps all of the five current members on the board in different zones, but the two other maps each have two board members in the same district.

“The main thing they do is they look at the community of interest and work along natural dividers,” said Krase of what demographers do.

He added, “All things being equal, they try to keep each sitting director in their own district.”

The board will make the final decision, but the hospital is seeking input from the public. Hefner hopes to put together a committee of community members to help finalize the maps.

The Sierra View Local Healthcare District runs basically from just north of Strathmore to south of Ducor and the middle of Woodville to the top of the Sierra mountains. The hospital district almost mirrors the Porterville Unified School District boundaries.

Krase said the board and any community members who attend, will look and discuss the merits of each map. However, he said the board could instruct the de-

mographers to draw up completely new maps as well.

The goal is to have the zones finalized by May of next year before filing begins for the 2018 elections, which would be next summer. The first directors to be impacted are those up for election in November of 2018 — Dr. Kent Sorrells and Dr. Ashok Behl. The other three seats will be affected in 2020.

It was in October of last year when attorney Marguerite Melo of the Visalia law firm of Melo and Sarsfield approached the board asking it to go to zone elections or face a lawsuit. Without hesitation, the board voted to move forward with zoned districts by the 2018 November election. By making that decision, the hospital avoided any threatened litigation costs.

By zone districts, the five board members will each represent and must live in that district.