Why the Lake Isabella Community lacks vital information on local hospital: KVHD

Special meeting on KVHD strategic planning...What does the local media plan to say? Another product review from the Kern River Valley....


Local reporter, for the Kern Valley Sun Newspaper, Sue Barr, showed up last year at a "special" Kern Valley Healthcare District board meeting during the heat of August leading up to the hospital's caper to obtain a tax payer bail out on their debt with a GOB called "Measure G."

Today, the district is threatening to unveil it's strategic plan at another special meeting in August, coincidentally, as the board selected a company to do another in a series of reports that are meant to offer new and improved ideas to the hospital which has been in default on its lingering debt.


Due to the fact that nobody from the Sun ever shows up for these special meetings, last year I knew instantly that Barr was attending to report on the board vote for the tax measure and it had to be expected to pass to bring her there.

My best guess is that Barr likely knew the agenda behind the agenda, that the board was huddling together to put a tax hike on the ballot.

Barr, spent much time around the water cooler as information such as knowledge of the real costs, the potential negative impact, were being batted around by the board, and it's bond sales company, Caldwell, Flores and Winters.


Where did the story go?

None of the information ended up in the newspaper as many key elements needed to make a decision by voters were left out of the weekly tabloid.

Though the information included such issues as potential loss of administrative jobs as Beedle spoke of debt insurer Cal Mtg. who was waiting in the wings for a 20 million dollar GOB promised by the hospital, again, none of this was published anywhere else but on this blog.

Nobody except the small audience and participants knew the board and administration tried to get the bond quietly on the ballot in private but due to inflammation of the joint powers, (KVHD and Cal Mtg.) it failed at this meeting too and they had to drag their bond in front of the concerned community at a "regular board meeting."

But I bet you didn't know that.

How do you get your information?

When I wrote for the Kern Valley Sun many years ago, I realized the importance of having local oversight in the form of a "news"paper. There is another newspaper in town, the "Kern River Courier" but they have had little to do with the hospital in terms of news, but they did accept complimentary materials and advertising.

In truth, the Courier did not want to take letters to the editor for a period of time if they were about the hospital. It's too bad, but recently they published a nice piece on the hospital accomplishments. Due to the lack of understanding that these are basically paid PR pieces that show up occasionally, again you get no real workable information.

People used to care...

I observed the participation, and criticism, of local readers and it made it seem promising that the community cared about it's newspaper and the information it put out.

That is no longer the case.

Likely the Sun will show up for this strategic "event" today, as they covered a bit of it already, but what they never talked about and never showed up for, was the meeting with attorney, David Weinstein.

Shunning the free advice

Here we had in our corner for three hours an attorney who was willing to explain to an uninformed public about the various options the hospital has as it is up against the wall financially.

There was no reporter from the Sun, the moon or the stars at this presentation, only a few gathered in the audience know what was said during that meeting. And of course, there's the audio tape I listened to with perked ears.

One particular moment captured was the question of whether this attorney and his firm, would be a match for the "big guys" at Cal Mtg.

Well, Cal Mtg. has an array of defenses and probably a list of justifications hanging on the fridge in the lunch room, but what they don't want is visibility. They are a company which is off the radar for the average community member, and they are also something of a used car dealership in they sell to anyone, but under what terms?

There's a very timely loan situation which took place in between the vote to bring in David Weinstein for an informational gathering, and the sudden seven million coming from yet another deal with Cal Mtg. Weinstein's visit was put off several times, while the loan papers were in the oven, and once that was accomplished Weinstein finally made the trip to the valley.

At this point the information or analysis of hospital financial standing, was different as this loan went through prior to his arrival.

What would he have said had the hospital told him, we don't know what to do with our current situation and we would like to get out from under Cal Mtg.'s program? You see the board and administrators are working for Cal mtg. and the interests of that agency and the conflict of interest with this valley, the keeper of the debt.

It's our debt when it's said and done. When we vote in board members for the hospital we, the voter, resident, expect they will be working for us, just as any political position, senate, congress, etc.

