City Redevelopment Acquires 7 Acres on Pine

By John Lindt

Tulare - The Tulare Redevelopment Agency now holds title to seven acres along Pine Avenue on both sides of the Santa Fe Trail between M and O streets.

The city acquired the land from America Trails (Tulare Valley Railroad) which bought up the old rail right-of-way of the Santa Fe rail line and sold much of it to the city for the Tulare Santa Fe Trail.

The most recent negotiations involve parcels in the downtown area that have been the subject of city planning for the past year.

“We had formerly planned some of this area to have a ponding basin,” says Redevelopment Director Bob Nance. “But now that we are also acquiring several parcels from Union Pacific Railroad along J Street, we can use two parcels up there to accommodate the area's storm water.”

That will leave all seven parcels along Pine to be resold to other parties. Nance says the city's vision is to use the easterly parcel for housing development and the remainder for office/ residential mixed uses.

“The exact use will be determined by the City Council soon,” says Nance, “and the parcels will then be offered for sale.” Nance says the city will sell seven parcels, three north of the Santa Fe Trail and four south of the trail.

Regarding the other deal with Union Pacific, Nance says he expects to close on the purchase of four parcels in the next few weeks. The city's goal is to finalize the remainder of the old rail corridor through town.

One of the largest projects planned is a 10 acre shopping center being proposed by developer Paul Quong at Inyo Avenue and J—a deal said to be nearing a development agreement stage. Quong has retailers he wants to bring to the downtown. He is the developer of the Lowe's shopping center on the other side of town.

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Motor Sports Project Could Mean 3,000 Jobs

Tulare - The 700-acre motor sports complex that Fresno developer Bud Long and his group are proposing for Tulare could at full build out create as many as 3,000 new jobs for the community, according to a rough estimate from Bob Reynolds, who is involved with three of the local entities working with the developer.

The estimate is based on a preliminary design package prepared for Long and his Tulare Motor Sports Complex limited partnership and shared with city officials, the International Agri-Center board and the Tulare Industrial Site Development Foundation board. (See Developer page 10).

In addition to a one-mile NASCAR-qualified super speedway with grand stand seating capacity for 50,000 fans to start, the plan calls for: a quarter-mile drag strip with seating for 39,800; a conference center with seven hotel/motels; a recreational vehicle park; agri-business, business technology and amusement parks; a fire/police substation; and other amenities.

The memorandum of understanding the City Council and the Site Foundation signed in late November gives Long and his partners until July 1, 2008, to put the project together.

“We're going to go real quickly to get to the finish line,” Long said after the council approved the agreement. He declined to make any further statements, referring all questions to city officials.

For the City Council's part, the agreement is a pledge to give priority status to processing annexation, Williamson Act contract cancellation, zone change, conditional use permit, and other requests. The city is not pre-approving the requests, but promising to review them in an expedited manner.

“It would require approximately 12 months of activities on the part of the applicant,” City Manager Darrel Pyle said. “We would propose to bring a consultant on board to handle the project.” He said the developer would pay for that cost as well as attorney fees.

The Industrial Site Foundation, a non-profit development corporation that built Tulare's first Industrial Park in the 1970s, has agreed to help Long acquire the723-acres targeted for the project proposed along the future extension of Commercial Avenue and Turner Drive. Included are more than 300 acres owned by the Agri-Center.

Reynolds sits on the Agri-Center board and is secretary of the Site Foundation. In addition, he is economic development director for the Tulare Chamber of Commerce, which provides that service to the city under an annual contract.

Speaking of the Site Foundation, he said one of its key objectives is to “act as principal, agent, joint venturer, partner or in any other capacity” the board sees fit to help bring industry to Tulare.

Assessing Impact

With many manufacturing jobs moving out of the country, the opportunities to bring those types of industry to Tulare are greatly reduced and a project like the motor sports complex would increase and enhance the job base and economy, Reynolds said.

