The story behind the KVHD blog picture: Board Blanket Bingo

The Brown Act: When caught on the spot, stand and stare...


Kern Valley Healthcare District Board member, and my mentor (explanation later) Robert Jamison, looks a bit piqued as my camera filmed a Brown Act violation that followed a highly contentious meeting last July regarding the hospital's pitiful attempt to have the community pay for the financial maladies ailing the healthcare district with a property tax hike: Measure G.

During this quickly assembled "special meeting" generally unattended by community members and reporters, it was evident the supporters wanted some privacy to put the measure on the election ballot away from the general board meeting where they would push thru a CEO raise and freeze the salaries of employees, while asking the community for it's money.

After this contentious meeting, I walked out without my camera in the confusion. A woman offered to go retrieve it, and when she returned, she said there are four board members in the room together.

I grabbed my camera and went back to the room, and when I opened the door to the board room, I was blocked by the administrative secretary, "Hidey Sage," with a food cart. (And can you believe I wasn't even offered a sandwich?) So, I took a few pix and went around the other door, as others slipped out, and found board members, Bob Jamison, Victoria Alwin, and Bradley Armstrong lagging behind.

As stood right in front of them, Bob Jamison, knew exactly what I had finally caught on film. Oh, there was a witness who spoke of the "sticky three" meetings, or I should say private meetings, prior to board meetings, where Jamison, and his former team, Barbara Casas, Bradley Armstrong, made their own quorum during the power struggle of 2006 and 2007.

This person spoke directly to the investigator from the county, giving details, but as I have reported and we will speak of again shortly, the Kern County Grand Jury has denied ever receiving a complaint from me and other witnesses back in 2007...when the trail was still fresh.

Had the county followed up with more than a recent glance at the hospital which resulted in the same advice: have the community pay your debt just like they did in Tehachapi...our hospitaless, bond indented neighbors...(Great ideas, why didn't anyone think of a bond, property tax increase? Oh, yeah, they did for the last 20 years. Ask anyone in Tehachapi about the taxes they pay...)

Look for the follow up: "Kern Kounty Korruption"

Brown Act Violations

Now I've said "Brown Act Violations" which refers to "the Brown act" which states the laws concerning local boards such as the KVHD board. I'm going to give you a few excerpts of what the Act is about, then give you the link where you can read and save the whole document. Then you can read the excerpt below with more understanding of the severity of it in terms of how boards and members should conduct business.

54950. Policy declaration

In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’sbusiness. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.

The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.

http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/2003_Main_BrownAct.pdf

Here is correspondence which can be verified from my server or harddrive of my computer. It is also been saved to disc. Copies went to the District attorney.

I will not tell you who it is from at this time and I have edited it. The person who wrote this as well as the person mentioned, are violating both the Brown Act as well as executive information.

Bob Jamison was elected to the office of First Vice President, which was his desire, so he could Chair Board Meetings if Brad had to be absent. Bob Jamison chose to not have the Board Meeting on Thursday as he was afraid that everything would be a 2 to 2 vote without a third positive vote from Brad who is Chair, and the third person to vote for anything positive.

All of this is “off the record”---…you cannot use any of this until after a statement is made by Pam regarding xxxxx's actions….probably will be after the Board Meeting—when ever that will be….Know this—If I was acting as First VP or Chair, I would have carried out meeting on schedule, I would have only tabled the action mentioned before the meeting—that could have been accomplished by a telephone vote of all Board Members—

This person is referring to the board meeting which was cancelled in April of 2007, because the majority was not present and the vote could have gone either way. That's what they wanted to avoid so they made several excuses for putting off the meeting. You can verify this as meetings are the first thursday of the month, and this one didn't take off until the 26th. (the letter was from former board member, Barbara Casas)

The Brown Act:

54952.2. Definition of meeting

(a) As used in this chapter, “meeting” includes any congregation of a majority of themembers of a legislative body at the same time and place to hear, discuss, or deliberate upon any itemthat is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body or the local agency to which itpertains.

(b) Except as authorized pursuant to Section 54953, any use of direct communication,personal intermediaries, or technological devices that is employed by a majority of the members of thelegislative body to develop a collective concurrence as to action to be taken on an item by the members of the legislative body is prohibited.

