OCEANSIDE -- The company that provides liability insurance to Tri-City Medical Center's top executives and board of directors said Thursday it will yank its coverage in a week unless the board can show that its executives are qualified to run the hospital.

At least one board member, Ron Mitchell, said he would be forced to step down if the insurance was pulled.

"I'm worried," Mitchell said Thursday evening. "I'm not going to serve unless I have coverage. That would be like me practicing as a (certified public accountant) without malpractice insurance. This is a big deal unless you don't have any assets to lose."

The action is the latest evidence of turmoil at Tri-City that began Dec. 18, when four members of the hospital board sidelined eight top executives, including Chief Executive Officer Art Gonzalez, during a special closed-door meeting.

In a separate development Thursday, an attorney for Gonzalez and the other managers released two voice mail recordings that she said help show the meeting was illegal.

It was at that meeting that the board hired an accountant, Michael Williams, to do a forensic investigation of Tri-City's finances. The board also put him in charge of the hospital.

Williams has no experience running a hospital, a fact that angered physicians and other staffers at Tri-City well before it caught the attention of the board's insurer.

That company, Beta Healthcare Group, sent a letter to Tri-City board members via e-mail at 3:17 p.m. Thursday outlining its concerns about the recent changes at the hospital and how they might effect the company's exposure to risk.

In the letter, Beta's chief executive officer, Tom Wander, asks Williams to provide his resume and those of six hospital employees appointed to temporarily run the hospital.

"Until this issue is resolved to our satisfaction, Beta will not extend the directors and officers liability coverage for the interim CEO beyond Jan. 14," the letter states.

The hospital board already said at a public meeting Monday that it hopes to hire an interim chief executive with more experience. It interviewed four candidates for the job, but made no decision.

Still, Tri-City board member Madeline Rodriguez -- who was not a part of the decision to sideline the hospital's management team -- said Beta's letter doesn't give her too much concern.

Rodriguez reiterated that, with the exception of Williams, the people temporarily running the hospital already had high-level management responsibilities there.

"Once we choose an interim CEO, I think Beta's concerns will probably be much less," she added.

Wander and the hospital's attorney were unavailable Thursday night to explain how the liability insurance policy works or whether coverage would end Jan. 14 for all directors and officers or only for Williams.

Mitchell said he understands that the policy covers board members and top hospital executives in the event that they are sued for actions they take in their official roles at the hospital.

"If somebody sued the board for an action it took, as long as there was no fraud or anything, the policy would pay for legal costs and for any settlement if that's what ends up happening," Mitchell said.

Many observers, including Mitchell, have said repeatedly over the last three weeks that they believe certain aspects of the Dec. 18 meeting violated public meetings law.

As for the voice mails, Gonzalez attorney Leslie Devaney said they help show the meeting was illegal and that the actions the board took were null and void.

Devaney said the voice mails were left by board member Kathleen Sterling in a phone call to Oceanside resident Jerry Salyer. Devaney said she turned the tapes over to the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.

"They're consistent with what we think happened," Devaney said. "That she planned about talking about personnel even though personnel wasn't listed on the agenda for closed session."

Neither Sterling nor Salyer were available Thursday night to discuss the recordings.

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