Hospital Board Cancels Travel Payment Policy

The governing board of Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center in Lancaster has rescinded a year-old policy of spending public funds to pay for travel by board members’ spouses after the state attorney general’s office ruled the practice illegal.

The public hospital’s five-member board of directors voted unanimously Wednesday night to cancel the policy at the suggestion of board member Steve Fox, who had proposed it in February, 1991. Hospital officials said Thursday that they could not provide the amount spent on spousal travel in the past year.

The attorney general’s office ruled that such expenditures, typically for spouses to accompany board members to hospital conventions, constitute an illegal conflict of interest and gift of public funds. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said it will also review the matter.