ELECTIONS / ANTELOPE VALLEY : 2 on Hospital Board Face Recall Vote Tuesday

Climaxing a costly campaign and a year of turmoil, Antelope Valley voters will decide Tuesday whether to recall two publicly elected members of the board that governs Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center in Lancaster, the largest hospital in the region.

Incumbents Steve Fox and Anne Brouillette, elected to four-year terms in November, 1990, maintain that they have fought wasteful practices, such as $5,000 spent on a goodby party for two departing hospital board members.

They supported the current board’s ouster of longtime hospital Administrator John Evans last fall, which has become a key issue in the campaign.

But the two have been hit by a groundswell of opposition from hospital employees and Evans’ allies. Their opponents have accused them of ruining the 341-bed hospital and criticized them for supporting a later-repealed policy that permitted the hospital to pay travel expenses of spouses who traveled with board members to medical conferences.

Opponents spent nearly $80,000 gathering signatures to force the incumbents into the hospital’s first-ever recall election. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is reviewing potential wrongdoing by both those gathering signatures on recall petitions and by hospital board members who used the spousal travel policy.

Voters first must choose whether to recall either of the two incumbents on the five-member Antelope Valley Hospital District board. If so, voters then must pick their successors: Fox is opposed by Loretta Hansen, John Manning and Thomas Lacey. Brouillette’s only opponent is Mike Wilson.

* Steve Fox, 39, a Palmdale resident who acknowledged supporting the spousal travel policy and voting recently to repeal it, teaches math and history at a San Fernando Valley middle school. Fox said he has fought for the interests of consumers on a hospital board dominated by two doctors and a nurse.

Fox, who had raised nearly $9,000 in campaign funds through March, said he opposes a proposal made last month in a hospital-commissioned study to convert the institution to a privately run facility. He said he also favors building a new outpatient unit, and he has sought to improve the hospital’s management by supporting a recent consultant’s review.

* Loretta Hansen, 67, of Lancaster is a 34-year hospital employee who began as a staff nurse and was promoted to one of several assistant administrator jobs that she held from 1978 until her recent retirement. Hansen argues that Fox and Brouillette have harmed the hospital by interfering in day-to-day management.

Hansen, who has raised more than $23,000 in a joint campaign fund effort with Mike Wilson, said her years of experience at the facility give her an advantage over the other candidates. Hansen said hospital employees are unhappy with the board, and she accused Fox of wanting the job as a political steppingstone.

* John Manning, 53, of Palmdale is a physician who has practiced for 19 years in the Antelope Valley. He says he could help restore peace at the troubled hospital where he has worked. Manning blames Fox for causing the turmoil, but complains that Hansen as a recall proponent is not a peacemaker.

Manning, a former Lancaster city parks commissioner, had raised nearly $4,000 through March; $2,500 of it is his own money. Manning said the hospital needs to work harder and increase its market share against competitors and that the board should pay greater attention to its employees’ concerns.

* Thomas Lacey, 63, of Lancaster is a retired Rockwell International inspector who worked as a maintenance supervisor at a Hemet area hospital in the past. Lacey has conducted no campaign fund raising and placed no candidate statement in voters’ sample ballots.

Nonetheless, Lacey, an unsuccessful Lancaster City Council candidate in 1988 and 1990, said he has the time to serve and wants the hospital to be more open with the public. Lacey said he does not have any particular complaint against Fox or even know the incumbent, and was not part of the recall.

* Anne Brouillette, 43, of Lancaster, who says she never made use of the controversial spousal travel policy, is a nurse for a group of cardiologists. Brouillette said she has worked to correct poor practices by past hospital managers and blames the recall effort for the facility’s turmoil.

Brouillette, a former nurse at rival Lancaster Community Hospital who raised nearly $23,000 through March, said she has helped improve staffing in the obstetrics department and that she believes the board members should serve a watchdog role to ensure hospital funds are spent properly.

* Mike Wilson, 57, of Lancaster is a retired wholesale milk distributor who is an officer in the private support group associated with the hospital. Wilson said he was sought out by recall proponents as a candidate and promises to work to make the hospital more accessible to senior citizens.

Wilson said hospital board members should be stripped of the hospital credit cards, which they can use to pay for travel and other expenses. Wilson, who has run a joint campaign with Hansen, claims Brouillette, because of her current and past jobs, is beholden to doctors at the rival Lancaster hospital, a charge Brouillette denies.