Together Baton Rouge officially kicked off a petition drive Monday evening to get 5,000 signatures from residents who support the creation of a health district that includes north Baton Rouge, Mid City, downtown and Old South Baton Rouge.
The coalition is giving itself until April 30 to gather the signatures and present them to the Metro Council, which would have to vote to create and establish the district.
The district Together Baton Rouge envisions would cater toward residents living in the 70801, 70802, 70805, 70806, 70807, 70811, 70812 and 70814 ZIP codes. The group says those areas are prone to the highest rates of premature deaths related to preventable illnesses. They also lack easy access to emergency room services since the closure of the Earl K. Long charity hospital, the move of Woman’s Hospital down Airline Highway and the elimination of the emergency room at the Baton Rouge General Mid City campus.
“We do have a situation where the area with the highest health care needs has the lowest number of hospitals facilities and professionals,” Broderick Bagert, lead organizer of Together Baton Rouge, said at a community meeting held at the St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church on Monday evening.
Approval of the district would require seven votes on the Metro Council, which would also appoint members to the district board and have authority over it, Bagert said. He added Together Baton Rouge could force the issue with a 25-signature petition process, but it doesn’t want to do that.
“We don’t think that’s the way to set this up, even though it’s sort of an extraordinary thing,” he said, pointing to a state law that says if a municipal board rejects a health district that the signatures of 25 landowners in the proposed district can force the creation of the district.
Together Baton Rouge officials admitted they don’t have all of the answers about how the health district would be financed or what it would ultimately look like in the end. They suggested the district board would figure out details such as what the hospital district should contain and funding options.
“What we’re proposing to do with this petition effort, and hopefully leading to a vote of the Metro Council, is not to nail all of those things down. That would require an intense process that has deep community engagement and serious expert consultation,” he said, adding other cities have relied on a combination of patient revenue, state and federal dollars and a voter-approved tax to fund health districts.
Citing a lack of access to emergency room services, some north Baton Rouge residents recently spoke out against the creation of a health district in south Baton Rouge. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation withdrew its request for the Planning Commission to rezone land to formally create the district, but BRAF is nonetheless moving forward with its plan and recently hired an executive director to oversee the district.
Bagert said the health district proposed to serve north Baton Rouge is different than the one being established in south Baton Rouge simply because it’s about the provision of health care services, and not so much zoning and infrastructure.
Metro Councilwoman Chauna Banks-Daniel was on hand at Monday’s meeting, and told Bagert and Together Baton Rouge that when they come before the council they should be able to show how existing healthcare assets in the proposed district could be linked.
The Rev. Richard R. Andrus Jr. of St. Paul Apostle Catholic Church said the coalition is seeking 5,000 signatures as its goal because they don’t want to force the issue on the Metro Council. Instead, they want to show the council that the proposed hospital district is supported by and affects by a broad section of Baton Rouge residents.
“We want go get signatures from across Baton Rouge to show the Metro Council that this is important not only for this community for all of the city.” Andrus said.
—Alexandria Burris
