Santa Clara County has renamed its main public hospital’s entrance to honor a former top official, even though his relationship with county doctors turned icy during crises.
What was once Renova Drive in front of Valley Medical Center in San Jose is now Jeff Smith Way, after former County Executive Jeff Smith. The road’s namesake stepped down last year after more than a decade as the county’s longest-serving executive since the 1970s. He steered the region through its toughest times, including the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for jail reform and demands for changes in the county hospital system.
At a Sept. 4 unveiling ceremony for the renaming, Smith said he’s excited about the future of the county’s health system, and its planned purchase of Regional Medical Center, even if the road ahead may be imperfect.
“The concept I always believed was the most important thing to introduce to the county is that everybody is a leader,” Smith said at the event. “Whatever you happen to be doing — you’re a leader and responsible for the success of the entire county, not just the success of what you do. I really still do believe that and I think I’m surrounded here by people who also believe that (and) who will go forward and make things better.”
Smith couldn’t be reached for comment.
In 2019, when O’Connor and St. Louise hospitals were going through bankruptcy and at risk of closing, Smith helped lead county efforts to acquire them and preserve two emergency departments and hundreds of patient beds just before the pandemic.
County leaders lauded Smith for marshaling the full scale of the county’s resources to protect community health during the pandemic – providing more than 1.6 million PCR tests to residents and launching perhaps the most extensive county-operated vaccination program in the country. That operation provided roughly 1.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including more than 20,000 administered per day during the height of the pandemic.
The decision to name the street outside Valley Medical Center in Smith’s honor has raised eyebrows for some health care workers who almost went on strike in 2022 over stalled contract negotiations. Primary care doctors said workloads were impossible to handle, leaving them only minutes with each patient and without support staff, while radiology specialists reached their wits’ end with substandard equipment and a backlog of patients waiting for MRIs and CT scans. Doctors criticized Smith’s leadership as dismissive — recalling a tone deaf response to the suicide of a VMC colleague — driving many to prepare to leave their jobs or pushing them to a breaking point.
Dr. Rachel Ruiz, a board-certified pediatric gastroenterologist and president of Valley Medical Center’s physicians union, said she witnessed firsthand the rocky relationship between Smith and the workforce. She said county doctors were blindsided by the renaming of the road outside VMC.
“We were just surprised and disappointed,” Ruiz told San José Spotlight. “It would have been nice to have some input.”
Allan Kamara, an emergency department nurse at Valley Medical Center and former president of the Registered Nurses Professional Association, said Smith was not an easy guy to deal with. He added the county handled the physicians’ labor negotiations poorly.
Kamara described the start of his relationship with Smith as “rough.” But over time, he said the two “got used to each other” and got to a point where Kamara said the nurses couldn’t get everything they wanted — but never had to rationalize what they wanted, either.
“Did he deserve to have that street? I can see where the supervisors are coming from — notwithstanding the fact there were a bunch of broken promises,” Kamara told San José Spotlight. “But it’s not an easy job, being in a leadership role where you’re faced with different needs. I think he was able to successfully champion the hospital system. We are now the second largest in the state.”
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voiced its wish to rename a road for Smith during a June 2023 commendation ahead of his retirement. County policy leaves the criteria for renaming a street up to the supervisors. County officials said there were no costs attached to the renaming, but couldn’t say how many county roadways are named after public officials.
One road near Valley Medical Center — Turner Drive — is also named for a public servant. Dr. W. Elwyn Turner served as director of public health and county health officer for nearly three decades, from 1946 into the mid-1970s. Turner also held the title of county medical director beginning in 1951.
The process of naming public roadways after high-profile officials has long been controversial.
When San Jose officials looked to name a roadway after the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, the city’s strict process required written approval from half of the affected property owners. At the time, officials also said the street renaming would cost $10,000.
Like Jeff Smith Way at VMC, San Jose’s Barack Obama Boulevard raised eyebrows over its location. Some residents voiced concern the street choice catered to Google, falling in close proximity to the tech giant’s proposed 80-acre megacampus near Diridon Station. Critics questioned whether the location sanitized Google’s name — associating Obama with what they described as the most redlined, restricted and coveted areas in the city.
Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, a proponent of renaming the street, lauded Smith’s legacy at the event.
“You were a doctor, an administrator, a friend, a change maker and a fighter,” she said to Smith. “This is not the end of the road here, it’s just a sign of the journey you led us all in.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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