CRIMINAL SANCTIONS:

The district attorney may seek misdemeanor penalties against

a member of a body who attends a meeting where action is

taken in violation of the Act, and where the member intended

to deprive the public of information which the member knew

or has reason to know the public was entitled to receive.

54959

It's what they didn't say at the Kern Valley Healthcare Board of Directors meeting...Dec. 2009 updated

Update:Why would I, a simple minded reporter type, know the troubles to come before the Kern valley healthcare district financial officer...I eerily predict the future, which is now...Aug. 2010

Can anyone spare a dime?

I was in our local market just before the holiday weekend, and some friends of mine were having trouble getting together all the money they needed to buy dog food and cat food, and something for them too.

Standing across in another line, I asked if they needed some extra cash. A tiny, elderly woman was next to me, couldn't have been a day under 100, and she said, " do they need some money, I have a little left over from this month."

What an shining example of generosity and kindness. Someone with little willing to share it without being asked.

This should be our example of how we all behave towards each other during these difficult economic times.

And the Kern Valley Healthcare District could use a lesson from this woman as the district and hospital itself were funded and built, under the Hill Burton Act, to serve our rural community.

Though I showed up late for the meeting last night, as I'm still grieving the death of our best dog, it was apparent that things are urgent and dire, as the two most important items were pulled from the agenda: The Mt. Mesa Clinical Pharmacy report and discussion regarding a potential general obligation bond.

Where do we stand with the pharmacy?

Well, we didn't find out last night what our latest figures tell us about the future of the retail pharmacy.

It's likely we will not see much action until the beginning of next year as December is a full month of holidays and vacations.

With the pharmacy and it's staff up in the air for at least another month, I suggest that we now bring back the business before it's too late.

No matter what the hospital decides to do, it's happening slowly, and not so surely, and that is where the community needs to step in: step in the doors of the pharmacy and get their prescriptions.

I'd like to thank Mt. Mesa Clinical Pharmacy for getting my medication ten minutes before closing, the day before Thanksgiving. What a relief not having to drive around the lake or out of town, which happened just recently and will happen again.

Though the staff was busy, they managed to keep filling prescriptions up until closing time, even with the computers down creating the daily report.

A credit card to save the pharmacy

American Express to the rescue, as the district with no credit, managed to get an American Express card to help pay for such things as: pharmaceuticals and supplies.

But only to the the tune of 92K, which won't go very far. Now the card will remit back a 1% pat on the back fee for paying the card within 30 days; then there's an interest charge after that which starts at 2.99, (nice) but, boo hoo, if you don't pay after 90 days as the card will self destruct in Chet Beedle's pocket.

So, the board voted unanimously to get a credit card, it was something they all could agree upon.
Why did they agree?

If your business had less than a day of cash on hand, you would look at that credit card offer in a different way wouldn't you? And that's why the board members, looking embarrassed, voted unanimously to get an American Express card.

General obligation bond beats bankruptcy

If we could somehow manage to convince this community that this hospital and it's services are worth the extra property taxes necessary to keep the district afloat during these turbulent times it still would be driven by the same people and ineffective systems that caused the downfall in the first place.
(I said difficult times because the previous hospital administration decided to eat up all the reserves and even feed it to their friend, who we will now call, "Planes, trains, automobiles and free lunches." Before that they basically handed over millions to a company who "attempted" to rectify the situation in the nursing center.)

In the meantime, the idea that a general obligation bond would be a solution is pretty far fetched, as well as being more than a year plus off before any of that money, were it a reachable goal, was paid to the district.

Currently, the financial situation is such that we need immediate action. We cannot wait on a tentative general obligation bond, and the amount we would need could reach 50 million dollars. This community does not have the real estate base to handle that sum.
(New information July 28, 2010, there is a second GOB or property tax bond necessary. Video upcoming)

Paying off the old debt which built half a nursing center, a nice OR, a cafeteria, would cost almost 40 million dollars. How could we put that on the community's shoulder's Brad Armstrong, board member, who was there twenty years ago when he and his board buried the hospital in debt and inept leadership in regards to the construction?

