Alatorre Decries Planned Closure of Drug Abuse Program He Used

Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alatorre, citing his own treatment there, has made an impassioned appeal to keep open a highly regarded Santa Monica drug treatment center.

The 24-year-old Chemical Dependency Center at St. John’s Health Center is scheduled to shut down in mid-February, a casualty of a $270-million rebuilding program that is supposed to create a state-of-the-art medical complex. Appearing at a Santa Monica Social Services Commission meeting Monday evening, Alatorre praised the work of the drug treatment center and urged city officials to marshal their influence to save the program.

“This program is one of the finest programs in L.A.,” the councilman told the commissioners at a public hearing on the closure, which has stirred protests among residents and health experts. “It disturbs me, and not just for myself. I recognize what a good program I have. That’s why I came here tonight.”

The veteran Eastside Los Angeles lawmaker entered a court-supervised program at St. John’s after testing positive for cocaine in a surprise screening during a recent guardianship case involving his wife’s 10-year-old niece.

The councilman has attended a four-day-a-week outpatient program at the center. The drug scandal surrounding Alatorre came amid a federal corruption investigation into his activities. The councilman was on vacation Tuesday and unavailable for comment. In the past, he has said he has done nothing improper. Nationally recognized substance abuse expert Joe Takamine, a co-founder of the drug treatment center, said Tuesday that he did not know beforehand that Alatorre planned to step forward publicly on the issue.

“Whatever the councilman did should be commended,” said Takamine, whom the court chose to develop Alatorre’s treatment program. “I think it’s great that he went.”

Takamine said the drug treatment center is one of the few hospital-based full-service detoxification and substance abuse programs on the Westside. Over the years, it has served movie stars and prominent business leaders, but the bulk of the patients have been average people, he said.

“I think it’s going to be a big hole in the community,” he said.

Alatorre, dressed casually in a jogging suit, voiced the same theme during and after Monday’s hearing.

“It is an injustice to the people of Santa Monica and anyone else that has used the services,” he said. “I think it’s crazy. It’s outrageous.”

Also threatened in the hospital reconstruction project is a psychiatric facility. Together the programs have about 70 beds, and about 100 nurses and administrative personnel are expected to be laid off, hospital officials said.

The hospital’s chief executive, Bruce Lamoureux, said requirements for a seismic upgrade and a market-driven reduction in demand for inpatient services left no room for the two units. “This is not something that St. John’s is doing out of anything but an absolute necessity.”

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Jessica Garrison, a reporter for the Our Times community newspaper in Santa Monica, contributed to this story.