County Defers Vote on Plan to Shift Medical Employees

Los Angeles County Supervisors on Tuesday postponed a decision on a plan to transfer hundreds of medical staff positions from the county to the USC payroll.

On a 3-2 vote, the board voted instead to ask the chief administrative officer, the county auditor-controller and an outside consultant to determine the benefits and drawbacks of such a move.

Supervisor Ed Edelman, who had sought an independent study, voted against the internal study. He argued in vain that county officials had already made up their minds that the employee shift was preferable to the current system.

Under the plan the supervisors are considering, hundreds of medical school faculty as well as interns and resident positions eventually would be transferred from County-USC Medical Center to a new specialty-care teaching hospital to be built nearby by USC and National Medical Enterprises.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Warren Deering denied a court order that would have prevented Supervisor Pete Schabarum from voting on the employee shift. Deering, however, scheduled a Jan. 6 hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction.

The largest county employee union is seeking the order, claiming that Schabarum’s vote would constitute a conflict of interest. In a lawsuit filed Monday, the union contended that since Sch1633837426disqualify himself.