Mr. Armstrong voted last night for a credit card. (Boy it's rough out there, eh, Brad? It used to be you could get millions and throw it into the wind without a squeek from the community. New day, new game, old timer.)

We need help

The truth is this district is on the brink of bankruptcy maybe even more so now than ten years ago when we faced a financial crisis, or more like tidal wave.

Most of us don't want to have to go that route as it does not always save the day and is risky.

But if it's the only way to save the district, then it must be done.

It seems Mr. Beedle, our Cheif Financial Officer, back in February was not agreeable to speaking with the office of Cal Mtg., the state office which insures our revenue bonds from 1986 and 1989, which put 22 million in the KVHD coffers, and who knows how much more into the supporting cast from the Office of Statewide Healthcare Planning and Development.

(The Cal Mtg. Proposal: see post)
The idea came about as Mr. Beedle told us in Feb. 2009 that the bond payments to Cal Mtg. were tentative at best and we would have to use money from the bond reserve to pay them.

And if you don't think Cal Mtg. has not already heard about these problems, then you don't know what kind of creditor we are dealing with.

Pamela Ott, as we will recall, had some interesting credentials, yet somehow made it to the top as CEO. She is now charged in the KVHD elder abuse case, and the amount of money this has cost the district can be attributed to Ott's leadership and her followers, Bob Jamison, Brad Armstrong, and Barbara Casas (former board member, part of "the sticky three.")

Between Cal Mtg. and Pamela Ott, and the super job done by the Department of Health Services, we can thank them all for the position we are in right now.

But let's not stop the thank you's there, we have a financial officer who has continually kept the truth, the figures we need to see, out of sight. Explanations are lengthy and not meant to be understood.

And, Mr. Beedle, broke up a potential negotiation with Cal Mtg. earlier in the year, with the excuse we were making our state debt insurer's angry. If they don't want bankruptcy, then why not try to negotiate to defer payments until the situation can be rectified with a new financial leader?

Let's start with a reorganization plan within the hospital itself, immediately, and bring on new blood and new calculators to get this thing started before Cal Mtg. brings in Casey again, or something like that.

To avoid bankruptcy, there is no other way, than to replace the financial leadership currently at the hospital. If that is not done pronto, then I predict the spector of Cal Mtg. will be upon us early next year.

My question is: why has this not been done already? Why does it take so long to catch the problem and then have to utilize a last ditch solution?

Finally, the woman at the grocery story who was willing to help a family and their pets with a few bucks, should be a model of what the leadership at KVHD should be doing: showing compassion.

Employees who have worked the district for ten or more years have seen their benefits dissappear, their retirement taken away, their tenure become meaningless: but the administrators have given up NOTHING.

I'm going to find that woman and send her your way, Bob Jamison, Chet Beedle, Brad Armstrong, amongst others, and you can tell her she's wrong to try and help out others in need.

Our hospital is need, can we get some help?

What will we do now?
(I'll leave it at that until the next post)

The Sticky Three or why we brought cameras to the board meetings

In early 2007, I realized we had a serious problem in the hospital. Employees were talking about short staffing, rumors flew about the new Director of Nursing, alleged abuse was whispered through the halls, but the leaders of the Kern Valley Healthcare District boldly lied where no hospital has ever gone before.
So, I thought we should film it. Not to alarm the paranoid leaders, I told them I was doing a documentary, called, "from bond to building," about the new general obligation bond measure to replace the ill fated Measure M.

They weren't stupid and so darn paranoid, they cancelled the April 2007 board meeting.

Around this same time, I went on that fateful day into the skilled nursing facility to look at the CMS annual survey report I had been told about. It was hanging in the hall, a public document, but when I went to look at it, I had scads of nurses trying to keep me from reading it.

Mr. Jamison, in his famous video, tells the story as if I ran into the nursing facility just to use strong language. I can do that at home Mr. Jamison.

I did use strong language with these nurses or whatever they were, who intentionally tried to keep me from reading.

Book em' Danno! Or Donno, or I mean, sorry, Donny, Jerry and Steve, our guardians of some California justice

Why not these two?

