Hospital Officials to Give Up Recent Raises

Four top officials at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center in Lancaster have agreed to forgo special pay raises that had been authorized by the hospital’s recently ousted top administrator without the approval of the facility’s governing board. The raises were worth more than $50,000 a year.

The hospital’s Board of Directors voted 3 to 0 Tuesday night to accept an offer by the hospital officials to return to their old salaries, which ranged from $86,840 to $100,921 a year. John Evans, the former hospital administrator who was ousted by the board Sept. 9, had approved the raises Aug. 25.

One official at the hospital, which is publicly run and the largest in the Antelope Valley, had received a 21.8% increase, two received 14% raises, and the fourth received a 1.7% increase. But the new raises caused controversy because all four had received regular 10% increases just several months ago.