And when the elected board doesn't follow thru on their promises, or are found to be inept, this is when the news becomes so important as people need some cold, hard information. .

Since our media are paid directly by KVHD in terms of advertising, it will be no surprise to see a story pop up on the strategic planning meeting which took place this afternoon. As long as it is positive...


Scott Costa, shown above covering a recent meeting, also known on this blog as "Smooth News" is your other option for news and information on the only radio station covering this community.

Costa came on the information wagon with sparse supplies of hospital history, but did owe the community some research into the hospital, but there was some conflict there as board member, Bob Jamison, shown above in front of Sue Barr, is the engineer for the radio station.

Most of his reports I caught, anyway, were always modestly inaccurate as well as missing most of the major issues the community would need to understand to allow them to decide whether or not to use the healthcare services provided by KVHD...or even to pay more property taxes.

Sadly, during the election results, Smooth News reported that the bond measure passed due to his lack of knowledge regarding the 2/3 vote needed for general obligation bonds.

For several weeks people thought the bond had won. They even wrote me to say how sad it was that the hospital won the bond. I told them that there was an errant report on the radio causing the confusion.

That in and of itself tells the tale of how important it is to have a good source of information such as now that we face some serious issues at the hospital, it's failing rural health clinic, the lawsuits, the quizzical new loan with Cal Mtg. as well as even potential collapse.

Where was the last article?

Noticeably missing from the last meeting at KVHD in the beginning of August, was a story about how board members were served involving the lawsuit being brought about by former employee, Surgeon, Dr. Kent Skoegerson.

According to an audience member, there was a request to hear the nature of the lawsuits, and acquire paperwork associated with it.

Follow the crumbs to the truth about what is happening with this surgeon and his former employer, because you won't find it in the KV Sun or broadcast on the radio.

Two thumbs down

Yes, the Sun can attack private citizens with their police reports and ultra zoom pictures of defendants right smack on the front of the paper, but they won't be doing that to their advertisers. This is what I have observed in terms of my regular media review.

If you hear about this special meeting in the paper or on the radio, you will likely hear what the hospital wants us to hear...like I said, advertising dollars are opinions of their own...

(Look again, from Jan. 2010) Letter to my editor or editors over at KVHD, this is what verbatim means...in case you didn't know

Read the minutes from the board meetings...

I never thought to go over and check on the minutes from the board meetings, as I expect, as I have requested that my remarks be put on the record verbatim.

Now verbatim doesn't mean only what somebody at the hospital thinks is important, it actually means it should be transcribed word for word.

I didn't think I had to check this too, but apparently I do. I'm being edited.

And I don't know exactly who is doing it.

Much like any editing job, it would depend on the editor as to what they feel is important.

But tell me what you think about this editing job. In the finance "commit me" meeting a few months ago when the pharmacy was scheduled for destruction, I asked why it was that Rite aide could make it.

Now, I mentioned Rite Aide knowing what the answer would be: they are a franchise treated to low wholesale prices or something like that.

But my real point was the comparison between the Drug Store in Kernville and the Mt. Mesa Clinical Pharmacy.

None of the second half appears in the notes.

And there's major lag time in requests for information and other odds and ends


I remember when Pam Ott threw three or four heavy notebooks with those heavy, metal clips at my head one afternoon when I was requesting records.

At least I got the records.

Get my point KVHD?

(I have not recieved most records I have requested, and that includes the Department of Public Health, Cal Mtg., along with our hospital. While the laws require certain freedom of information, these organizations have not abided these laws or rights of the public disclosure. At the August 2010, board meeting, I realized that the hospital CFO was communicating with their partner in credit and insurer of the long term debt, Cal Mtg., and trying to make things look like they had some sort of plan. I had asked the adminstrative secretary about the minutes, she told me they are edited. I asked by who, and she wouldn't give a name, but "generally." At the board meeting the admission was made that they do edit, and as those who have read the Kern Valley Sun Newspaper, know that information can be made to look anyway they want it to look these days.)