Now we know if we caught Pam Ott, former CEO of the Kern Valley Healthcare District, charged with eight counts of elder abuse by the state of California, smoking some marijuana, she would be in jail, on "bail" in a jumpsuit, being cursed by board member, and media non-personality, Bob Jamison.

But, because it was a matter of governance, or lack thereof, we seem to have forgiven those who allowed a situation to occur in a hospital and nursing center which may have lead to the demise of residents who knew nothing of the politics which played a role in their care.

I was looking through the California Penal code, for the fun of it, a week or so ago as there are so many laws on the books which could be applied in our case here at KVHD. I sit here this fine Friday afternoon, late for appointments, wondering why there are not at least two more defendants for next week.

We know that there are documents that pertain to the responsibilities of those in charge of the nursing center or any nursing home. The administrator, the leader, is the top dog, according to the district policy and the laws of the state of California.

That should not be questioned.

But our administrator also had a second in command, who knew very well, what was going on. Ott even pointed that finger early in 2006, when Department of Health Services or "Public Health" (thank you, I'm scared already) questioned Ott's credentials.

As has been pointed out on this blog, which has reached an unmanagable 200 posts, (wow, let's celebrate! It took 200 blogs to explain this situation, but only one jury can send the message home) that Ott had help in the cover up.

Let's see the CNO of the time, she definitely knew; the CFO, Chet Beedle, who recently made fools of the board and current administration with his pharmacy analysis, was cutting out more jobs than the mortgage industry, which made for big gaping holes in the staffing, he knew.

And board members, Bob Jamison, Brad Armstrong, and Barbara Casas were either covering for the "leadership lite" administrative nightmare, or they were duped like most of us.

Either way, it's still malfeasance. They should have looked at the records, stopped the cover up, but they, instead, helped Miss Ott out of the "country" off to her new position at Sierra Kings District Hospital which has now met with trials and tribulations under her leadership. They are bankrupting their hospital. (we're just killing our business little by little here at the hands of a CFO, but, let's keep him, pay him, and allow him to continue down this path of fiduciary suicide)

But the CFO, was right in the middle of all of this, taking out personal personnel information to try and keep the employees in their places.

(Yes, we're going to have another holocaust blog for Monday. The first one didn't work out as I was straight out of surgery trying to write it, but now, I'm ready. Are you ready for Mien KVHD?)

How is it that other employees were fired for lesser issues, but, again, the administration gets a break?

Now, the former CNO, who currently works in quality control and the cardiac arrest her departments which were created out of scratch, those medicines off the charts, needs to be addressed in a courtroom.

Thelma and Louise of the SNF, Ott and Sharon Brucker, read reports to the board throughout 2006, with such concern as, "whoops" our patients lost 25 pounds, yes, we need to start weighing them. But only when we can find a way to bring them out without restraints.

Brucker the former CNO, was seen in court last month though, in the audience unfortunately, as Ott took a few minutes to show up and plead not guilty at all, what are you talking about, to the elder abuse charges.

Ott didn't have to post bail, it was all quite streamlined for her, so I asked the Department of Justice, (several times in fact) why she was treated with this "fast track" method of justice.

I have not received a suitable answer or actually any answer. It's not a rhetorical or hysterical question, Scott Gerber, bad boy of PR: I was serious: why would you treat her that way after the evidence shows she had no regard for anyone else, employees, residents of the SNF, or the law itself?

Come on DOJ, serve the "loco" motion

As I said, there are so many laws on the books which could easily be used in this case to make sure, double check, that we got all the people out of there who need to be made an example of for the rest.

Would it be crazy to press these charges? I don't think so. I'm quite certain that even though the DOJ's investigation was late, like me, and the evidence was shredded, and the tapes were lost, (though there were some other tapes made by Ott, which I'm wondering if they have been turned over to the DOJ) there is still evidence.

Maybe you can't get them all on elder abuse charges, but there are other lesser charges, easier to prove that would at least get them out of the hospital so they can't do any more damage. And maybe then, we can heal this place.

But we need felonies as the hospital does not rehire those with felonies on their record.

And you need to take the board members too. Do not let them think they can do this without some sort of slap on the wrist or fanny or something. They knew what was going on: Bob, Brad and Barbara, "the killer B's."

