Healthcare district accepting applications for two board vacancies
Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District expects to fill two vacancies on its Board of Directors next month.
Directors William Steele and Duane Moats are both leaving the board effective at the end of this month due to relocation. At the board’s April 16 meeting, they were honored with resolutions of appreciation.
Chief Executive Officer Peggy Mendiburu said the deadline to submit a letter of interest and resume for the positions is May 18. She noted that the board plans to interview candidates during an open session at its May 21 meeting but may postpone a final decision to the board’s regular meeting on June 18.
Successful applicants will serve in the position until after the November election.
Steele’s seat is up for election in November. Moats’ seat will not be up for regular election until 2026. His resignation means a twoyear term will be on the November ballot in addition to two four-year terms (seats currently held by Steele and Director Carl Gehricke).
To be appointed, individuals must be registered voters residing in the district, which encompasses the greater Tehachapi area. A letter of interest and resume — or questions — should be sent by email to pmendiburu@tvhd.org.
HOSPITAL UPDATE
Jenny Lavers, Adventist Health’s chief executive officer for Kern County, attended the meeting remotely and provided updates about Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley. The healthcare organization leases the hospital from the district.
“We are extremely excited to announce that we were awarded a $2 million grant for a graduate medical education program that would impact Tehachapi Valley,” she said.
The grant will allow Adventist to bring new internal medicine and family medicine providers “up the mountain, where they will do rotations in the clinic and in the hospital… The idea is to bring these younger physicians in and get them immersed in the community,” she added, “so that they continue to stay with us and provide services after their medical education.”
In November 2022, district voters approved a sixyear extension of Adventist Health’s lease of the local hospital in exchange for the organization building what was originally planned as an $8 million outpatient pavilion adjacent to the hospital.
Lavers told directors that Adventist is revamping the floor plan necessary to serve the community to encompass graduate medical education. Board President Mike Nixon asked the district’s legal counsel, Scott Nave, to clarify the timeframe that Adventist has for the new building project.
Nave said the “drop dead date” is this November, and Lavers said Adventist is working to have a clear action plan by summer.
OTHER BUSINESS
The board approved a payment of about $35,000 to a legal team that converted some bonds used to help build the hospital from taxable bonds to tax-exempt bonds.
The conversion resulted in a savings to the district by reducing the interest rate on the bonds from 3.25% to 2.5%, but delays — which the district attributed to Adventist Health not providing information in a timely manner — increased the legal expense by about $70,000.
The board approved the minutes of its March 19 regular meeting during “one
trade secret item regarding a new service,” which was discussed in the closed session, but did not make a report about any new service.
The district recently moved its office to 116 W. E St. in downtown Tehachapi.