Published on October 28, 2011
Information Was Used to Exclude Two Board Members from Closed Sessions
Today, Tri-City Healthcare District’s Board of Directors voted to authorize the public disclosure of confidential information from previous closed session meetings of the Board related to misconduct by Directors Kathleen Sterling and Randy Horton. In oral statements made in open session, after the Board’s vote, Larry Anderson, the District’s CEO, and Allison Borkenheim, the District’s Senior Counsel, recounted actions taken by Sterling and Horton that violate the Brown Act, other statutes and duties owed by Horton and Sterling to the District.
The misconduct described by both Anderson and Borkenheim include multiple disclosures of confidential information from closed sessions to third parties and the press by both Horton and Sterling and active assistance given by Sterling to parties opposing the District in litigation. The evidence of misconduct was used by the Board to exclude Sterling and Horton from closed sessions.
Board Chairperson RoseMarie Reno explained, “Although such a disclosure is unusual and unprecedented in our Board’s history, the majority of the Board felt it was necessary to make these disclosures in order to fully inform the public of the reason for the Board’s censures of both directors. It was necessary to set the public record straight.”
Larry Anderson further explained that, “The actions taken by the Board are not intended to be personal but rather to ensure that the District can conduct its business in an orderly fashion and can continue the tremendous turn around it has experienced since 2009.”