However, politics played a big role in all of this, but the unfortunate element was the residents: they didn't get a vote, on measure M, their staffing, or the drugs a certain nursing director decided to use.

They didn't have a choice, but we do

The residents of the Kern Valley Healthcare District skilled nursing facility didn't know the staffing was cut because there was a need to save money. They didn't know that when they rang their call lights, busy nurses were doing all they could just to keep up with the heavy load dumped on them in 2006 KVHD budget.

The residents also didn't know why the people they had come to love and care about, the nurse's aides, who were pushed beyond the call of duty, were helpless to stop the people at the top. The aides were threatened with licenses and forced to work overtime, and more overtime, sick or well, they had to come in or the nursing center would close.

The residents also did not know why the board of directors so coyly turned away from the employees who tried to blow the damn whistle, but only air and fear came out.

They didn't deserve the disrespect nor did they have any idea what was really going on around them which would lead to such a disaster.

And the families of the residents, how do they feel?

We are now on a new course at the skilled nursing facility, one with more compassion, "more staff", customer service, renewed research into better systems, and a new CCO, Cynthia Burciaga, who is monitoring the situation.

Our new CEO, Tim McGlew, has added a new element as he had the insurance liability carrier, Betagroup, do a risk assessment of the nursing center.

Though we are paying attention now, there was a serious problem for the families who feared for their loved ones in the SNF.

From all the information I have heard and seen, the families had to fight to get information and paperwork. (Yes, the paperwork was delayed, how convenient)

But along with that, they were treated as if they were simple "complainers" in some cases, by the CEO, Ott and even mentioned was CFO, Chet Beedle, whom I accused of this behavior at a recent meeting.

How could the families even watch the video of Bob Jamison calling the tragedy at KVHD, Pam Ott's resignation? I'm sure they felt great that Jamison followed it up by allowing Ott a full hour of radio time to propagate her agenda.

(See posts: Here's your witness Jerry Brown and "Hey Tokyo Rose, where's your Kimono?)

But now we, and I mean the government, the lawyers, the families of victims, the staff, the staff who were fired, the whistleblowers, have to come together and get the truth out there for those who want it, and more so, those who need it to move on from this mess.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, the State of California has sufficient evidence to prove that Pam Ott, the spy, the media attack, the buffer, the number's guy, were part of a cover up of crimes against the residents of the hospital, but not only that, crimes against a community.

Again, we thank you for coming to be our jurors, and we know you will see through the facade, the collusion, to bring the leaders, the corporate administrators and elected board members, to justice for their roles in harming the public and obstructing the investigation.

We know you will be fair and impartial as you hear all the testimony of witnesses and victims of a case which lead to abusing elderly patients for the sake of saving money, (to pay Cal Mtg. I would say that, but they won't), and by the leaders who tried to cover their tracks and scapegoat the little guys. It could have been you, Jane or John juror, you could have been threatened with your job or fired, by an entrenched system of bullying and scapegoating."

That's how I would open my case...You have all that you need to convince a jury full of average folks who probably would not take kindly to hearing about high level, heavily reimbursed, bosses at a public healthcare district who allowed and even prolonged potential elder abuse.

I don't see any problems getting that message across to a jury. Feel free to utilize my little blog here and I've got many other bits of evidence around here at home too. Let's do lunch, then do KVHD...

(I'm trying very hard not to blow a fuse with the uploading problems with the video for Youtube. After three hours on Verizon's DSL, or supposed high speed internet, I managed to load one video last night. It's Chet Beedle though, and you should watch. I don't know what the problem is, maybe I'm competing with Jerry Brown throwing up all his gubernatorial campaign videos on Youtube...I dont' know. I'm still trying though. Aren't I?)

"YOU'RE FIRED!" former KVHD CEO, Pam Ott, terminated from Sierra Kings hospital

Sierra Kings Hospital District gives the boot to Ott:

Former Kern Valley Healthcare District CEO, Pamela Ott, shown here during the May 2007 KVHD board meeting, where she stepped down as CEO amidst troubles in the skilled nursing facility which lead to elder abuse criminal charges being filed against her two months ago in September.


