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Inland port not dead yet
Supervisors grant West Park developer extension
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Published: Jun 23, 2012, 2:22 AM

A controversial plan to turn the former Crows Landing Naval Air Station and surrounding properties into a massive industrial park was granted a seven month extension by a 3-1 vote of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors late Tuesday night.

The extension came despite some supervisors’ claims 15 months ago that the West Park Logistics Center, already four years in development, would see no further extensions if developer Gerry Kamilos failed to complete needed environmental studies by June 2012.

“A great deal of work has been accomplished to date, but there is a great deal of work yet to be done,” said Keith Boggs, assistant county CEO.

The project, which hinges on an inland port concept, connecting to the Port of Oakland via rail and providing a new location to load and unload containers for international shipping, was first approved in 2008 by supervisors. But numerous challenges led to delays in West Park’s development – chief among them the 2008 economic crash, which saw chief project financier Lehman Brothers file for bankruptcy, and a 2009 court challenge of the project by the City of Patterson which took until 2011 for West Park to successfully defend.

In March 2011 Kamilos was granted a 15-month extension to “right-size” the project proposal in response to the down economy and finish document preparation. That right-sizing saw the project scaled down drastically, from 4,800 acres to 2,930 acres, added a solar farm, and reduced the number of trains to the Port of Oakland daily from six to two. As part of the reduction in size, job creation goals were reduced from 30,000 to 17,000.

But when Kamilos returned in June to discuss his project, only about 35 percent of the environmental studies had been completed, and 40 percent of land planning was finished. Kamilos said that lack of results came despite his “unwavering” commitment and dedication to the project, noting that large projects take time to complete.

“The project tonight is a very serious project,” Kamilos said. “It’s a very serious timeline, and it’s a very serious event this evening. Our focus over the last 15 months has been intense.”

Kamilos’ position was backed by Stanislaus Economic Development and Workforce Alliance CEO Bill Bassitt, who pointed to the many outside factors which delayed the project.

 “What’s the hurry?” Bassitt asked. “All of these other projects have taken years and years.”

To convince supervisors that he intends to complete the documents within the next seven months, Kamilos offered a $2.75 million guarantee. That money would be deposited with the county by July 10, and should allow for the completion of all needed studies – even if Kamilos backs out.

The deposit comes on top of the $6.5 million Kamilos said he has already spent on the project.

But former Modesto mayor and former Stanislaus County supervisor candidate Carmen Sabatino saw the guarantee differently.

“It’s a bribe,” Sabatino said. “All of you are being bribed by Mr. Kamilos.”

Supervisors were hesitant to grant the extension, despite the eventual 3-1 vote.

Supervisor Jim DeMartini, a longtime opponent to the plan and the lone no-vote, questioned Kamilos at length about the true cost-competitiveness of the inland port, the questionable ability to sell the energy produced by the solar farm, and Kamilos’ track record – terming him an unsuccessful residential developer unable to develop West Park.

 “I don’t see how you’re going to build an industrial park that costs hundreds of millions of dollars,” said DiMartini. “You wouldn’t have been able to get the contract to build the dog pound.”

Answers were not forthcoming to DiMartini’s liking, particularly regarding how sewage would be treated. Kamilos’ staff said firm responses would be available as a result of the ongoing environmental review process. DiMartini considered the process five wasted years, he said, and claimed Kamilos has no “ability or vision.”

Supervisor Dick Montieth, long a staunch proponent of West Park, offered a polar opposite view to DiMartini’s, terming Kamilos “a man with a vision” who has weathered numerous setbacks and still wants to make West Park happen.

“I believe we are extremely fortunate to have a man with his ability to help Stanislaus County resolve the challenge we have in providing employment,” Montieth said.

“Seven months? And we’re talking about a 20 year program? What have we got to lose from seven months?”

Supervisor Bill O’Brien, formerly a strong supporter, was uncertain Tuesday. At one point, O’Brien floated the concept of granting the extension while simultaneously opening the project up to new bidders, should West Park fall through. But O’Brien ultimately voted for the extension, as the funding promised by Kamilos guarantees the project planning will be completed some way.

 “If we say no tonight, we don’t have access to the project that’s been completed so far,” O’Brien said. “If we go through this agreement, not only do we have all the work he has done, we have whatever’s left over. That is the business case. That’s absolutely the business case.”

Supervisor Terry Withrow, a previous opponent of West Park, recused himself from Tuesday’s discussion after it came to light that his in-laws own property near the planned West Park footprint, creating an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Withrow’s recusal left the vote count at 2-1, with Supervisor Vito Chiesa casting the deciding vote. Though Chiesa had previously said he would grant no further extensions – a statement he now says he regrets – the costs and time needed to perform an environmental assessment in-house led Chiesa to vote in favor of the project, granting one final extension.

 “I see this as you (Kamilos) pushing all your chips in right now,” Chiesa said. “You are all-in, and if you do not succeed, you’re going to have to look yourself in the mirror. It’s not our problem.”
Costa, Gray propose congressional bill to address critical physician shortage in rural areas
Costa and Gray
San Joaquin Valley congressional members Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, left, and Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, are shown discussing their bill H.R. 2106 in a virtual press conference on Tuesday.
Published: Apr 2, 2025, 4:48 AM

BY TIM SHEEHAN

CV Journalism Collaborative

Two San Joaquin Valley congressional representatives have introduced a bill that could help address the vast shortage of doctors in the region, particularly in underserved areas. 

