OCEANSIDE -- Eight Tri-City Medical Center administrators who were placed on paid leave by the hospital in December have been fired, Tri-City's interim chief executive confirmed late Tuesday.

The administrators were placed on leave with former chief executive Art Gonzalez, who reached a $1 million settlement with the hospital on April 24, a day after his much of his management team was let go.

Tri-City's interim chief executive Larry Anderson declined to elaborate on the firings, except to confirm they had taken place.

"Because these issues involve personnel matters, and because we want to respect their privacy as we do with all employees, I cannot discuss these matters," Anderson said in an e-mail Tuesday evening.

The hospital notified the administrators separately on April 23 that they were being fired "for cause," though the cause mostly varied by employee, said Ray Artiano, one of two lawyers who represents seven of the ousted officials. None of the workers received severance pay, he added.

Artiano said his clients plan to file a wrongful termination suit against the hospital early next week.

Artiano said his clients received hand-delivered letters of dismissal at their homes at nearly the same moment April 23, one or two days after termination hearings were held at Tri-City.

The notices were delivered one day before Gonzalez signed a settlement agreement with the hospital board that will pay him as much as $1 million over 18 months. Gonzalez was represented by Leslie Devaney, another attorney in Artiano's firm.

Artiano and Devaney declined to say Tuesday why Gonzalez walked away with a settlement but his executive team got pink slips.

"We can't discuss the settlement," Artiano said, citing a confidentiality agreement contained in the 10-page document released by the hospital Monday.

Artiano's clients include Doreen Sanderson, Tri-City's former vice president of human resources; Allen Coleman, former vice president of strategic services; Robert Wardwell, former chief financial officer; Daniel Groszkruger, former director of information systems; Ondrea Labella, former director of patient business services; Suellyn Ellerbe, former chief operating officer and chief nurse executive; and Terry Howell, former vice president of performance improvement.

Their salaries ranged from $194,000 to $325,000 per year.

A ninth administrator who was placed on leave has not been publicly named and is not represented by Artiano and his firm.

Artiano said most of his clients were given varying reasons for termination, but there was "some overlap."

The attorney said he believes all of the reasons given for firing the seven employees are bogus.

"None of the evidence which they cited supported any of their charges," Artiano said.

He declined to provide the reasons given by the district for each worker's firing, but offered an example from one client who he would not identify. He said the employee was told he was being fired for investing in a competing hospital -- even though the hospital was in Tennessee -- and for insubordination for refusing, on the advice of his attorney, to answer a question posed by a hospital investigator.

Artiano said the employee had disclosed the investment in a "form 700" statement of economic interest that some employees of public institutions are required to file.

"What they were doing at this point, frankly, was trying to justify some way that they could terminate people for cause so they didn't have to pay them their severance," Artiano said.

He and Devaney also questioned the timing of termination hearings held for each employee before they were fired.

Both said their clients were often given documents supporting the charges against them only an hour or two before the hearing began.

They also said they have several sources, who are hospital employees, that will testify in court that Anderson, Tri-City's interim chief executive officer, told hospital employees before the investigation was complete that none of the employees was coming back. Anderson denied that accusation in a previous interview with the North County Times.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4082.