Tuesday, Councilmember Bernard C. Parks (CD8) successfully gained support for a motion calling on the County Board of Supervisors to investigate the County’s failure to remove problem employees.
Recent Los Angeles Times reports revealed that some L.A. County medical workers and at least 22 Martin Luther King-Harbor Hospital employees with criminal records and other significant disciplinary problems remain employed with L.A. County.
The lapse in discipline reportedly occurred because of a computer glitch that destroyed electronic records used to track King-Harbor employees.
“I believe we’re doing things backwards,” says Councilmember Parks. “Instead of getting rid of the bad employees and keeping the hospital, we got rid of the hospital and kept the bad employees.”
This is just the latest controversy to plague the administration of the hospital, which was forced to close its emergency room, trauma center and all in-patient care over the last couple of years because of several cases of employee neglect .
Parks’ motion also calls on the Board to examine the role of the County Civil Service Commission in the recommended discipline and dismissal of the 22 employees in question. Lastly, it requests that the lost computer data be recreated to locate and identify these employees so transparency can be provided to the public.
Last week, Supervisor Mike Antonovich called for an investigation into why none of the 22 problem employees has been disciplined or fired.
