Scandals seem to follow Larry B Anderson (currently of Tri-City Healthcare)

Scandals seem to follow Larry B Anderson (Video and comments)
See all posts for Larry Anderson.
See all posts in SDER blog re Tri-City Healthcare.

Larry B Anderson is now CEO of Tri-City Medical in Oceanside, which is funded by the taxpayers of Oceanside, Carlsbad, and Vista CA, a Tri-City Heathcare District.

(Video) Tina Jillings calls out Tri City Medical Center Board of Director Rose Marie Reno
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axPknhw3oH4
http://bit.ly/gBKr26

...Judge Mills denied all restraining orders against the outspoken hospital director. (See second story below.)


OCEANSIDE: Tri-City again sanctions embattled director
By PAUL SISSON
North County Times - The Californian
March 31, 2011

Tri-City Healthcare District directors again sanctioned one of their own Thursday, deciding not to wait for a Superior Court judge's ruling on six pending restraining orders against the woman.

On a 5-1 vote, board members approved a seventh sanction against hospital director Kathleen Sterling for her alleged role in two pushing incidents that occurred at a hospital board meeting Feb. 24.

The board's censure accuses Sterling of pushing and injuring hospital security guards at the meeting in two attempts to enter the board's meeting room at Tri-City Medical Center, even though the board's previous sanctions required her to stay out.

The facts cited are the same as those in six pending requests for permanent restraining orders against Sterling. Judge Richard E. Mills is deliberating whether to grant the orders after a four-day hearing that ended Thursday.

At the hearing's conclusion, Mills expressed reservations about whether the incidents truly constituted battery or an escalating pattern of violent behavior by Sterling, and said he would rule on the orders Monday.

Sterling has said all along that she had a right to enter the room before the meeting started in order to visit with her constituents. She said a second incident, which occurred between the board's open and closed sessions, was her attempt to notify board Chairwoman RoseMarie Reno that teleconferencing and video equipment, which she relies upon to participate in the meetings from a different room at the hospital, was not working.

Several community members who sat through all four days of the restraining-order hearing spoke in support of Sterling at Thursday's meeting.

Tina Jillings of Vista noted that Mills had expressed doubts in court about whether the incidents are battery, and she berated the board for proceeding even though Mills has not yet ruled.

"None of the allegations that you are making today ... have been proven in court," Jillings said.

Sterling attended Thursday's meeting from a separate room in the hospital's facilities building because of a temporary restraining order approved March 4, where again there were problems with the communications system. Sterling also said that she was missing one page of the proposed censure that the board approved.

Scott McMillan, Sterling's attorney, said Wednesday that he will help her challenge all of the board's censures in court.

He said he intends to work pro bono on a belief that Sterling is the victim of a board that wants to stifle her regular, and often loud, criticism of hospital policy.

Except to read the censure as written, hospital directors did not discuss the latest censure before voting Thursday. Director Randall Horton voted against the sanction. It was unclear whether Sterling voted no or abstained.




OCEANSIDE: Judge rejects restraining order against Sterling
By Paul Sisson
North County Times - The Californian
April 4, 2011

A judge refused Monday to grant permanent restraining orders against Tri-City Healthcare District Director Kathleen Sterling, saying there was no clear and convincing evidence that Sterling posed a risk to the safety of board members or employees at the Oceanside medical center.

A seventh censure against Sterling, 60, passed by the hospital board on March 31, requires her to continue attending meetings from a location outside the main hospital building.

Walking out of the courtroom Monday morning, Sterling didn't pause to celebrate, saying other legal battles remain.

"We have a long road ahead of us to ensure that my constituents have representation," she said.

The hospital director still faces a felony charge of vote trading and a $100,000 civil lawsuit brought by the hospital and one security guard regarding the events that occurred during a Feb. 24 hospital board meeting.

The requests for restraining orders ---- made by three Tri-City directors and three employees ---- centered on two allegations of violence that some witnesses said took place before and after that meeting.

The witnesses said Sterling injured hospital security guards while trying to push her way into the board room, from which she had been barred after being censured six times by her colleagues in the past several months.

Sterling has always insisted that the censures pertained to the meeting itself and not to her ability to enter the room and chat with constituents before and after.

In making his ruling, Judge Richard E. Mills agreed, saying that his reading of the censures indicates Sterling was barred only during the meetings themselves.

"It was not proved by clear and convincing evidence, to me, that Ms. Sterling did not have a right to enter the board room before the meeting," Mills said.

The judge added that he was also not convinced that Sterling intended to injure anyone on Feb. 24.

"This court cannot find, by preponderance of the evidence, that Ms. Sterling committed an assault or battery. Her intention was clearly to get around the guards before the meeting, not to come into contact with them," Mills said.

Those who testified in favor of the restraining order during the four-day trial said they feared that Sterling's behavior at that meeting was a sign that her often vocal and sometimes in-your-face behavior was escalating and becoming more dangerous.

After the judge's decision Monday, Tri-City attorney Allison Borkenheim said the requests for the restraining order were always about safety.

"We're obviously disappointed, but this was always about protecting the employees of Tri-City," Borkenheim said. "There was a very high burden (of proof), as (Judge Mills) mentioned, and unfortunately the conduct did not rise to the level of that burden, but we believe we were right in bringing the case forward, because it was about the safety of the employees."

Sterling's attorney, Scott McMillan, said he plans to pursue attorney fees against the hospital and challenge the censures that prevent Sterling from attending board meetings in person.

McMillan said he will also ask Tri-City to dismiss the $100,000 lawsuit it has filed against Sterling.

The suit alleges that Sterling injured a hospital security guard and has damaged the hospital's reputation.

Borkenheim declined Monday to discuss the hospital's legal strategy on any pending cases.

CORRECTION: Sterling must still attend meetings from adjacent building

Tri-City Medical Center director Kathleen Sterling will continue to attend board meetings from a building adjacent to the hospital, despite a judge's recent denial of six restraining order requests against her. The original version of this story incorrectly said that denial of the restraining orders allowed Sterling to return to the main hospital building, but a seventh censure, passed by the hospital board on March 31, requires her to "be excluded from the main hospital building" for the remainder of her term. We apologize.