Featured
Nurses, City Council Call on County to Take Over DMC
Several hundred nurses and patients, including many in wheelchairs, as well as religious and community leaders and elected officials marched Wednesday from Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo to West Contra Costa Health Clinic, where a rally followed.
Among the speakers were Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Pastor Donnell Jones, a community organizer from New Direction Ministries in Richmond, who spoke about the critical need for keeping DMC and its emergency department open as a full-service, acute-care facility.
Later that evening, the Richmond City Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution urging Contra Costa County to integrate DMC into Contra Costa Health Services as a full-service, acute-care hospital to provide healthcare to all residents of West Contra Costa County.
The resolution stated that West County is disproportionally lacking in health services and DMC’s closure would cause severe harm to the public health of its residents:
Residents would need to travel to Martinez for care, which would cause a hardship for the high proportion of elderly and low-income residents of West County;
With the highest rate of asthma and respiratory illnesses in the county, other county hospitals don’t have the same capabilities as DMC, which staffs a top-of-the-line cardiovascular and asthma/respiratory program;
DMC serves thousands of patients from all over the region, and also handles all industrial accidents within the immediate area;
West County predominantly comprises Latino, African American, and elderly communities — all groups who have the highest rate of cardiovascular disease;
DMC is the only facility with a specialized cardiac catheterization lab essential for the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.
“This community really supports keeping DMC open,” Mayor McLaughlin said the rally.
“The people have gathered together to express their political will,” she sad. “ Those of you at the city council meeting Tuesday night know what a battle we had on our hands. We tried to get funding through the Chevron project. Only the vice mayor and myself supported it. We continue to support Chevron’s need to assist DMC.”
“We’re here to support the community, the patients, and the staff, ” said Melissa Thompson, an RN who works in the critical care unit at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center Sutter Delta Medical Center.
“Doctors needs to stay right here in this community,” she said. “The patients need this hospital to stay open. We will stand behind you every step of the way.. We’ll march, we’ll walk, we’ll shout, we’ll go to city council meetings, anything that needs to be done to keep this hospital open.”
“I have a few questions for you to ask your Board of Supervisors,” said Laurel Hodgson, an ER physician at DMC. “Why, year after year, do you give $30 million to the county hospital and when we are really needy, you loan us [DMC], at extortion rates, $6 million dollars?”
“Let’s remind people that Richmond and the area of West County has the sickest patients here, the highest cancer, heart disease, and diabetes,” said Maria Sahagun, an ER RN at DMC. “The assault on our communities is more blatant than ever.”
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
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Alameda County
DA Pamela Price Stands by Mom Who Lost Son to Gun Violence in Oakland
Last week, The Post published a photo showing Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price with Carol Jones, whose son, Patrick DeMarco Scott, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in 2018.
Publisher’s note: Last week, The Post published a photo showing Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price with Carol Jones, whose son, Patrick DeMarco Scott, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in 2018. The photo was too small for readers to see where the women were and what they were doing. Here we show Price and Jones as they complete a walk in memory of Scott. For more information and to contribute, please contact Carol Jones at 510-978-5517 at morefoundation.help@gmail.com. Courtesy photo.
City Government
Vallejo Welcomes Interim City Manager Beverli Marshall
At Tuesday night’s Council meeting, the Vallejo City Council appointed Beverli Marshall as the interim city manager. Her tenure in the City Manager’s Office began today, Wednesday, April 10. Mayor Robert McConnell praised Marshall’s extensive background, noting her “wide breadth of experience in many areas that will assist the City and its citizens in understanding the complexity of the many issues that must be solved” in Vallejo.
Special to The Post
At Tuesday night’s Council meeting, the Vallejo City Council appointed Beverli Marshall as the interim city manager. Her tenure in the City Manager’s Office began today, Wednesday, April 10.
Mayor Robert McConnell praised Marshall’s extensive background, noting her “wide breadth of experience in many areas that will assist the City and its citizens in understanding the complexity of the many issues that must be solved” in Vallejo.
Current City Manager Michael Malone, whose official departure is slated for April 18, expressed his well wishes. “I wish the City of Vallejo and Interim City Manager Marshall all the best in moving forward on the progress we’ve made to improve service to residents.” Malone expressed his hope that the staff and Council will work closely with ICM Marshall to “ensure success and prosperity for the City.”
According to the Vallejo Sun, Malone stepped into the role of interim city manager in 2021 and became permanent in 2022. Previously, Malone served as the city’s water director and decided to retire from city service e at the end of his contract which is April 18.
“I hope the excellent work of City staff will continue for years to come in Vallejo,” he said. “However, recent developments have led me to this decision to announce my retirement.”
When Malone was appointed, Vallejo was awash in scandals involving the housing division and the police department. A third of the city’s jobs went unfilled during most of his tenure, making for a rocky road for getting things done, the Vallejo Sun reported.
At last night’s council meeting, McConnell explained the selection process, highlighting the council’s confidence in achieving positive outcomes through a collaborative effort, and said this afternoon, “The Council is confident that by working closely together, positive results will be obtained.”
While the search for a permanent city manager is ongoing, an announcement is expected in the coming months.
On behalf of the City Council, Mayor McConnell extended gratitude to the staff, citizen groups, and recruitment firm.
“The Council wishes to thank the staff, the citizens’ group, and the recruitment firm for their diligent work and careful consideration for the selection of what is possibly the most important decision a Council can make on behalf of the betterment of our City,” McConnell said.
The Vallejo Sun contributed to this report.
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