Lawmaker to Seek Funds for University

Seeking to recapture money slashed from the state budget, state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo) said Thursday he will try once more to earmark additional funding to convert Camarillo State Hospital into a four-year university.

Last month, Gov. Pete Wilson cut $607,000 from the budget that had been allocated to boost the conversion effort. That left $1 million this fiscal year for ongoing design and development of the university on the grounds of the now-shuttered state mental hospital.

But O’Connell said he will take a run at replacing that money before the end of the Legislature’s 1997 session on Sept. 12.

“I think the governor will be receptive to revisiting this funding,” O’Connell said in a prepared statement. “We’ve given him all the justification he said he was lacking when he signed the budget last month and he has left the door open to my request.”

The push to convert the mental facility into a college campus took a giant step forward last week when a Cal State University committee recommended that trustees take over the hospital property and turn it into the new home for the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge.

The full board of trustees is scheduled to consider that recommendation in coming weeks.

O’Connell said Thursday he hopes to tack the additional funding onto a bill he has introduced to transfer the hospital property to the Cal State University system after trustees take over the property.

That bill will be considered by the full Assembly next week and could reach the governor’s desk shortly thereafter. The governor has 30 days after the Legislature adjourns to sign the bill, O’Connell said.