Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley concluded Friday that the Board of Supervisors broke the law by deciding in secret to close the trauma center at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.
The supervisors forged a plan to close the trauma center, viewed as a last-ditch effort to relieve pressure on the troubled hospital, during two meetings that were closed to the public Sept. 7 and 13. Both sessions were described as consultations with county lawyers to discuss anticipated litigation.
But in a five-page letter, Cooley told the supervisors they violated California's open meeting law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, by "taking action on a matter outside the scope of permissible subject matter during a closed session."
In a sharp rebuke to the supervisors, who maintained that the closed sessions were legal, Cooley wrote: "Violation of the Brown Act impugns the integrity of and erodes public confidence in government. The nature and scope of the Brown Act violations cited herein cannot be minimized."
Prosecutors from Cooley's Public Integrity Division reviewed minutes, tapes and other documentation of the board's closed sessions, all provided voluntarily by the supervisors.
The district attorney found that although a closed-door meeting to receive legal advice was appropriate, the supervisors strayed into a discussion "which should have been aired in an open and public meeting."
Interim County Counsel Raymond G. Fortner, who attended the closed sessions and has previously insisted that the board complied with the law, did not return calls for comment Friday.
Cooley stopped short of demanding that the board rescind its illegal actions, saying there was no evidence "that the board intended to prevent the public from participating in the decision-making process." The decision to close the trauma unit, which all five supervisors announced at a Sept. 13 news conference, stunned South Los Angeles residents, elected officials and medical workers, who had no notice that such a plan was under consideration.
The trauma center treats about 1,800 severely injured patients per year, many of them victims of car crashes, falls, gunshots and stabbings. Some medical experts contend that the closure could lead to the deaths of patients who would have to travel farther for care.
But supervisors and county Health Director Thomas Garthwaite say that closing the trauma unit is the only way to save the rest of the hospital, which is under intense federal scrutiny after a series of patients' deaths.
