Incumbents Chun and Bholat challenged by Mintz
As it ponders changes to its 514 N. Prospect campus, the Beach Cities Health District is holding elections for three of its five board positions. Photo courtesy BCHD
For the three candidates competing for two open seats on the Beach Cities Health District Board of Directors, the race isn’t so much about policy or changing course as it is maintaining excellence. The two incumbents, Dr. Noel Chun, and Dr. Michelle Bholat, and their challenger, David Mintz, all agree that the Health District is an organization that’s among the best in the country (with the accolades to back that boast).
Most prominent among the District’s challenges moving forward is the redevelopment of the 514 Prospect site, the former home of South Bay Hospital, into a planned “Healthy Living Campus” that includes the potential for senior residential units. But there are many questions facing the district as it moves forward, including its continuing approach toward youth substance abuse programs, expanding current preventative health care programs, and building resources for senior care in the Beach Cities.
While Bholat and Chun are practicing physicians, Mintz’s background is in health-care business administration. For the past 25 years, he’s been a regional executive for companies that include specialized health care services and ambulance response and he feels that his experience would fill a gap on the board.
“I think what’s missing from their board is an advisor or counselor to staff,” Mintz said. “There are financial aspects, personnel issues, that I think I can add a dimension to from running an organization with several thousand people.”
David Mintz. Courtesy photo
During a recent BCHD Board of Directors meeting, Mintz was struck by a discussion about establishing a trust for employee pension obligations. The District was taking in a presentation by Public Agency Retirement Services when a slide came along that rankled Mintz.
“A shot came up: Here’s the general return on investments over one, three and five years. But nowhere did it say if those returns are net or gross,” Mintz said. “No one was questioning that…a difference of 3 percent return on investment is a huge amount of money, and we need to make sure we’re asking all the questions.”
That’s not to say Mintz isn’t impressed with the District’s financial stability. To the contrary, he’s taken deep dives into BCHD’s finances (which, he admits, was a bit of a trip for a businessman who isn’t used to the way public entities are arranged) and found a lot to admire in how it’s been run.
In Fiscal Year 2017-18, the District reported approximately $13.8 million in incoming funding against $12.4 million outgoing. As of its most recent audit, the district has $6 million in its operating reserve and $22 million set aside for future capital improvements.
Dr. Michelle Bholat. Courtesy BCHD
“I think they’re doing a great job financially, and I think they’re in really good shape and doing quite a few things right,” Mintz said. “But I think there are things that can be expanded as well.”
Mintz would look to expand the district’s Center for Health and Fitness into multiple locations splintered throughout the three Beach Cities, with the 514 Prospect location as its hub.
He’s also interested in further developing the District’s services for disabled adults. Mintz and his wife have been caregivers for his daughter, who has lived with tuberous sclerosis throughout her life. Tuberous sclerosis is a genetic disease that causes benign tumors to grow on vital organs and may lead to developmental delay and intellectual disability.
“It would be nice if families like mine don’t have to learn that all by themselves,” Mintz said. “We’re going to have a lot of children growing up who have a need that we typically call some form of disability. I’m not accusing the district of not doing anything, but that’s an area we can expand.”
Dr. Noel Chun. Courtesy BCHD
Dr. Michelle Bholat came to the Beach Cities Health District board only four years ago, but she’s been working with the district on its strategic planning committee for years before her election. She was, in fact, encouraged to run for the board by former BCHD CEO Susan Burden due to her work and background.
Her bona fides are well established. Bholat is a Vice Chair and associate professor within UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine, an appointed member of the Medical Board of California, and is currently the BCHD’s representative to the Association of California Health Districts.
A lifetime Redondo Beach resident and family medicine practitioner, Bholat helped plot the district’s path toward preventative medicine.
“We’ve done a lot of really good work, but now it’s about taking us to the next 50 years,” Bholat said.
Substance use and abuse among teens was one of Bholat’s top priorities in the run-up to her election in 2014, and surveys in recent years have only underlined the challenges facing Beach Cities teens. The 2017-’18 California Healthy Kids Survey reported that 42 percent of Beach Cities 11th graders said they used drugs or alcohol in the past 30 days, doubling rates among LA Unified School District students.
“Our youth are still plagued by this. They’re super stressed, under pressure to excel, and a way to release anxiety and emotion is through partying, alcohol and drugs,” Bholat said. “We know the changes that can occur in the brain of a teen or tween are significant…this is our next generation, our future.”
In the past four years, the health district has established programs with Manhattan and Redondo middle schools, and partners on an ongoing speaker series with South Bay Families Connected for parents. The program also includes parent connection groups and workshops.