The preliminary project design package outlines the possibility of offering 218 super speedway and drag strip events a year, which Reynolds said would encourage tourism, provide more sports and entertainment, increase the potential of year-round usage of Agri-Center facilities and increase the likelihood of Tulare becoming a year-round destination.

Because of the technology involved in racing, the project also has the potential of spawning related educational programs, he said.

Lynn Dredge, Agri-Center consultant, said the project would not only give the Agri-Center the long-desired hotel conference complex that it had sought for the area, but would produce other benefits as well.

“It [sale of the land] would make it possible for the Agri-Center to put additional improved facilities on its siteto make a better exhibition site and provide better services to exhibitors.”

Several community leaders said some land owners and Agri-Center board members were concerned initially about doing business with Long, who was involved in a controversy with the city of Fresno over expansion of its convention center and who in an unrelated matter, served time in prison on 2001 tax fraud charges.

But Mayor Richard Ortega said they came to the conclusion all that was outweighed by the fact Long was going to pay all the money up front and the sale would enable the Agri-Center to not only add infrastructure but to pay off its debt.

“The real question was can he help the community do what's good for the community,” Reynolds said.

Long has many large-scale projects to his credit in Fresno, including the Civic Center Square, a six-block area that he redeveloped in the late 1970s. He is also the former owner of the Fresno Falcons.

To get a more precise handle on the potential impact of the Tulare motor project, the memorandum of understanding requires the developer and city to jointly select an independent third party to do an analysis that will calculate the jobs, tax income and other revenues that would result from that project and others its presence might trigger.

This financial analysis is needed to determine potential city assistance with development impact fees, according to the agreement.

Edison's Numbers

Nearly a year ago, Southern California Edison prepared an economic impact analysis for the Tulare County Economic Development Corporation based on what was known then about the project.

The total annual impact included 881 jobs producing a payroll of $24 million and a total outputwhich included 2,073 spin-off jobsof $67 million, according to a letter EDC President Paul Saldana sent Long.

The one-time impact from construction was estimated at $388 million, which included 3,563 construction jobs.

“I don't think they knew the full extent of the project then,” Pyle said. He indicated it is possible the developer and the city will ask Edison to do the required financial analysis and update its figures. “They're pretty darn independent and interested in being accurate,” Pyle said. “They really don't have a horse in the race.”

Environmental Issues

The city is updating its General Plan and the preferred land use map consultants introduced in late November designates the 700 acres in question for entertainment and commercial use.

The city must do an environmental impact report for the entire general plan and city officials have said the developer will have to do a specific one for the motor sports complex that assesses traffic, noise and other factors.

Even before the vote on the agreement, City Council members began receiving calls about the race track project.

Councilman David Macedo said one caller asked: “How dare you try to put those anywhere near houses?” The proposed project is in the area of the Sunrise Estates development. Macedo said he also has heard comments in favor of the project. “I'm kind of curious as to how this is going to pan out.”

The developer will have to show that the race tracks can operate within the city's noise standards and limits, Pyle said. “They have said they can [do that] and they will have to show evidence of that at a specific time.”

The developer has told them design features can easily control noise, sending it straight up in the air rather than outward toward neighboring properties, city officials and others said.

What Next?

Dredge, who has been in contact with the developer on and off for about 1 ½ years, said a “huge amount” of works remains to be done before the complex becomes a reality.

“If the developer in the final analysis cannot get the leases and commitments he needs, this will come to naught,” he said.

The Industrial Site Foundation has secured letters of intent from landowners and the movement now is toward a definitive agreement, which should take 60 to 90 days at best, Reynolds said.

The developer must provide letters from racing organizations, hotels and others indicating their interest in the project.

Long has told him response from the hotel industry has been “substantial and very positive” and that letters of intent should be ready soon, Pyle said.

The city manager and his staff are scheduled to meet with the race track development team on Dec. 11 to gear up for the entitlement work involving the city.

“Things will get very, very specific within the next handful of weeks,” Pyle said.

