Article - March 25, 2008 - Fresno Bee

Audit finds oversight of chiropractors is lax

By John Hill

A sweeping audit released Tuesday found the state board that licenses 15,000 chiropractors broke open-meeting and conflict-of-interest laws and failed to aggressively pursue wayward practitioners.

The state Board of Chiropractic Examiners' delays in disciplinary cases could have allowed chiropractors accused of fraud or sexual abuse to continue to endanger the public, State Auditor Elaine Howle said in the 115-page report. Violations of open-meetings laws, meanwhile, kept the public from participating in decision-making.

"This board has functioned very poorly, and it's inexcusable," Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, said in response to the audit.

Ridley-Thomas has held hearings and written legislation addressing the board's shortcomings.

The board said it started to make many of the reforms suggested in the audit before the auditors even arrived.

The audit "reflects what was, but not what it is in the current day," Executive Director Brian Stiger said.

That view was echoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, who appointed all seven members of the board, including two friends from bodybuilding days.

The board found itself in the spotlight a year ago after it took several legally questionable actions, including firing its executive director without due notice and failing to adhere to the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act.

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