Accountability countdown to November elder abuse hearings: but who is accountable?

It's peculiar here

We live in a valley, a mountain top, an insular, isolated community situated above the hustle and bustle of city life which lies fifty miles down a twisted, dangerous canyon road.

What is peculiar about our situation here which makes it almost a "Land that Time Forgot, your manners" is that the information which comes in and out of here is generated by a machine. That machine runs off of a word previously discussed called, cronyism.

I narrowed that word to the situation at the Kern Valley Healthcare District, but I realized it runs rampant throughout this valley.

It's everywhere you find stagnation and lack of accountability.

Yes, I have some very ambitious plans in that I intend to prove on my blog, with the jurors being blog readers, who could be considered accountable and why such things that happened at our hospital were allowed to happen.

I had the dubious displeasure of recording Mr. Jamison's radio talk show this morning, though what I heard of it in the fifteen minutes before I promptly fell asleep (some of the best sleep in while, he's great for insomnia) was very interesting.

In fact, Mr. Jamison, announced the new website for the station, KCNQ.com. Just go there for all the news you can count on.

Really, could any of us count on the radio station or the board member who continues to commandeer his bully pulpit without taking any responsibility for the situation which occurred at KVHD?

Certainly not Jamison. He would have to be accountable for not only the problems at the hospital, but his subsequent overreactions and protecting the powers rather than the people.

See again, we all allow ourselves to be victims of the entrenched powers that be, the ones who give Jamison a venue for his personal torment and those who have to listen to it. It's not just Jamison.

No options up here.

They say turn the station if you don't like it. Okay, I will.

What's this?

There isn't anything else. That is what makes this situation different.

Now, yes, I agree, it's not like we're so cut off as to not know what is going on with other media outlets, but most likely we have only TV, which is just a video piece attached with two sentences, and a large newspaper down below which has just enough manpower to cover the two blocks around it's building.

And we know that internet service up here is archaic.

The options are limited as to local information. It's a bit of a "monopoly" here, wouldn't you say?

It used to be different

People will have you believe there were good old days, when news was news, but that never happened, and it never will, because it can't.

Walter Cronkite was a distinguished journalist, an almost American icon, or probably one now, though he just told it how he saw it.

We're all journalists, all of us have a story to tell, and all of us have a unique reference point from which we tell our stories.

Some people actually "hate" me, can you imagine that?

But they read me. And to me that is the biggest compliment.

When you tell your children about what you did as a child, those stories we all have that send the children packing from the room, then you learn about editing and editors.

The story you eventually read in the paper goes through a process, which in the end, gives us, the readers, a repeatedly filtered, perspective of whatever the writer is trying to say. And the politics of the machine the writer works for.

I am often sitting in front of many building blocks of a story deciding what should go where, what should be left out, what's the best stuff and what should be out front. One of the pet peeves of my editors and many readers, is that I like to save the best stuff for last. (There's a lot of foreplay in my stories and even my friends know now after years of listening to my litany of tales, that it will be worth the wait to let me set it all out and get you that punchline you so desire.)

If you notice, most news stories contain the most influential pieces of information within the first few paragraphs. That is because the reader is expected to cut you off at some point and grab onto another subject. This is standard practice in English classes everywhere to teach it this way.

I don't happen to like it, so that's not the way I do it. (I'm not a cookie cutter reporter anyway or we wouldn't be here right now.)

(I hope you're getting my point that there is more to come here to tie up all the loose ends and plot twists. And it may be worth your time to know that I have had only put up a fraction of what information and background I have collected.)

For me to have devoted this time to this monumental task without payment is all about using the tools of reporting and the nature of fairness to try and set straight a road that has been crooked for a long time.

I've used my own money, I've not been bought by anyone nor will I be, my own creativity, the technical knowledge of others, to try and bring some accountability to two different institutions here in the valley: the healthcare district and the media.