Commercial Avenue

Development of a Commercial Avenue/Highway 99 interchange and extension of Commercial to the east will be critical to the project because of the vast numbers of people it is expected to consistently bring into town. City officials are looking at various funding options, Pyle said.

ep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, already has secured $1 million to pay for the freeway design work and a recently passed state bond measure for road construction has money earmarked for three Tulare interchange projects, including Commercial. The county recently passed a sales tax increase that will also provide money for roads.

Creation of a Mello-Roos assessment district is another possibility, Pyle said, explaining that would involve a special assessment on properties that benefit from the improvements. “It's very parcel specific and may work with the Commercial Avenue extension.”

Development impact fees would also be factored into any financing plan, he said, noting the racetrack project would pay a “pretty healthy” amount of fees.

Beating Merced

Ortega is particular please Long and his partners chose Tulare and is eager to get the project off the ground because the city of Merced about two hours north on Highway 99 is considering a major race track project that has generated considerable controversy.

He said he told a Merced newspaper reporter: “We lost the UC campus to you guys and we don't intend to lose this.”

He doesn't think the Merced plan calls for NASCAR participation as Tulare's does, Ortega said, adding he isn't surprised NASCAR would choose Tulare because of its more central location in the Central Valley where a huge fan base lives.

“Just look at all the pickups,” he quipped.

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Korenwinder Masters Baja 1000

By Julie Fernandez

Tulare - Anyone who has seen the documentary “Dust to Glory” would have understood if Mike Korenwinder had changed his mind about fulfilling a long-time dream of racing a motorcycle in the grueling Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.

But the 45-year-old Tulare resident not only competed in and completed the November race, he wants to do it again.

Korenwinder and five others—each taking a leg of the race—rode a 2007 KTM 525 motorcycle to a third-place finish among the 52 teams in their category.

“We surprised a lot of people,” he said.

No novice when it comes to off-road racing, he has earned the top spot in American Motorcycle Association desert races in California and Nevada five times since 2003.

But the Baja race is different. Just finishing the course is enough to earn bragging rights. Motorcycle riders in particular must have nerves of steel as they share the road with professional truck, car and other pro bike/quad drivers navigating the treacherous 1000-mile course between Ensenada, Mexico, and La Paz.

Participants ride off the road, on dirt roads and occasionally on a paved road where course markings appear much less frequently than in the District 37 American Motorcycle Association races in which Korenwinder has participated.

“Also the roads are not closed to the general public, which makes it so darn dangerous,” he said.

This year's race began Nov. 17, but Korenwinder and fellow riders Dan Roush, Brian Campbell, Matt Peternel, Timmy Moore and Brent Needham arrived in Mexico five days earlier on a Sunday to pre-run the course.

Although he had seen the “Dust to Glory” documentary 15 times prior to leaving, the rigors of the course made it absolutely mandatory that riders become familiar with it prior to the race, Korenwinder said.

Friends Chris Sa of Tulare, Kenny Greenfield of McFarland and Ike Hull of Visalia pre-ran the miles with him. “They watched out for me,” Korenwinder said. “I was very much at ease knowing I had three of my best friends with me.”

In an Internet blog that the team maintained, Roush noted he did not get to speak with “Korny” on Wednesday night because he was still out on the course.

“He did have lots of miles today, as he had to ride 100 miles on the highway back to base camp after pre-running the course,” Roush wrote. “It makes for a tough, long haul. He's doing his homework and will no doubt be rock solid on race day. In fact, we have all explained to him that the only reason he is on the team is so the rest of us can ride slow and still win our class.”

At that point Korenwinder, who had chosen to ride at night, had picked up an additional 30 miles because Moore was having tough time with his wrists. He would end up riding slightly more than 200 miles in the race.

Three things concerned him as race day approached: finding left turns in the dark; nailing a key right turn that could easily be missed; and navigating a water crossing that was approximately 300-feet long and 3-feet deep—unless you happened to veer the motorcycle to the left or right where waters deepened dramatically.

