Tri-City Medical Center was in bad shape BEFORE it lost the bond election

Tri-City Hospital's old regime was depending on winning the bond issue last November, but voters didn't consider the hospital's leadership to be reliable, particularly when the board gave a $90,000 bonus to CEO Art Gonzalez, who was already making $483,000 per year.

Also, Dave Coles was set to be on bond oversight committee for Tri-City Hospital. Coles is the former Superintendent of Vista Unified School District (VUSD) who took credit for school bond Prop O, then made a mess of it. Money was unaccounted for, there were cost overruns, and money was spent on trailers that now have mold.


Other problems were:
(1) nearby hospitals are attracting Tri-City's former patients;
(2) the older part of the hospital needs retrofitting;
(3) Tri-City is one of two hospitals in the county with higher-than-average mortality rates.

But the San Diego Union Tribune is still trying to blame the new board for the sins of the old board. Here's a link to Keith Darce's shameless article (is he campaigning to become the new Don Sevrens?), which is well-described by one commenter:

"I live in Coronado. I've never been to Tri-City. I know that L.T. did some T.V. work for them. That's it. Don't know any of the parties.

"Here's my comment: this article isn't journalism.

"I'm a lawyer. I know "advocacy". And this is an advocacy piece. It's no different than an "opening statement" a lawyer makes at the beginning of a trial. You line up facts you like, quote your experts and mix the two in a way that leads your listener to form a certain conclusion or develop a certain opinion.

"I'm certain of one thing: if the board hired someone to write a piece from their perspective, using their facts, and quotes from their experts, and if the UT published it, we would all form a much different impression and opinion about this situation.

"To the UT: THE REASON I DON'T SUBSCRIBE TO SO CALLED "INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM" IS BECAUSE OF STUFF LIKE THIS WHICH IS UNFORTUNATELY ALL TO COMMON."

Here are my other posts about Tri-City Medical Center.

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