Board member balks over Tri-City treatment

Board member balks over Tri-City treatment
SDUT
Randy Horton
Oct. 28, 2011

On Thursday, six months after secretly barring me from closed session attendance, Tri-City Healthcare District board members openly restored me on one condition: They reserved the right to exclude me from any and all future closed session agenda items by vote.

Tri-City voters, after electing their representatives, are free to recall them at any time for any reason. Federal and California courts also have legal authority to remove elected officials from office.

Although our state has not vested special district elected representatives with this power, the hospital is working hard to create legal rights by simply declaring that they now exist. Who died and made our board members kings and queens?

I was recently excluded from a day-long strategic plan retreat, a core board duty. How many other politically embarrassing open session items are now routinely buried in closed session?

“Opaqueness,” declares Tri-City, “thy name is now transparency!”

--Randy Horton
Board member