Camarillo : 8 File for 3 Seats on Health Care Board

Eight candidates, including three incumbents, have filed nomination papers to run for three seats on the Camarillo Health Care District board.

Incumbents Marion Gordon, Dr. Gerald Karpman and Richard D. Culbert are running for reelection to the board, which in recent months has been embroiled in a public uproar over the proposed merger of Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo and St. John’s Medical Center in Oxnard.

Culbert, 49, director of psychiatric nursing for Camarillo State Hospital, has served on the board since 1984, six years as board president. Karpman, 45, a dermatologist, was appointed in 1987 and elected in 1988. Gordon, 73, a retired nursing director, was elected in 1988.

Challenging the incumbents for the four-year seats are farmer Jean Daily Underwood, 61; insurance agent John Rush, 63; attorney James Jeffers, 61; Robert Vos, 35, nursing director for Pleasant Valley Hospital, and attorney James Prosser.

Underwood, Rush and Jeffers said they are running because they want to block the hospital merger. Vos, on the other hand, said he is running because he hopes to convince the public that Pleasant Valley would not survive without the merger. Prosser was unavailable for comment.