OCEANSIDE -- A Tri-City Medical Center board member has asked for a special meeting "as soon as possible" to discuss the legality of a recent closed meeting that resulted in sweeping changes at the public hospital.

In a letter addressed to board Chairwoman RoseMarie Reno, dated Tuesday, Trustee Ron Mitchell asks for a new special meeting to discuss a meeting held Thursday. At that meeting, four board members voted to fire the board's attorneys, hire different attorneys, put seven members of the hospital's executive team on administrative leave and hire a forensic accountant to examine the hospital's finances.

Mitchell's letter asks for a meeting to discuss each of the actions taken and requests more information on malpractice coverage for individual board members.

Mitchell was unavailable Tuesday to further explain his requests. However, he said Monday that he believes the closed-session meeting held Thursday violated several provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act, which requires public agencies to conduct business in public meetings for which the community has been given proper notice.

Reno, who sets the board's agenda, was also unavailable for comment on Mitchell's request for a meeting.

Julie Biggs, the board's new attorney, said Reno was out of town for the holidays, and would return over the weekend. Biggs declined to discuss any of the items that Mitchell brought up in his letter.

"I will need to reply to Mr. Mitchell directly before I talk to the press," Biggs said.

She added that another special board meeting on the matter is likely "in the first week of January" but declined to elaborate.

The sweeping actions taken by a four-member board majority -- which includes Reno and directors Kathleen Sterling, Charlene Anderson and George Coulter -- have come under fire from some hospital employees who wonder what news of sidelined administrators and forensic examinations of the hospital's books will do to Tri-City's reputation.

Board members Mitchell and Larry Schallock have both repeatedly questioned the legality of the Dec. 18 meeting, saying they believe it may have violated certain provisions in the Ralph M. Brown Act.

According to the agenda posted for the meeting, the board met to review the performance of its attorneys and to "confer with legal counsel" to discuss "significant exposure to potential litigation and related legal strategy matters."

Biggs said in an interview Friday that the board decided to hire Williams during its conversation about exposure to litigation. She refused to confirm that the board put any administrators on leave, but the decision did occur in that same closed-session meeting, according to a subsequent announcement made by the hospital.

Terry Francke, general counsel for Californians Aware, a Sacramento-based open-government advocacy group, said Tuesday that, based on the exact wording of the agenda item, he did not believe the board could legally take action to place anyone on leave, or hire an investigator, in the closed session. He said the Brown Act specifically forbids additional action not listed on the agenda at a special session meeting.

"I don't think (the agenda item is) precise enough to justify really any action," Francke said. "It says discussion, and that's what it means."

Mitchell has also noted that Reno and other board members reportedly met with Biggs before Thursday's board meeting. The Brown Act forbids a majority of board members from meeting to discuss any hospital business outside a previously scheduled and publicized meeting.

Francke said it would violate the act if newly elected member Anderson met with incumbents Reno and Sterling after the Nov. 4 election and discussed hiring Biggs and Williams. But, he said, if that discussion occurred before Nov. 4, when Coulter and Anderson were still candidates, there would have been no problem.

"In my experience, it often happens that, when you have a reform slate, they have fully discussed the action they're going to take, even before the election," Francke said.

Anderson said Tuesday she could not remember whether the action was discussed before or after the election.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.