To make sure he didn't end up in deep water, Korenwinder said he put tape on a tree and a rock so he could see the path in the dark.

“There was nothing about this that was easy,” he said.

“Be safe, Korny”

When he began his leg of the race at 12:30 a.m. Saturday, the team had already completed 650 miles.

“There was no moon; it was black as coal,” he said, dispelling a popular misconception the Baja is scheduled to coincide with a full moon to aid night riders. Two large headlights were on the front of the bike and he wore flashing red lights on his backpack so he would be more visible to larger vehicles.

He also carried with him a special medallion that 15-year-old Amanda Romans earned for having a perfect grade point average while she was at Live Oak School in Tulare.

Amanda, daughter of co-worker Shane Romans at North Kern Motorsports, died in an automobile accident earlier this year and her parents wanted him to take the medallion with him.

“She was my little guardian angel,” Korenwinder said.

“Be safe, Korny,” were the last words he heard from the pit support team before losing radio contact.

“That's when I realized I was alone,” he said. “It was very humbling.”

At first his mind wandered.

“It was almost spiritual,” he said. “I thought about my father, who died when I was in high school. There were moments when I focused on things to be proud of and I knew my dad would be proud of me riding in the biggest off-road race in the world.”

He rode alone for 15 miles before he started catching other riders.

“Then I got into the race mode,” he said. “At that point I just hunkered down, stayed aggressive on the bike and started picking people off.”

His leg of the race required a lot of technical expertise as he maneuvered 54 water crossings and 18 miles of silt beds.

“The Mexican people were so nice,” he said. “They were out rooting us on until 2 o' clock in the morning and they were back at 4 o'clock.”

As the day dawned he was treated to a “brilliant” sun rise and knew he had nearly completed his leg of the race.

Only one rider had passed him and it was the longest stint he had ever spent on a motorcycle, he said. “The only time I stopped was to get fuel and to repair the lights.” He turned the bike over to Needham, who rode the last 190 miles.

The team's average moving speed was 45.18 mph. The maximum speed it achieved was 104 mph.

“Very Apprehensive”

Dena Korenwinder admits she was “very apprehensive” but not surprised when her husband said he wanted to enter the Baja 1000.

“It's something he wanted to do forever,” she said. “Racing is his passion; he loves it. Racing is his psychiatrist. He loves to go fast in the desert; he enjoys it.”

In the 23 years they have been married, her husband has broken a shoulder, two knees, a tibia and a fibula while racing, she said. He also has suffered a hernia and has pins in his ankles.

Yes, she was worried about the Baja and especially the fact he had agreed to ride at night.

“This was my first night experience,” she said. “None of the other races he's done went into the night.”

Despite the fear factor, she is proud of what he and the team accomplished.

“For them to finish—Jesse James didn't even finish and he's got top notch mechanics,” she said in a reference to the star of television's “Monster Garage.”

The Korenwinders live in Tulare with their two daughters, Hayley and Morgan.

Giving Thanks

Korenwinder said he is thankful for the many businesses and people who supported the team, including: North Kern Machinery and North Kern Motorsports, which provided the bike he used in the pre-run sessions; Brento's Cycle Center in Bakersfield, which provided the race bike.

Other supporters included S & S Shirts, TJR Construction, Minyard Auto Parts, Everett Ford, Westside Choppers, Frank and Joe Schott Farms, David Cardoza Farms, Greenfield Trucking, Signs West and Jesus Ochoa Pallets.

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YSB's Leoni Gets Lifetime Award

Tulare - Colleagues have presented Mike Leoni, executive director of the Tulare Youth Service Bureau, with a lifetime achievement award for the nearly 35 years he has worked to improve the health and welfare of Tulare County children.

The Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council surprised Leoni with the award at the annual Cynthia Lockhart-Mummery Conference in Visalia, which was attended by more than 500 people.

Leoni came to Tulare in 1971, after spending a decade studying to become a Roman Catholic priest, and went to work for the Tulare Parks and Recreation Department as a youth coordinator. The following year he became executive director of Operation Helping Hand, a drug abuse drop-in center that was the forerunner of what became the Tulare Youth Service Bureau in 1975.

