Chief of Lancaster Hospital Resigns Under Fire : Antelope Valley: The administrator will receive $150,000 and get to keep a car and a computer under a settlement approved by the facility’s board.

The veteran administrator of the largest hospital in the Antelope Valley resigned under fire Tuesday amid allegations that he was involved in a campaign to recall two members of the hospital’s publicly elected board who serve as his superiors.

John T. Evans stepped down as administrator of the 341-bed Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center in Lancaster, officials said. The hospital’s board of trustees voted 3 to 2 in closed session Monday night to approve a settlement agreement ending Evans’ 12 1/2-year tenure.

Under terms of the settlement, the publicly run hospital will pay Evans $150,000 cash, slightly less than his $165,000 annual salary. In addition, Evans will get to keep his hospital-owned car, a 1990 BMW 535 valued at $28,000, and a hospital computer at his home valued at $1,000.

The decision is the latest chapter in a heated feud between rival factions over the facility’s operations. It came after board members were given a letter from a hospital doctor claiming that Evans told him that he intended to help recall the two board members.

“You don’t stab your bosses in the heart,” said board member Dr. Harvey Birsner, who had given his colleagues the letter written by another doctor whom he would not identify. Birsner joined with the two members who are the target of a recall campaign--Steve Fox and Anne Brouillette--to oust Evans.

Evans, 47, said Tuesday that he had no comment on the letter or his ouster. In the past, Evans has denied involvement in the recall campaign, although many of his subordinates have publicly supported it. Recall leaders Tuesday denied that Evans was involved.

In a closed session Thursday, board members said they confronted Evans with the letter and gave him the choice of resigning or being placed on leave for the remainder of his contract, which runs through the end of the year. Evans later chose to resign.

Brouillette and Fox said the board had to reach the negotiated agreement for Evans’ departure because, under his contract, he could only be fired by a four-fifths vote of the board. And, even then, the contract would still have given Evans his annual salary plus benefits for a year.

Hospital board Chairman Larry Parker and member Dr. Ralph Holmes opposed Evans’ ouster.

Parker called it a political move by his three colleagues to stop the still-pending recall drive.

Fox and Brouillette had been at odds with Evans since their election in November.