Distortion of information vital to public safety. I just made that up, but that could be the new media law. I like it, it sounds fitting to our particular situation.

What I have witnessed here in the valley by people in what would be considered "positions of power and responsibility," those caring for our parents and grandparents, those elected to serve, those dispensing information and calling it "news," those who employ people and put food on the table in many a home, breached all trust with this community.

Without batting an eye. (amazing)

Government officials, and that is what a Kern Valley Healthcare District board member is, and if that board member doesn't realize that then they shouldn't be there. This is a "public" healthcare district and the public has every right to know what is going on.

The public should not, however, be accountable for knowing problems the media intentionally kept from them.

"I didn't know," I've heard people say recently.

Of course you didn't because you walked into the market and you perused the local paper, set it down, and thought that there was nothing to worry about.

You turned on your TV and you find there is no one out there really fighting to bring you local, personal, useful, information to you.

Then the local radio blares a message that there is a threatening reporter trying to uncover a public health threat which doesn't exist. The airwaves are full of messages, that if remain unchallenged, take hold and you begin to disseminate misinformation unwittingly.

But the egregious nature of the Jamison/QAB/Kern Valley Healthcare District/ambulance company/relatives working in clinics/ connection really plays out the dangerous situation of not separation of Church and state, but of media outlet and business/government entity.

Again, my ambitions have gotten bigger, as I realize the problem is bigger than just this healthcare district. The district's current situation is a direct result of poor management, and that includes the management of the powers that be in this town.

The information mongers.

As we speak here tonight, the gauntlet was thrown down by me this week with the two media outlets, QAB and the Kern Valley Sun Newspaper, owned by a little corporation, called Wick. (I guess adding an -ed, would be out of line)

I believe that the accountability of these organizations will directly influence the perpetuity of this valley, so that is why I am choosing to cover these major obstacles and challenges that they are and will be.

I have given the Sun and QAB notice of what my intentions are and what I will be doing in the coming months.

The Sun turned down an offer from me today to pay me for my time and expense in tracking this hospital, as well as the others who have helped, as this was the responsibility of the local institution which likes to call itself a community newspaper.

After I spoke to their attorney this morning, I realize the people at the Sun haven't told him everything, they haven't even admitted it to him. I doubt that was cat and mouse game either. That phone call was about the fact that the three top dogs at the Sun, Publisher, Marsha Smith, Editor, Cathy Perfect, and reporter, Susan Barr, don't want to admit to the harassment, the game playing, defamation and their respective roles in the KVHD case.

Yes, Miss Perfect, can put up three huge pictures of defendants back in February, then when I suggested she make sure the picture of one of what I consider to be the biggest conspirators, former KVHD CEO, Pamela Ott, be equally displayed, she used the smallest photo available.

You don't think this blog has gotten to them?

Rather than just admit they obstructed an investigation and pay me for my time and expense, as well as damages from "defamatory practices" they chose to go the pugilists route.

(And no, standing still will not help you.)

I always give a warning, but only one. I gave it to the Sun today and they have chosen to be sued.

But again, the suing part is out of necessity. I'm just a small time blogger, and they are big corporations, so I have only a few weapons of choice to use against them.

What do I want?

The worst thing imaginable: an admission of responsibility.

And in the case of QAB, I would love to see if we can get a class action lawsuit together for this whole community, as we were not just duped, we were bold faced, unabashedly, lied to and mislead.

If that's not a good enough reason, I don't know what is.

But since I'm not about being "shut up", Kern Valley Sun, I won't go the
normal route with these lawsuits. I want my day in court with you. I want to testify, I want to be heard, in our system which is the only chance left to set the record completely straight.

Relying on a system that is so flawed is ridiculous, but realize that this whole problem has been about a "system failure." Where nobody takes responsibility, nothing is usually accomplished.

Systems that don't work contain the likes of these people who would hide in it and feed off it.

This, of course, leads straight into the main body of government, on which we rely, for civility, decency, fairness and creating institutions and laws that can actually be managed and work effectively. (Which usually doesn't happen, but I can at least wish it would.)