“Mike just stood out as a great choice,” said Karen Cooper, executive director of Tulare County Family Services and a council officer.

Leoni, the third recipient of the organization's annual award, was nominated by people from both within and outside his agency and his selection elicited an enthusiastic standing ovation from conference attendees, Cooper said.

She praised Leoni, saying he operates with “pure motives,” and does not let ego or a desire for power stop him from taking a broad look at issues and considering the good of the county as a whole.

“He has put the needs of children first, not the needs of his agency,” Cooper said.

Leoni had no idea the award was coming. “I was just there because it was such a good conference,” he said.

His job experiences in the seminaries he attended led to his involvement with youth, he said.

“My first out-of-the-office job was at Fresno County Juvenile Hall,” he said. “Every Friday we'd go down there and play basketball and then they'd lock you into a cell with one of the guys for about an hour to talk.” While attending Mt. Angel Seminary in Mt. Angel, Ore., he worked at Oregon State Prison.

Under Leoni's leadership, YSB evolved from a drug abuse program into a delinquency-prevention program and finally into a children's mental health program.

The private non-profit organization has an outstanding reputation in the county and state, said John Beck, superintendent of the Tulare City School District and a YSB board member for more than two decades.

“We probably have the best youth mental health services of anybody,” Beck said. “He [Leoni] is very responsive to needs. He's very sincere.”

YSB therapists provide counseling at the clinic and at school sites in Tulare and in rural areas extended south to Delano. They also provide crisis intervention services daily between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The organization has 61 employees and about 700 open cases at any given time, Leoni said. In 2005, its programs served almost 1,500 children.

The program has been a pioneer on many fronts offering:
· The first child sexual abuse treatment program in the county, which Leoni began in 1981 with one therapist and four volunteers. Today the program serves most of the county, including Visalia, Dinuba, Woodlake, Lindsay and Porterville.
· The first alternative day school in the county. “We got the kids who weren't making it in continuation school,” Leoni said. YSB continues to operate a school program through the Tulare Joint Union High School District.
· The first telemedicine program in the county, linking children via the latest technology with a psychiatrist at another location. In addition to a site in Tulare, YSB has a telemedicine site at Pixley School.

YSB has served the Tulare community in other ways, as well, applying, for example, for the California Youth Authority grant that led to construction of the Tulare Youth Center, which it owns and the city manages. The popular Tulare Express Track Club is also under its umbrella.

Besides his work with YSB, Leoni has served on many boards and committees through the years, oftentimes as chairman. He is currently a member of: the Tulare County Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission; the Children's Network and the California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies.

In the past, he served on the Tulare County Drug Abuse Advisory Board and the Human Services Advisory Board. He also was on the board of directors for: Pro-Youth Tulare, Teen City, Tulare County Rape Crisis, Tulare Chamber of Commerce and Community Services and Employment Training Inc.

In 1984 the Tulare County Bar Association presented him with its Liberty Bell Award, the highest honor the association gives to a person outside the legal community.

A native of Selma, Leoni has a bachelor's degree in philosophy from St. John's Seminary College in Camarillo, a master's in theology from Mt. Angel College, and a master's in counseling from the University of San Francisco.

He lives in Visalia with his wife, Olivia.

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Fired Hospital CFO Exploring Options

Tulare - The attorney for Lucy Reimche, who lost her job as Tulare District Hospital's chief financial officer after a public hearing, said his client has not decided if she will challenge the decision.

“There are all sorts of options,” Visalia attorney Leonard Herr said. “We can ask the new board to reconsider what the old board did. I guess we could try to seek some review from the court. We could sue in court for wrongful termination.”

The board in a 3-0 vote fired Reimche “with regret” on Nov. 30, apparently concluding her relationships with other employees were impaired beyond repair. They agreed to pay her salary for the six-month sabbatical leave she took that was to end in January.

