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How The Clinic Acquired the Service Center
Frank made good on his offer to sell the community the back building, even assisting in the drawing up of a very creative financing plan.
But the situation became more complex before it cleared up. Two
of the conditions of the federal grant were that the neighborhood
center had to be owned by a non-profit agency and that agency
couldn't be a unit of local government. The IVCC was a for-profit
corporation, so it could take stands on political issues, and,
in its capacity as the community's official advisory body to county
government (a 'municipal advisory council'), was a unit of the
county. Thus, IVCC wasn't eligible to own the building, even though
one of its employees had scored the grant.
It was decided rather quickly to give the building to the Isla
Vista Open Door Medical Clinic, the oldest and most stable tenant
in the building. The clinic had recently transformed from Dr.
Dave Berman's private practice into the non-profit Isla Vista
Health Projects, Inc. (IVHP).
No formal agreement was made between the IVCC and the clinic.
However, the discussion at the time made it clear that the building
was to belong to 'the community,' but that the clinic was to be
the legal owner because of the restrictions of the grant.
My hope was that the equity in the building could eventually be used as part of a larger effort to buy up I.V. apartments, converting them to co-ops.
But the clinic has always used the building as its own asset,
although IVHP has kept the rents to its tenants to about one-half
the market rate. These tenants have been I.V. non-profit agencies
for the most part, although recently UCSB and the County have
established liaison offices there. On average, only two or three
of the clinic's board of directors are I.V. residents at any one
time, although several others are likely to have lived in Isla
Vista in previous years.
Today, the clinic is widely respected as a low-cost, quality medical care facility. It receives nearly 6,000 patient visits a year, about one-half of who have traditionally come from beyond Isla Vista.
Life Goes On
Ken Frank later sold the front building of the complex he bought
from Phil Quaglino for a reported $395,000--not a bad profit.
At about the same time, Santa Barbara's Cottage Hospital revoked
his permit to practice there after he was accused of sexually
molesting one of his patients. He went on to establish one of
the 24-hour, private medical clinics that have sprung up in recent
years in the area, and for months his voice could be heard on
the radio several times a day hawking his services. However, his
clinic recently was absorbed by Samsun Clinic.
Jack Quaglino was convicted of the murder charge and spent twelve years in jail. He was paroled in Ventura in 1989.
Life goes on in I.V., but some of its stories still raise eyebrows.
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