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, say the Medical Education Act would, if passed, establish a program of grants to support expanded medical education programs in underserved areas of the nation.

The Valley could be one of the key areas that would benefit from the legislation. California has about 90 primary care doctors per 100,000 residents statewide, the federal Health Resources & Services Administration reported in November 2024. 

That’s more than the ratio in some states, and less than some others. The nationwide ratio is about 84 doctors per 100,000 residents.

But in the San Joaquin Valley, home to about 4.3 million people, doctors are much more scarce – about 47 primary care physicians per 100,000 residents, according to Dr. Tom Utecht, chief medical officer at the Fresno-based Community Health System.

That number is “a little over half of what is necessary to take care of a population,” Utecht said Tuesday in a video press conference. “We have the lowest physicians-per-capita rate in all of California, in the San Joaquin Valley.”

Introduced last month, the Medical Education Act is something of a placeholder for the time being until the Congressional Research Service can weigh in with financial estimates of what is needed in different parts of the country, Costa said. 

A companion version was introduced in March in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-West Virginia, and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles.

At this point, the legislation does not specify how much money will ultimately be sought or how grants would be structured.

Costa said the shortage of doctors in the region “is combined with language barriers, cultural barriers and distances … and that would really go for rural parts of our country regardless where folks live.”

“If you live in rural areas, it’s just more difficult to have access to good quality health care,” he added.

Costa said the legislation, if it can survive a Republican-controlled House and Senate and a Republican president, “would be transformative because it would invest expanded resources to minority-serving institutions and colleges located in rural and underserved areas to establish schools of medicine and osteopathic medicine.”

The bill would also create an avenue for more historically Black colleges and universities, as well as Hispanic-serving institutions, to establish medical education programs, Costa said.

Gray noted that when he was in the state Legislature, he and colleagues “worked to get hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to expand the UC Merced campus, to ultimately secure the funding to put the first medical education building up on campus.”

Gray added that the UC San Francisco’s medical education program in Fresno “is an important part of creating the (medical) workforce of the future for the valley, but more importantly, solving this access to care issue that plagues Valley communities.”

At UC Merced, director of medical education Dr. Margo Vener said there has been a surge of interest in the university’s program that funnels students through an undergraduate program for their bachelor of science degree through a medical school degree in collaboration with UC San Francisco.

“All the students that we are enrolling are from the Valley and for the Valley, because they want to really make a difference in promoting health in their communities,” Vener said. That, she added, is likely to eventually translate to those would-be doctors to stay in the Valley to practice medicine.

“The data suggests that two factors really strongly influence where physicians stay to practice,” Vener said. “One of them is where they’re from, which, of course, is why we’re recruiting students from the Valley for the Valley just to stay (and) be doctors for their community. And the other factor is where you went to residency. Those are the two biggest drivers.”

That’s something that was underscored by Dr. Kenny Banh, assistant dean of undergraduate education at UCSF Fresno. “Regional campuses such as UC Merced and UCSF Fresno not only grow doctors, but they take those doctors, physicians and medical students from their communities in the region, and train them in those regions to go back to be physicians in those areas,” he said.

While the costs of the Costa-Gray legislation are yet to be determined, Banh said there are also costs associated with doing nothing to expand medical education.

“There’s health care costs, regardless of how we work it, if we don’t invest in having an adequate supply of physicians,” Banh said. “There’s a cost on the human that can’t access care” and doesn’t get to a doctor until a condition is not treatable “or with significantly worse morbidity and mortality outcomes.”

“And that cost is borne by health systems taxpayers, one way or the other,” Banh added.

But even if the Costa-Gray bill were to pass in this congressional session, the payoff of home-grown medical schools producing a bumper crop of physicians in the Valley or other deprived parts of the country would be years down the road.

“I think it’s really important to understand why we need to invest now for our future, because it takes so darn long” for a student to go from being a college freshman to a practicing doctor, surgeon or specialist, UC Merced’s Vener said. 

After a four-year bachelor’s degree, a student must then complete four years of medical school, which in turn is followed by a residency of three to five years.

“Then often people will do a fellowship to become, for example, a cardiologist or a gastroenterologist or something like that,” she added.

“If you start investing in just one student now, it’s going to take such a long time before they really are there to take care of you at that moment when you need them to be your gastroenterologist, your cardiologist, your emergency physician, or, dare I say, your family doctor,” Vener said.

That, she said, is why it’s also necessary to expand residency programs that can attract would-be physicians into the region in hopes that they will remain once they complete their training. “We need those doctors now, and that’s why this effort is important,” Vener said, “because this is what will both inspire people to stay, but also inspire people to really come and embrace the communities and serve them.”

In a related development, state Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, D-Fresno, recently introduced a bill for the University of California system to develop a comprehensive funding plan for expanding the current SJV Prime+ BS-to-MD partnership between UC San Francisco and UC Merced, with the goal of transitioning the program to a fully independent medical school operated by UC Merced.

“We have seen firsthand the impacts of medical workforce shortages throughout the Central Valley,” Soria said in a prepared statement. “AB 58 would help ensure the Legislature is equipped with the information needed to secure appropriate funding for the medical education provided for our community at UC Merced.”

— Tim Sheehan is the Health Care Reporting Fellow at the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. The fellowship is supported by a grant from the Fresno State Institute for Media and Public Trust. Contact Sheehan at tim@cvlocaljournalism.org.