Two board members did not vote on the firing issue.

Dr. Parmod Kumar, who gave an impassioned public plea for the board to retain Reimche, said he left before the vote because he felt his colleagues had made up their mind before the hearing.

“I couldn't be a party to what I felt was a crime,” Kumar said.

Victor Gonzalez, whose term along with Chairman LeRoy Trippel ended the next day, said he abstained for two reasons. “I was in a sense termed out the following day,” Gonzalez said. “I felt uncomfortable voting on an issue the new board is going to have to deal with.”

Herr also had accused Gonzalez of writing an e-mail that indicated his mind already was made up about the matter.

“That was not true, but to remove that as an issue, I felt it was in the best interest of the district to abstain from voting,” Gonzalez said. “He [Herr] never provided the e-mail to the hospital, to the attorneys or to me.”

Herr said he believed Gonzalez had inadvertently sent the e-mail to Reimche. He also said Trippel was telling people in the community as early as in July or August that she would not return to her job.

Herr and others also said the two outgoing board members should not have heard the matter because their terms expired on Nov. 23, according to the district's by-laws.

At the board's regular meeting the previous day, Suzanne McGuire, the district's attorney, said that while by-laws say the terms end the last Friday in November, state healthcare district law says they end at noon on the first Friday in December.

Both meetings drew overflow crowds of employees and members of the public, including Councilman Craig Vejvoda who urged the board to defer major decisions to the new board..

“I'm asking you to do the moral thing, the right thing,” Vejvoda said. “The community has spoken. The community wants the new board to make the decision.” Vejvoda managed the campaign of Dr. Prem Kamboj, who along with Dr. Lonnie Smith handily ousted the two incumbents.

Vejvoda reminded continuing board members their terms would be up in two years and they will have to answer to voters then.

“You can have my seat, Craig,” director Deanne Martin-Soares said. Roger McPhetridge, whose term will also end in two years, echoed Martin-Soares' sentiments.

Responding to the bickering in the room, Bill Postlewaite, co-chairman of the successful $85 million bond campaign to expand the hospital, suggested the board put off non-critical decisions so the district could move forward and not continue to get bogged down in headline-making disputes.

“We're not doing one thing that's in the best interest of patients, in the best interest of the community,” Postlewaite said.

The board subsequently decided to delay an item related to the hospital's expansion after discussing the matter with Smith and Kamboj.

No Delay

On the following day, the board did not asked newly-elected directors if they wanted Reimche's performance evaluation delayed and proceeded as scheduled over the protests of Kumar and several audience members.

Susan Monasterio, a human resources consultant, and Reimche each were given 30 minutes to present their case and 15 additional minutes to respond. The public also was given comment time.

Monasterio reported she had interviewed a cross-section of employees before concluding that Reimche's relationships with others were significantly impaired.

While a majority of the 27 people she interviewed praised Reimche's technical abilities, they also described a chief financial officer who was aggressive, controlling, judgmental, demeaning, disrespectful, bullying and prone to blame others for problems rather than look for solutions.

Herr and Reimche maintained the move to dismiss her was in retaliation for her raising concerns about what she considered financial improprieties. They urged the board to watch Reimche's videotaped statement before making their decision.

The video could not be shown to the board, however, because Herr and Olga Balderama, one of the district's attorneys, could not agree on release terms.

Instead, Monasterio prepared a summary of Reimche's interview, which took place over three days, for the board's review.

Reimche and Herr said Reimche's personnel file contained no record of any “counseling notice or counseling event” regarding her relationships with other employees. They also said she had received a raise earlier in the year and cited the memorandum Chief Executive Officer Bob Montion wrote about Reimche when he was reporting her sabbatical leave to the board.

“What happened to turn the tide on Lucy in a short period of time?” Herr asked. “I just don't understand why we want to go out to the highest oak tree tonight and hang Lucy Reimche.”

Martin-Soares said the $10,000 pay increase Reimche received was given to all management chiefs because they hadn't had a pay raise in awhile.

