CAMARILLO : Health District Officials Resign

The president of Camarillo’s Health Care District board and the district’s administrator have resigned from their positions amid controversy over how much money to spend to fight a proposed merger of hospitals in Camarillo and Oxnard, officials said Friday.

Paul Rockenstein, who has been on the board since 1989, announced Wednesday that he will leave his post Nov. 27. He cited political differences with new board members elected earlier this month, district officials said.

Administrator Sherry Williams, who has been with the district since 1987, said she would leave her job at the end of the month. She said that her decision to leave had nothing to do with the new members, although colleagues have said that the administrator did not want to work for the new board. The board is already in flux after three incumbents lost to a slate of challengers who promised to use district money to fight the proposed merger of Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley Hospital and St. John’s Regional Medical Center of Oxnard.

Jim Jeffers, Jean Daily Underwood and John Rush are scheduled to be sworn in at the district’s Dec. 4 meeting.