Ott left KVHD while the nursing center was being threatened with closure, and civil lawsuits were being filed against the district. (No, she wasn't fired by KVHD, but was aided and abetted by the former "sticky three" board members, who sent her off to their friends from Aspen Street Architects, with letters of recommendation.)


She then went on to Sierra Kings District Hospital a month later, being hired on as CEO, with a resume containing suspicious educational degrees originating from a "diploma mill" or unaccredited program, which KVHD overlooked and so did Sierra Kings.

Reedley rids itself of Ott

When Ott was charged two months ago by the state of California, Department of Justice, Medi-Cal and elder abuse, and Board of Registered Nursing, with eight counts of elder abuse, the Sierra Kings District Board of Directors put her on unpaid administrative leave.


The former President of the Sierra Kings board, Trish Johnson, said that the board was not aware of why Ott was going to court at the time, and that the whole issue was a surprise to her. (More research of her resume would have probably lessened the surprise factor.)


Johnson said the board would wait until the November hearing to make a final decision on Ott's status with the district.

The criminal court hearings, which took place last week, resulted only in a continuance for Ott and the two other remaining defendants, Dr. Hoshang Pormir and Gwen Hughes, RN, until Jan. 5, as they all waived their rights to a "speedy preliminary hearing."


While Ott prepared for court last week, the Sierra Kings hospital board of directors, at their regular monthly meeting, made the decision, and terminated the former CEO who will be facing criminal charges as well as several civil lawsuits occurring during her leadership at KVHD.

Human resources fiasco

As I mentioned above, both the Kern Valley Healthcare District and Sierra Kings Distirct, hired on Ott with her fish market, fishy resume, work history and educational degrees. (there are several posts on the blog relating to this topic, as well as Ott's actual resume.)

Imagine that this document, the copy I have was used at KVHD, was seen and reviewed by many people in the chain of command, which makes this another "system failure" as Ott described the state of the nursing center in 2007.

There have been many people arguing recently about how the poor victims in the human resources department have their hands tied by the state and cannot do a full background check.

Maybe so, if you put no work into it at all. However, Ott's resume was so obvious that anyone reading it could have caught it and questioned it, it would have taken all of five minutes to look the degrees up on the Internet.

There is no excuse for this. All who were involved in the hiring of Ott as CEO should be fired, sued, or thrown off the board of directors. (By the way, if Ott is currently job hunting, I would recommend to a potential employer to: READ THIS BLOG FIRST, then decide. Here's your background check and it wasn't free, we all paid the price.)

Yes, Ott was the tragedy, but certainly not her resignation

Crazy as it sounds, after the threat of closing the nursing center, the cries for help from the employees, the new drug regimen, KVHD board member, Bob Jamison called Ott stepping down, "a tragedy that didn't have to happen."


Yelling and threatening, Jamison, made it clear that the only problem at KVHD was the media reporting there was a problem at KVHD. He and Ott even threatened libel suits to put the finishing touches on their story.

Jamison, who is the only person at the local radio outlet, QAB media, who can work the engineering for the stations (which allows him great influence over the owners,) engineered a plan to have Ott on the radio to explain what happened at the nursing center. He dedicated a whole hour of radio time to deny the seriousness of the problems and to offer sad excuses to go along with the lies. (See: Here's your witness Jerry Brown to read the transcript of the show)

Jamison was not alone in his grief for Ott and her departure, the two fellow board members, known as the "sticky three," Brad Armstrong and Barbara Casas, were more concerned with Ott's resignation than the meltdown of the hospital.


Brad Armstrong and Barbara Casas, openly attack the community in response to Ott's resignation. Bob Knight, at the right of the picture, tried to warn the other board members and community of the problems, but was not taken seriously because of personal attacks.


But did Jamison, Casas, and Armstrong also help Ott get the job she just lost at Sierra Kings District, by providing references? (If I were Sierra Kings and didn't want to look as ridiculous as they do here for hiring Ott, I would get out those letters of reference and march them down to an attorney who might know what to do about it.)