Kumar spoke during the public comment portion of the hearing, recounting conversations he had with Trippel and Montion about Reimche and insisting there was not a good reason to fire the CFO.

“They did not have a case; they wanted to build one,” he said.

Later he added: “I don't need this, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let this district crucify this woman. I agree she's a little hard headed, but that's all she is.” He wiped away tears as he continued to speak.

Martin-Soares apologized to the employees, including Reimche, about “how all this has played out.” The situation is difficult, she said later, because the board is unable to respond “to the spin that's out there.”

Trippel said the investigation did not come out of the blue.

Montion was trying to do a performance evaluation of Reimche when she began to question his motives, prompting him to ask what he should do about the situation, Trippel said. He told him to do whatever he needed to and signed a letter approving an independent investigation.

After spending 10 hours reading the comments of 27 employees interviewed by the personnel investigator, Trippel said he realized there was two sides of Reimche. One was the “brilliant” CFO. “One of the best you'll ever see.” The other side was a woman who “has a very big problem dealing with people,” he said.

McPhetridge said it's Montion's responsibility alone to hire and fire everyone below him and the board became aware of Reimche's situation only when the CEO felt his integrity was called into question.

Martin-Soares said she and Gonzalez wee aware of the matter in June, earlier than the rest of the board, because they served on the Human Resources subcommittee.

“I was very surprised—shocked,” Gonzalez said in reference to what he learned then. “Every employee should work in an environment conducive to them carrying out their task.”

CEO's Comments

Montion, who is on a medical leave and did not attend the hearing, addressed some of the issues during a phone interview with the Tulare Voice.

Reimche's allegation her personnel files contained no counseling notices was true because the hospital has two employee files—one a basic personnel file and the other a disciplinary file, he said.

“Lucy was very, very aware of everything that was going on,” he said. “There is a lot of written documentation that I turned over to investigators and it was largely in the form of e-mail messages. In large part Lucy had been coached and counseled by me the better part of nine years…regarding her relationships with subordinates.”

He praises management team members publicly and coaches privately, Montion said, adding he never had an employee who required as much coaching as Reimche, He did not begrudge her the time he spent because she was “an incredibly talented person and I like her.”

When he wrote the glowing memorandum to the board earlier in the summer about her sabbatical, he focused only on what Lucy did well.

“This was a last-ditch effort to salvage a relationship with this employee,” he said. She had told him and the other management chiefs she would use the time to work on how she relates to people.

Though on sabbatical, Reimche was finishing up the annual audit process and, though she was not on the hospital campus, Montion said he "saw a worsening of the behaviors I was concerned about.”

He determined that when e-mails she had sent to other hospital employees during that time were forwarded to him, he said.

“At the end of August or first part of September, I told the board I was going to meet with her and share my concerns that I was still seeing behavior that needed to change,” he said. “The conversation was going to be one more plea to focus the remaining four months on what needed to be done.”

Montion said word of his plan was leaked to Reimche by a board member and triggered her allegations of bias and retaliation. “What was leaked to her was misinformation,” he said.

Montion reported one board member accused him of bias outside of a meeting and asked: “What's going on? What do you have? Why are you going after her?”

It was then that his personal integrity required him to withdraw from any further evaluation of Reimche and an investigator was called in.

“I am broken hearted—truly broken hearted—that those allegations [by Reimche and the board member] were made, because it kept me from finding a win/win scenario for everybody. I have a very good record of that.”

When Trippel announced board members had decided to terminate her but pay her for her sabbatical time, Reimche stood up and thanked them for the opportunity to serve the district for so many years.

During the hearing, Monasterio said the investigation also involved Reimche's allegations of financial improprieties. Those charges will be addressed at another time, she said. She added later that none of the witnesses interviewed stated she had raised those types of allegations previously.

As a certified public accountant and CFO, she should be aware of the requirement to report improprieties to the CEO, the board or the compliance officer, Monasterio said.

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