Moving forward, Bholat believes the District needs to continue on evaluating its programs while focusing on diverse groups throughout the community.
“We’re asking the tough questions; what’s our ROI? What’s our social ROI? We want to bring people together; how do we take someone who spends two hours on the road every day connected to their home in Hermosa?” Bholat said.
“I’m pushing that agenda…I get what we’re doing for the youth, and what we’re doing for our senior population, but I want to hear from the people who may not yet be parents, but may want to.”
Dr. Noel Chun is the second most senior member of the BCHD board, elected in 2006.
An anesthesiologist, Chun has lived in Manhattan Beach for 25 years. During his tenure, he has championed the district’s focus on evidence-based research during his tenure. He was among the board members who approved of the partnership with the Blue Zones Project in 2010 and was attracted to it for its ability to provide data showing how preventative health care can work.
“The anecdotal evidence is that these lifestyle choices [in global Blue Zones] work, but the good standards are prospective studies,” Chun said.
The success of the Blue Zones Project in the Beach Cities, measured in part by the self-reported Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, has led to the district’s partnership with neurologists Dean and Ayesha Sherzai. The Sherzais are in the early stages of a three-year partnership and study called “MindUp,” which will examine how lifestyle choices affect brain health in area seniors.
One of the most important aspects of the health district’s strategy over the years has been establishing BCHD’s capital with the community.
“For me, coming to California — I wasn’t born here — the downside is that most areas have no sense of community. The South Bay is very much unlike that,” Chun said. “We’re swimming against the tide, trying to build,” working with school boards, businesses and the cities.
This summer, the City of Redondo Beach and BCHD established building an 18-month employee wellness pilot program that creates kick-off challenges and establishes rewards for city employees who participate.
The cost of the partnership is relatively small; the city will pay out $30,000, while BCHD’s free gym memberships for city staff are worth over $120,000. But Chun sees this as a potential opportunity that could be scalable to other communities, should the pilot become a success.
“I would like for us to be recognized as a center for excellence,” Chun said.
The health district, he said, is continually working to build partnerships to underwrite its mission and build its return on the investments made by the community.
“We’re trying to come up with the best and most efficient uses of our resources,” Chun said. “We only get about $2 million in property taxes, and put out $11 million in deliverables.”
The biggest challenge facing any prospective board member is the redevelopment of the aging 514 Prospect buildings into a new Healthy Living Campus.
While the former South Bay Hospital ages, Beach Cities Health District’s medical tenants are looking elsewhere for office space, leading to a loss of lease income. The building itself is in need of a seismic retrofit and upgrades estimated to cost $86 million.
The Healthy Living Campus is envisioned to be the district’s next-generation center for health and wellness. Many community comments have focused on expanding the existing Center for Health and Fitness gym.
Demand studies commissioned by the Health District have also shown that the South Bay and Beach Cities will need housing and care facilities for area seniors. That drew ire from development-shy Redondo and Torrance neighbors, who believe the area has enough residential development.
To date, the HLC has undergone many iterations and revisions, receiving more than a thousand comments from across the community. Last year, BCHD put the brakes on its plan, opting to take more time to study and assess public input before applying for permits.
Staff reports that the district has held nearly 60 meetings. District staff will deliver a report to the current BCHD board at its Oct. 24 study session to revisit the project’s goals and pillars.
“The thing about it is, with an aging population of baby boomers, the system is going to be overtaxed,” Chun said. The district, he believes, can provide a continuity of care for the coming senior population, and while the district has not made a decision, he doesn’t view senior residential development as a bad thing.
“People say they don’t want to have retirement communities, but these people are our people, and we have to embrace them,” Chun said. “This is their home too.”
Bholat said that the community’s response has been clear – they don’t want density, they don’t want 400 units, and they don’t want it to be blocking their views of the sky, much less the Palos Verdes hills.
“But we need to be honest and open, and thinking about the community and population statistics, the needs we’re going to have here, and how we can face them in a way that’s not going to harm the community,” Bholat said.
Mintz says he approaches the project with healthy skepticism. He wonders if the district should continue to be in the leasing business, as it has been with Sunrise and Silverado senior facilities.
“What if it goes bankrupt? The citizens have a debt risk. There’s a balance between letting private industry do what they do best, and having government agencies fill in the unmet needs left by industry or business,” Mintz said.
He said that he’s been approached by a number of residents groups for his specific position on the project’s residential component.
“I said frankly, I don’t have a position yet, because I don’t have all of the information,” Mintz said. “I think that’s one of the big mistakes out there — not one that any current board members have made — but that someone decides before they know the facts seems to happen in our government a lot.”