Oregon: Signatures verification fails against two Coos Bay Hospital Board Members

Petitions against two Coos Bay Hospital Board of Directors Members, Chair Dr. Thomas McAndrew and Secretary Dr. Donna Rabin, have failed. Petitioners needed 2853 valid signatures. They handed in one petition with 3511 signatures, but only 2465 valids. The second had 3426 signatures with 2472 valids. Apparently out of district signatures were the prime problem. 

The recall had some very unusual moments, specifically when petitioners targeted four other members, Mark Sheldon, Barbara Taylor, Troy Cribbins and Carma Erickson-Hurt, but claimed that 2400 signature sheets were stolen from their campaign office. 

The recall is backed by two labor unions, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 and the Oregon Nurses Association. The two unions have reportedly spent $85,000 for the recall effort.

Petitioners claim that the recall is over hiring a senior executive who was a convicted embezzler and a board decision to shut an acute psychiatric unit (the decision was later reversed). The unions are in the middle of contract renewal negotiations.

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Each petition needed to have 2,853 valid signatures to qualify.

Of the two petitions, the first had 3,511 signatures, with only 2,465 being proven valid, according to Murphy.

The other had 3,426 signatures submitted, but only 2,472 were valid.

Murphy says signatures had to match the signer's voter registration signature. Signers also had to be active registered voters in the district when the petition was signed.

She says many signers were not residents of the Bay Area Health District.

Bay Area Hospital's director of marketing and communications, Kimberly Winker, released a statement Friday afternoon saying the hospital can now continue to serve patients without the interruption of a recall that would've caused "significant disruption to the hospital's ability to conduct business and damaged the hospital's reputation as the premier healthcare facility on the South Coast."