I'm going to be talking about why the DOJ has not, after a month of requests, been able to tell me why Pamela Ott, the shredder, did not get treated the same as the other defendants. Why she had no bail and why she didn't get the conspiracy charge.

So, the update tonight is that I gave the Kern Valley Sun their due warning that I will be using our courts of law to make my case, but not until after I make my case, right here on this blog.

We will now be calling the Sun, "the defiant one's" as they much like Jamison and others, can dish it out, but cannot take it.

Apparently, they didn't like what I've said about them on this blog. And instead of making a decision with accountability in mind (even with good business sense), they have done what they continue to do with me, and that is personalize this and personally attack me, the messenger, not the message.

(Mind you, had the Sun made the decision to settle with me and pay me for my time doing their job, it would have been an admission of an "error" on their part. I would have went easier on them for good behavior. But they don't have enough true self esteem to admit when they are wrong. No they aggravate it by putting things in the paper about me, and also...keeping things out of the paper about me and this whole story...more on this.)

The QAB issue is now being known as "power mongering for morally challenged souls."

I will be updating you on the two cases with my media friends and dishing you the whole story as it goes along.

(It's kind of weird taking on the media, it's a bit like cannibalism to me)

Let me make one point before this fight really begins, and that is, at any point these people could have helped and not hindered, the progress of the investigation by scrutinizing the situation at the hospital.

Compared to the response of other news and media organizations outside this area, they have failed the people they should serve and even went as far as being complicit when they knew they were ignoring or misconscrewbulating the truth.

There are no other ways to do this, but to attack these problems, and pray for some relief. I happen to be built for this kind of thing, and that is why I think I'm stuck with this crummy job.

I'm not attacking these people saying they are evil and totally unworthy: I'm attacking saying they can and could have done better. It's their deeds and actions which I am attacking. But true, actions and character, are often directly related.

(I'm sure Pam Ott or Bob Jamison or Chet Beedle have fed a stray cat or taken the trash out for their mothers, but they did damage too. And that damage could have been not only been avoided, but much of it was intentional. You can't quantify the pain caused to the people who had loved ones in the nursing center and were treated like dirt when they tried to find out what had happened.)

Everyone of us has our flaws, me at the top of the list, but when we go astray and try to make it somebody else's problem, scapegoating, vilifying, then it's gone too far and it has to be stopped before more people are hurt.

If I seem glib to you at any point, realize I'm very serious. And I don't take what I'm doing lightly at all.

But it happened on my watch...

Index of complaints:

Crimes against the elderly and community by the Kern Valley Healthcare District administrators and board members. Getting charges against those who created the toxic environment in which employees did things they wouldn't normally do and the top administrators created a public smokescreen, campaign to cover their tracks.

The KVHD romp against its employees and its continued struggle with staffing the nursing center as well as the rest of the hospital for that matter.

Malfeasance on the part of certain board members in dealings with a big, baddy up in Sacramento, the office inside the office of Statewide Healthcare Planning and Development, Cal Mtg. There's a 17 million dollar debt strangling this hospital and these guys insured it. And promoted it without overlooking what the board was doing. (Oh yeah, it goes up to the state level)

Distortion of the facts and using a media outlet for personal vendettas and agendas, against all ethical guidelines, becoming aiders and abetters of criminal activities, that is what the MEDIA WAR, now underway,is about.

Watch out! Flying words zone.

The last word from Marsha Smith Kern Valley Sun, Lake Isabella CA, and an anonymous phone call...

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha...

(It appears I will have to post my own comments which were sent to the Kern Valley Sun Website in response to what I call a "threat" and many others who have read it do as well.)

