Alameda County to Consider Evil Medical Center Trustee

Supporters of access to quality health care for the most vulnerable of Alameda
County's residents need to protest the plan of the County Board of Supervisors to
appoint Sheriff Charles Plummer to the Alameda County Medical Center (ACMC) Board of
Trustees. Why is this a problem?

ACMC trustees have a legal fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of
the Medical Center. Plummer cannot fulfill this responsibility because as elected
sheriff he has advocated against the Medical Center getting adequate funding from
the County's General Fund, which is also the source of Sheriff's Dept. funding. In
other words, he would have a conflict of interest if he served on the ACMC Board,
which he insists competes for public funding that he wants for his own department.
His public solution to budget problems at ACMC is to cut services to the poor.

There is no financial crisis at the Medical Center. There is a crisis of
leadership. ACMC needs an experienced CEO with the vision to move the Medical
Center forward. Plummer's appointment is the "nuclear option" which sabotages the
current effort to hire a new CEO - his many attacks on the Medical Center have
included criticism of their efforts to build a working relationship with labor and
community groups like Vote Health.

Please call your Supervisor to vote against the appointment of Sheriff Plummer to
the ACMC Board of Trustees:

a.. Trustees have a legal fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of
the Medical Center, and Plummer cannot fulfill this charge due to his conflict of
interest as Sheriff.
b.. ACMC faces a leadership crisis, not a financial crisis. Plummer's appointment
will sabotage current efforts to hire a new CEO.
Here are phone numbers, faxes and email address for the four supervisors who support
the appointment of Plummer to the Board of Trustees:

President Keith Carson
dist5@acgov.org
510/272-6695
510/271-5151

Vice President Scott Haggerty
district1@acgov.org
510/272-6691
510/208-3910

Supervisor Gail Steele
dist2@acgov.org
510/272-6692
510/271-5115

Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker
BOSDist3@acgov.org
510/272-6693
510/268-8004

Please note that the appointment has been buried in the consent calendar (item #39)
for Tuesday at 10am, May 17th's meeting of the Board of Supervisors at 1221 Oak St.,
Oakland, Fifth floor.