FORT BRAGG, CA., 10/7/26 — The board that owns the Fort Bragg hospital will vote Thursday on whether to borrow up to $20 million for seismic retrofitting work, according to the meeting agenda.
The state requires retrofitting by Jan. 1, 2030. The district says finishing on time is what keeps the hospital licensed and open. It plans to do the construction in stages so the hospital can keep running during the work, according to its website.
Who pays for the hospital
Coast taxpayers own the hospital through the Mendocino Coast Health Care District. Adventist Health runs it under a lease. Under that lease, the district pays for the earthquake work and Adventist manages the construction, the staff report said.
The district’s money comes from three main sources: property taxes, the Measure C parcel tax and rent from Adventist. In the budget year that ended June 30, 2025, Measure C brought in $1.56 million, property taxes $1.16 million and the Adventist lease $1.75 million, according to the district’s year-end report.
The district has the cash to pay for the work now. It held $18.7 million as of Sept. 30, according to the finance report on the same agenda. Its website says it can pay for the whole job without raising property taxes. But the staff report says borrowing instead would keep that money as a cushion for other needs and surprises while the work goes on.
Thursday’s vote wouldn’t approve a loan. It would state the board’s plan to borrow, let the district pay itself back for work already done, and hire a team to set up the loan: Wulff, Hansen & Co. of San Rafael as financial adviser, Jones Hall as bond lawyer and Hilltop Securities to line up a lender. Wulff Hansen will explain the plan at Thursday’s meeting, the staff report said.
What the loan would look like
A summary Wulff Hansen wrote for the district in January shows what the loan could look like. The district would borrow $16.7 million from a private lender, pay only interest for seven years, and pay back the full amount in the 2033 budget year. The loan would be backed by the district’s property taxes.
The parcel tax ends before the loan comes due. Measure C, which coast voters passed in 2018, charges $144 per parcel for 12 years and ends June 30, 2030. The January summary calls losing that tax a risk. It figures the district’s income would drop about 22.5% when the tax ends.
Setting up the loan is expected to cost about $275,000, paid out of the borrowed money, according to the staff report. Wulff Hansen’s fee is $77,500, and it gets paid only if the loan closes.
If the board votes yes, offers from lenders are due Oct. 22. The board would vote on the final loan papers Nov. 19, and the money would come in early December, according to the staff report and the schedule in the packet.
The earthquake work is only part of what the district wants to build. The January summary puts the district’s total need at about $73 million. That includes a $53 million expansion of the emergency room. The summary says the district can’t pay for the expansion without new money, such as new taxes, more rent from Adventist or donations, or without decreasing the size of the expansion.
A checkup for the district
The second item on the agenda is a $25,000 agreement with the Mendocino Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCo. LAFCo is the county agency that reviews how local districts are run. The agency plans to review the hospital district’s leadership, finances and services, the first since 2014, according to the staff report. A 2024 county grand jury report asked LAFCo to make the review a priority.
LAFCo also wants the district to start paying its yearly dues. In a July 29 letter to Paul Garza Jr., the board chair, LAFCo Executive Officer Uma Hinman wrote that the district had been excused from the dues for years because it was losing money on operations, and that its finances no longer qualify it for that break.
Also on the agenda are finance reports for July, August and September, an updated investment policy and a new audit policy, and reports from the board chair and the district administrator.
The board meets at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Redwoods Room on the hospital campus, 700 River Drive, Fort Bragg, and on Zoom through a link on the agenda at mendocinochcd.gov.
My mom died in that nasty hospital. I hope they have cleaned it up since then. Loved the flies in ER.