Everybody hates El Camino Hospital

State Assembly member Sally Lieber announced Friday she is sponsoring legislation that will force El Camino Hospital to operate more like the public agency that it is. Critics said that is inappropriate to write laws specific to a single agency, and hospital officials dismissed it as the work of the union.

Usually close-mouthed Jon Friedenberg -- who appears to have usurped Judy Twitchell's role as hospital spokesperson after her antagonistic behavior towards an unnamed reporter resulted in a public records lawsuit against the hospital -- was apparently spouting off to reporters during Lieber's press conference Friday.

As the Daily News wrote yesterday:

"A hospital spokesperson said Lieber was simply beholden to unions and her proposed legislation was simply a union tactic."

True on both counts, perhaps, but that doesn't really have anything to do with the issue. Just because all the people allied against the hospital (at this point that includes SEIU, Lieber and the Voice editorial pages) happen to be on the same side of other issues, that does not mean the hospital has the right to keep public records secret.

One note on the Daily story: Mountain View City Council member Laura Macias is quoted in support of the legislation. The story omits the fact that Macias is a paid staff member at Lieber's district office.