Hospital Used Public Funds to Buy Gifts : Lancaster: The administrator was reprimanded after money was spent on outgoing board members.

The administrator of a Lancaster hospital spent more than $5,000 in public funds on gifts and a party for two departing hospital board members, drawing a reprimand and raising questions over whether the expenditure was legal.

Two members of the board of Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, and the hospital’s attorney, questioned whether the gifts complied with state laws on the use of public money.

The hospital bought a $2,800 travel certificate for Clarence Kelly and an aviation radio and gift certificate worth $1,200 for Michael Schafer after they were defeated in the Nov. 6 election for the hospital’s board. The hospital also paid a $1,066 hotel bill for a farewell party Jan. 19.

The hospital’s publicly elected board of directors later that month reprimanded Jack Evans, the $165,000-a-year administrator of the 301-bed hospital, for spending the money and for failing to invite all board members to the party, two board members said.

Evans said Thursday he saw nothing wrong with the expenditures, defending them as serving “a public purpose in helping with the image of the hospital for the people who have served it.”

The hospital’s legal counsel, Lancaster attorney Frank G. Michelizzi, said he has not been asked by hospital officials to give a formal legal opinion on the issue, but he knew of no provision in state law for such departure gifts. A hospital spokeswoman and other hospital officials said the expenditures were not approved by the hospital’s board of directors.

Under state law, it is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison for officials to spend public funds “without authority of law.” But courts also have given public agencies wide latitude to determine what spending is necessary to carry out their official duties.

The hospital, largest in the Antelope Valley, is owned and operated by a public hospital district, one of about 60 in the state. Board members are elected much like city council members.

Evans said it has been common during his 12 years as administrator for the hospital to pay for gifts and parties for departing board members. Asked how past gifts compared to those given Schafer and Kelly, Evans said he could not recall what was given earlier or how much other gifts cost.

The hospital administrator also said he had advised some of the hospital’s five board members of his plans to spend the money, but he declined Thursday to say how many or which board members. Evans said he had not sought legal advice before spending the money.

Kelly, a 28-year board member, and Schafer, who served 12 years, received the gifts during a dinner party at the Desert Inn Motor Hotel in Lancaster. Evans said the value of the gifts was based on spending $100 for each year they had served on the board.

Neither Kelly, a retired farmer, nor Schafer, owner of a Palmdale moving van company, said they were troubled by accepting the gifts. Hospital officials have not sought their return.

The issue surfaced because nurse Anne Brouillette, who won a hospital board seat in the election in which Kelly and Schafer were defeated, criticized Evans because she had not been invited to the party. Neither was teacher Steve Fox, who won the other seat. Both took office in mid-December.

Brouillette said the hospital board decided in closed session in late January to reprimand Evans both for spending the money and for what she called a breach of etiquette over the party invitations.

Another board member, who asked not to be identified, confirmed her account.

Michelizzi said Evans has filed a grievance contesting the reprimand.