Again, the onus of responsibility comes down from the top. Even if none of these people ever touched a resident of the nursing center or knew their names, they created an environment of fear and dishonesty, which lead to the system failure or whatever term you want to call it, which hurt residents, families, and the future of this hospital, and in turn the future of this community.

That kind of authoritarian leadership created a hostile environment inside that hospital, where many people were threatened with termination, hours cut, pay cuts, licenses reported; anything to keep employees from questioning the administrators and their board member cohorts.

(Hitler never put one single person on a train to a concentration camp. He didn't have to do the dirty work; it was the environment of fear he created that lead people to do things they would not normally do or agree with. )

As Ott resigned in May 07, she gave the board thirty days notice, meaning she may have stepped down that night at the meeting, but she had thirty more days in power and some cleaning up to do.

Ott's last thirty, dirty days at KVHD

The day after her resignation, several employees found themselves facing the firing squad, Human Resources Manager, Michelle Rosado. (Rosado left shortly after Ott in 07)

Rosado wasted no time in getting those out of the hospital who could be a threat to the cover up of the nursing center which had been ensuing for months.

Anyone who knew me, was immediately suspect. Employees told me they were ordered to "never" talk to me. My medical care suffered as a consequence.

There was no compassion as I got phone calls from distraught staff with stories of being thrown out of their offices without time to even gather all of their things.

They were ordered off the property. The paranoid administrators then turned to another tactic and that was to try and hold up unemployment claims and people trying to retrieve money from their vacation, sick time, and retirement accounts.

Next was the insurance issue, as terminated employees were scrambling to hang onto their health insurance, they were told, like in most cases, the only option was the COBRA policy, which was overpriced, especially for the recently jobless.

So, the stress continued as Ott blamed the terminations on the nursing home management company, Sycamore Asset Management Company, who came in via Ott and the board. (I've got this on tape Sycamore...?)

Sycamore was given carte blanche to do what they had to do to pull the SNF out of possible closure, and they were handed on a silver platter, a time and materials contract, to do it with.

The board and the financial officer, Chet Beedle, allowed this company to charge almost two million dollars, for their services, which did not end the woes of the nursing center. There was no due diligence in that decision, and currently hurts the hospital which barely has five days cash on hand.

(We could use that money now. Where's Pam Ott? Would she be willing to pay our fines and the tab for Sycamore? We need the money back Pam.)

Two board members and dozens of employees tried to get thru the bulwark, Robert and Kathryn Knight, reported the CEO, but in the end, all the propaganda and defamation kept the truth buried, until now. (see blog post: Urban legend, revelation and responsibility)

Firing can be a good thing though

I think ridding yourself of employees who are irresponsible, lacking in skills, lying on their resumes, pretending not to know about criminal activity, engaging in criminal activity, showing no compassion, invading private employee information, is a really good idea.

But that's not what happened at KVHD.

In fact, people were fired for no good reason on many occasions. But the ones who were doing the things I described above, many of them are still getting a paycheck from our public healthcare district every month.

And one of the people, actually, as has been posted in this blog, invaded the privacy of two employees without recourse. He also misled the board members on many financial decisions. He was involved in a nasty dispute regarding a health clinic which ended up requiring our favorite players, attorneys.

But he's still there. Even with new board members, who should be wary of everything this person claims and says, there has been no real action to change the situation.

How can you fire people for no reason, and not fire those for a good reason?

Can KVHD make any sense of this themselves? I cannot.

If the board and administrators truly want what is best for this district and this hospital and ultimately the community's survival, then they should take their job's seriously, and make the tough calls.

To do this they must cast off any doubt or fear that they will be criticized or even lose a few admirers, when they get around to doing what is right. (it's been long awaited, trust me)

Correct the imbalances; create a new environment of participation and honesty; and rid us of the past crimes against this community.

She doesn't have a bunker

Here we are more than two years later and the Sierra Kings District Hospital is doing what we at KVHD should have done: fire Ott.

Sierra Kings is not without its own problems, as the former President of the board, was recently asked to step down by members of the community, as the hospital has filed for bankruptcy and questions about the origin of these problems still plague the residents.

Trish Johnson, did not step down as a board member, but rather a wishy washy stance was taken and she slipped into another chair, and now is no longer in a leadership position on the board, yet still a board member.

