News-Times Whidbey
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2015 | Vol. 125, No. 3 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
Army set to train on NAS Whidbey simulator
City is rolling ahead with lift on ban By JESSIE STENSLAND
By JANIS REID
Staff reporter
Members of the public and Oak Harbor City Council agreed Tuesday that a ban on bicycling, skateboarding and skating on downtown sidewalks must end. However, a proposal by Councilman Bob Severns’ to encourage bicyclists, skateboarders and skaters to safely use sidewalks failed to pass. City staff and the council said they will discuss the issue at a workshop later in the year and bring it back to the public. Meanwhile, people can continue to bike and skate on downtown sidewalks because the old ordinance is unenforceable, according to Police Chief Ed Green. A discussion over the issue started last summer when a couple of merchants asked an officer to enforce the prohibition on skateboarding and bicycling on sidewalks downtown on Pioneer Way, he said. The problem was that the SEE SIDEWALKS, A2
Ref call goes viral on net By JIM WALLER Staff reporter
Doing the right thing at the wrong time made an official at a local middle school basketball game a national media sensation and brought him national scorn. During a seventh-grade boys basketball game between Oak SEE CALL, A20
Staff reporter
Photo by Jessie Stensland/Whidbey News-Times
Whidbey General Hospital CEO Tom Tomasino testified during a court hearing Tuesday in an assault case involving an administrator and a patient.
Prosecutor says WGH secret investigation concerning
By JESSIE STENSLAND Co-editor
Two administrators from Whidbey General Hospital gave conflicting testimony during a court hearing Tuesday over how they handled an assault allegation against chief nursing officer Linda Gipson. Under questioning by the judge, hospital CEO Tom Tomasino also could not explain what authority he had to place the administrator on paid administrative leave and then allow her to return to work without ever launching a disciplinary investigation into an allegation she assaulted a restrained patient. Tomasino testified that the only hospital investigation into the alleged incident — which led to an assault charge — was done under a secretive quality assurance program, also referred to as a quality improvement program. ISLAND COUNTY Prosecutor Greg Banks said he was outraged at the secrecy by hospital management and lack of accountability. “Completely separate from this criminal case, the public should be concerned that the hospital adminis-
Now – JaNuary 26
tration has gone to great lengths and expense to hide its inquiry into alleged official misconduct,” Banks said after the hearing. “Any allegation of misconduct by upper management will apparently be investigated behind closed and locked doors. The public will never know how the investigation was done or what the result was. “As a lawyer who advises a public client, and as a public official, I could not square such practices with my fundamental duty of public accountability.” ALTHOUGH DISTRICT Court Judge Bill Hawkins ruled in favor of the hospital’s arguments, he said questions over the administrators’ actions may “raise collective eyebrows and resonate with parts of the community.” The lengthy hearing in district court was the second to address Deputy Prosecutor Jacqueline Lawrence’s subpoena of the hospital’s internal documents related to an assault allegation against Gipson. Hospital administrators hired two Seattle law firms to fight the prosecutor’s subpoena. A hospital spokesman
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Black Hawk pilots from Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma will be at Whidbey during the next year for training in a Navy simulator. “This is a new area we’re getting into,” said Capt. Jesse Paulsboe, public affairs officer for the 16th combat aviation brigade Friday. “It’s very exciting for us.” The purpose of the training, as part of their annual training plan, is to expand the brigade’s ability to land and maneuver in and around water, Paulsboe said. The brigade ended an eight-month deployment in Afghanistan December. While live training at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station with the Black Hawks is a possibility, Paulsboe said the Army has other options, including over water, nighttime training over south Puget Sound. It is unclear “when or if it’s something we need to do at Whidbey Island,” he said. “Our intent is to use some of the Navy’s simulators for water training,” Paulsboe said, but, as of now, no concrete dates are set. The move correlates with the Army’s shift in resources to the Pacific Rim, according to The Olympian newspaper. The change also diverges from the Army’s traditional role of conducting missions over land while Marine helicopter crews take on challenges at sea.
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