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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 4, 2006
CONTACT:
Thea Lavin
510-520-7732

Sacramento Judge Rules That Sutter Health’s Environmental Analysis of Sutter General Hospital Expansion Violates State Environmental Law



Sacramento - Today, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette ruled that Sutter Health has “subverted the purposes of CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] by omitting information necessary to informed decision-making and informed public participation.”

According to the ruling (Case No. 06 CS 00026),  Sutter’s “failure to include underlying studies or date in the record” that support its conclusions regarding traffic, parking, and air quality were, “deemed significant; and these were areas of great public concern.”

Supporting the position of United Healthcare Workers (UHW), an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Judge Patrick Marlette found that: “The community affected by this project has the right, conferred by the terms of CEQA, to evaluate and make informed comment upon issues that impact the quality of their daily lives. The Court will not gloss over the impingement of such an important right.”

In January 2006, UHW filed suit in Sacramento Superior Court alleging that Sutter Health’s $500 million expansion of its Sutter General facility in midtown Sacramento was in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act. UHW alleged that Sutter had failed to appropriately address a number of areas of concern in its Environmental Impact Report, including the impact of the expanded Sutter General on traffic, air quality, and parking shortages.

In early June, 2006, Judge Marlette issued a tentative ruling on UHW’s petition upholding the Union’s position. Today’s decision makes that tentative ruling permanent.

We are pleased that the Court took seriously our view that the Sutter project deserves full public scrutiny.  When it comes to how healthcare is delivered in this community, we all benefit by holding multibillion corporations like Sutter Health accountable,” said John Borsos, Vice-President of SEIU UHW and President of the Sacramento Central Labor Council.    

 

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SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West, with more than 140,000 members, is the largest and most powerful healthcare union in the Western U.S. We represent every type of healthcare worker, including nursing, professional, technical and service classifications. Our mission is to achieve high quality healthcare for all.