MAILBAG: Adventist’s actions need to be investigated

For those of us who have been so concerned about our hospital and the extreme secrecy surrounding the whole matter, the bombshell was dropped at the City Council meeting of Nov. 18.

During public communications, Susan Morrison, a member of the now-dissolved South Coast Medical Center Foundation Board and a donor, accused Adventist of stripping Foundation funds and using the money to benefit themselves rather than our hospital. She said that restricted contributions (given for a specific purpose) are being seized by Adventist Health. And she asked for an investigation by the state Attorney General’s office.

A bit of background:

In the 1950s, when money was raised to build a hospital in South Laguna, a nonprofit auxiliary was set up to oversee the fundraising, the building, and the ownership of the hospital. Twenty-five years ago, the Foundation was established for continued fundraising and to take over ownership of the hospital. So, essentially, the whole hospital campus, including the vacant hillside land, was a community asset owned by the Foundation.

Eleven years ago, Adventist was allowed to take over the ownership and the running of the hospital. But the Foundation still owned the rest of the campus.

Now, Adventist has dissolved the Foundation, taken control of the assets, and the whole complex, and sold it all. Does that worry you? It certainly does me. A huge public asset is now in private ownership.

And with all of these shocking allegations comes a real disconnect. Cheryl Kinsman, who has worked hard to save the hospital for Laguna, is quoted in one of the local papers. She reportedly thinks that the services of Bruce Christian should be retained because his “experience and familiarity with Laguna would be invaluable.”

With all due respect to Cheryl, let’s all hope that she doesn’t get her wish. After all, Mr. Christian is an employee of Adventist and is the CEO of the South Coast Medical Center!

I urge you to write to the Deputy Attorney General for our area “” Wendi Horowitz, at [email protected] “” to ask her to investigate the allegations and to preserve the millions of dollars of the Foundations assets that belong to this community.

BONNIE HANO

Laguna Beach

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Religious freedom underpins U.S.

When I saw Freedom From Religion Foundation’s full page ad in the Coastline Pilot, Oct. 31, titled “Imagine a World Free From Religion” and read a broad-stroke statement therein, “One of the lessons of 9/11 is that there is no greater source of terrorism, strife, bloodshed, persecution or war than religion,” I immediately thought of a statement in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy (the main text used along with the Bible in all Christian Science services worldwide). In it she says, “One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfills the Scripture, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself;’ annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry; whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.”

Reflecting on these ideas I found a renewed sense of gratitude for our nation’s Bill of Rights where we read, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and also for our Declaration of Independence which states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It appears by these statements that our forefathers were not Godless men. The fact that 84% of Americans consider themselves religious and participate in charitable causes to help their neighbors and the world, who could imagine a world free from religion?

MARC THOMPSON

Laguna Beach

Editor’s note: Marc Thompson is a member of the First Church of Christ Scientist, Laguna Beach.

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Lots of good in parking crackdown

[City Manager] Ken Frank should be lauded as a hero for enforcing the parking ban for resident employees who use [shoppers] parking permits. He is curbing unnecessary use of automobiles, which in turn will help curb global warming, not to mention cut into “Big Oil” windfall profits, and emphasize alternative transportation modes. That’s heroic, patriotic and perhaps even civic-minded.

We just listened to City Council candidates opine for more use of bus transportation.

Now the employees have a chance to support a civic goal. Let them use a bus. Or they can walk or pedal a bicycle and get healthy. There’s another good virtue “” fighting obesity among our population! The more you think of the benefits of Ken’s edict, the better it gets.

If there should be any criticism leveled, it should be that Frank has not gone far enough. All employees who drive and park in metered spaces should be ticketed.

I would go as far as suggesting that in addition to the parking fine, employers should be fined as well. I bet that would clean up downtown parking for customer use. Maybe then potential shoppers would not flee to nearby shopping centers that have ample parking and also force their employees to park in distant parking lots and ride buses to work. After all, isn’t that what we all want “” a prosperous time for our merchants?

The Chamber of Commerce should award Frank a special plaque for his contributions to encouraging shopping downtown.

City should turn lights off during daylight

Editor’s note: The following letter was addressed to the Laguna Beach City Council.

If there is one city in Orange County that has more environmental pretenders living in it than my home town of Irvine, it would have to be Laguna Beach.

I have repeatedly contacted city officials in Irvine as well as shopping center owners to tell them to turn their lights out during daylight hours, and not one has done so. So naturally last Sunday, after 7 a.m., I noted with interest the lights on at the Laguna Beach animal shelter with amusement. Nearby the Verizon equipment yard also had its lights burning. How many other businesses and government divisions waste money and increase the demand for new power generation stations that the environmental pretenders won’t let us build? And how do these environmental pretenders excuse themselves for doing nothing, not even making a phone call to the agency or business to “turn the lights off!” Our mothers told us to do this even before we were old enough to go to school.

Al Gore’s army of hypocrites has forgotten this lesson.

JOHN JAEGER