But first, I need to tell everyone that I got a call today, from someone who obviously wants to remain anonymous and sound scary.
This person left a message on my voice mail from telephone number: 0001234. Right, that's not a regular telephone number and was done on a computer.
The voice was synthesized making the person's voice unrecognizable.
The caller said, try to trace this call and get my identity. Then some other garbled gibberish.
At the end of the call we could hear a button pushed on a computer. So, here's the deal, people can find a way to remain hidden and make threatening calls. Watch out for this yourselves, as grifters, (not just people threatening reporters), prey upon people using techniques just like this one. Never give out information over the phone, always ask for a number to call them back.

Now, I ask, did this caller, read the Kern Valley Sun website? Was this person inspired by the statement, "I think somebody should shut her up for good, " on the website in anyway?

These are questions asked in journalism classes as well as law schools all around the nation.

And websites, like the Kern Valley Sun, can choose to keep a veiled threat or any other offensive material up based on their own judgement because of the right to free speech.

Now we see what sort of judgement the Sun uses and likely no other person in this valley will see their name up their like mine.
If you look thru the site posts, you will notice that this type of comment is nowhere else to be found. And certainly, any reasonable person would agree it sounds like a threat.

But what they did on the website which makes things more like a power play, is they would not post any other posts I sent except the three where I give them a taste of their own medicine and copy/pasted the original threat with all three of their names on it to see what they would do. (Cathy Perfect, Marsha Smith, and Susan Barr)

But the Sun has chosen to end the string on their blog with a statement from Marsha Smith, the Publisher of the Kern Valley Sun, in regards to my comedic comeback:

hypocrisy fighter1 wrote on Jul 17, 2009 11:19 AM:
" It seems to me that Susan Barr, perhaps, misconscrewbulated her article on the new CEO's actual report. Therefore...and I think someone should "shut her up for good!" " "

Enigma wrote on Jul 17, 2009 11:16 AM:
" the editor of this article, did not correct the mistakes in spelling or content, Cathy Perfect, so...and I think someone should "shut her up for good!" " "

puerilism 1 wrote on Jul 17, 2009 11:13 AM:
" I think Marsha Smith has done a poor job allowing salamanderisms in the paper... and I think someone should "shut her up for good!" " "

Publisher wrote on Jul 17, 2009 3:25 PM:
" Sorry. Neither Cathy, Susan, nor I can 'shut up for good'. It is our job and commitment to publish a newspaper, doing so requires words. We fully intend to keep our commitment to the community. No one is forced to read or view any media. It's like TV - if you don't like it, change the channel. "

My response never posted:
Well, Marsha, that sounded strange, but I guess the game is to control your website, by leaving out my other explanatory posts. Mine was a joke about all of you. I can't shut up either. Nor will I as long as there is no support for the truth or integrity from your newspaper. You can only control your website and paper. You won't find threats on my blog. Just my schedule of events. But you can't control my blogs. Or the truth. Say hi to Barbara Casas for me. And watch the blog. Newspaper vs. blogger.

Coming up Next: But Marsha makes a point about the media I'm about to take up in two other articles, which should be up soon. She says if you don't like the channel change it.

Welcome to the Kern River Valley where there are only two channels which represent themselves as "news": The Kern Valley Sun Newspaper, and QAB, the only radio station in town.

And I will argue that there is no coverage in Bakersfield or Ridgecrest that could be construed as the news of the valley with the exception of car crashes and weather.

The Kern Valley Sun is welcome to respond to any of these posts, but then they have a whole newspaper and website of their own to use to cover this story. But feel free to write me, just don't make any threats. LOL
The original threat:

The Truth wrote on Jul 15, 2009 12:36 AM:
" Everything seems to be working well at the Healthcare District except one item: Laura Hart spends too much of the District's time re-hashing old news and making libellous remarks at Board Meetings, about Board Members. I think the community is getting tired of her gaining attention for telling lies and making inuendos about people, and I think someone should "shut her up for good!" "

What I would have done in the Sun's place, no matter what my personal issues with the person are, I would have pulled it and turned the name of the person over to the police. The end. And I would be doing my duty to "all of the community," not just the people whom I like or who advertise with me. Laura Hart

422. Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, orby means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as athreat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out,which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made,is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family's safety, shall be punishedby imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.