I don't think that move will satisfy the people in Reedley though, as they are willing to take up signs, speak out and walk in front of the hospital, with regard only for the community, not themselves or reputations.

I have asked repeatedly that Bob Jamison and Brad Armstrong admit their mistakes and step down from the board. I am not the only one who believes this would be best for our community: I just happen to be the only one willing to say it.

The Valley of Fear

We live in a valley of fear, as we're prone to ignore problems for the sake of our standing in the community. There are people here who would throw you under the bus in a heartbeat if it made them look better or kept them out of trouble.

I've seen that happen at this hospital over the last few years, and it is indeed sickening.

Pam Ott fed off of this environment, that is how she was able to escape responsibility for two years, and even get a couple of awards from the Association of California Healthcare Districts, ACHD, before the law caught up with her.

Bob Jamison and Brad Armstrong must believe that by stepping down from the board and allowing progress to the scene, that would somehow diminish them and their previous power.

Realize this: these two board members get little money to do what they do (which these days is nothing); they do get healthcare insurance with the district; but all in all it's not a paying job, it's a service.

And boy oh boy did they serve up quite a dish for us: colluding with each other, allowing criminal activity, engaging in criminal activity, ignoring serious and deadly problems, hiring unqualified CEO's, and yet they are still here. (It boggles the mind)

They will never have their power back, the way it was when Ott and Beedle reigned as King and Queen.

Jamison and Armstrong stay because they are not strong enough to leave. It's that simple. There is strength in character, so that answers our questions.

Final thoughts

I'm sure there will be some happy people out there who believe that Pam Ott is now getting what she deserves: what comes around goes around, they say.

I don't blame them a bit as Ott showed no compassion toward anyone, and that lack of sentiment was followed by her followers, Ott's gang. (See post: Ma's gang)

The finale may not be the way we would like it as the state of California, Department of Justice, maybe hoping to escape the trial and go for the plea bargains.

But if we can save this hospital from itself at this point, and survive the immoral and unethical years, then we can be proud of ourselves.

We have a serious situation coming from every direction at the healthcare district, as it is weakened to the point of considering even to close down a pharmacy used by residents utilizing the local district services or simply living on the south side of the lake.

If they can't run a pharmacy, how can these people run a whole healthcare district?

Is this not a model of ineffective financial planning, development, and certainly financial advice?

We have become the Kern Valley Public "thrift store" District, as the auxiliary manages to have continued success financially, and a construction project which went without a hitch, and was fully completed.

The Auxiliary, an all volunteer crew, manage to keep this district running, providing money for the rehab on the aging buildings, and rundown or nonexistent equipment. Umm, since they're paying for everything, they should be invited in on the discussion of how to run the pharmacy.

We will have more on the pharmacy soon. Please know that the employees left at the gutted pharmacy are trying their best to get your order, and that they do not have the power to change the situation. If you want to complain, talk to the man who is in charge of finance, CFO, Chet Beedle. 760-379-2681, press O, and ask for Chet.

And thank you, Sierra Kings, for setting a strong example of community teamwork, involvement, to deal with situations such as we have at our relative healthcare outlets. You have filed for bankruptcy and now have divested yourselves of Ott, whereas we should bankrupt, and fire the left over players from the Ott regime.

And also a thank you goes out to the woman (I didn't get her name, but I will) from the Board of Registered Nursing, who in court last week, asked the judge that Ott be required to check in with the agency before taking on a leadership position in any new employment she may get.

(In September when she was initially charged, Ott was not required to post bail, spent no time in jail or a jumpsuit, and her only stipulation was that she could not hold a leadership position in a hospital with a nursing center. Oh, the inequity of these decisions.)

The judge denied the board of nursing's request, but the fact that she persisted and may really understand, unlike the judge, what Ott is capable of, makes her diligent in her pursuit of justice. (Remember, I posted the email where Ott again misrepresents her credentials even further past her resume, and tells me she was a nurse practitioner. She was offering to help me as I had become ill, which was truly timed in her favor. That should be reason enough right there to keep an eye on Miss Ott.)

More to follow...