Oregon nursing board says letter being distributed by Yachats Fire Board member is fake

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

A Yachats Fire Board member who the Oregon State Board of Nursing wants to fine $5,000 for illegally claiming she is a nurse is distributing a letter purported to be from the agency saying its findings are unfounded.

The agency says the letter being distributed by A’lyce Ruberg is a fake.

Ruberg, 50, was elected to the five-member board of the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District in May. She was the only person in her three-way race to provide material for the Lincoln County voters pamphlet.

In her pamphlet statement she said she was a registered nurse, had an advanced degree in nursing, and had been an emergency services supervisor for two fire agencies in California. None of that is true – a likely violation of Oregon election law.

It’s also against Oregon law to practice nursing or say you are a nurse when you are not licensed.

The Oregon State Board of Nursing denied Ruberg’s license application in July 2017 after it found she had not told them of her criminal history in California, provided false information while applying for hospital jobs, falsely claimed to have an emergency medical technician certificate from Louisiana, and failed to disclose a medical condition that could have prevented her from safely practicing as a nurse.

In September the nursing board began investigating her statement in the Lincoln County voter’s pamphlet and then in October proposed a $5,000 civil penalty for false claims in it. Ruberg has notified the board she wants a hearing on the proposed fine, according to Barbara Holtry, communications manager for the agency. That hearing will take months to schedule.

In the meantime, at least four voters in the Yachats fire district have asked the Oregon Elections Division to investigate Ruberg’s voters pamphlet statements.

Ruberg sent the fake letter to friends via text and Facebook in late October, according to several people who contacted YachatsNews about it.

The typewritten letter – without any kind of official state letterhead – says that Ruberg has been licensed as a nurse in California and Oregon and that “After investigation the Board finds the allegations of false licensure unfounded.”

In addition to being denied a license in Oregon, Ruberg has never applied for or been issued a nursing license in California, according to the two agencies that oversee licenses there.

The fake letter is signed by Ruberg, a woman named Barbara Whiting for the nursing board, and initialed by a untitled person named Jacy Gamble.

YachatsNews sent Holtry a copy of the letter. In an emailed reply, she said:

• Ruberg is not, and has never been, a licensed nurse in Oregon;
• There is no one named “Barbara Whiting” on the nursing board or on the agency staff;
• OSBN investigations manager Jacy Gamble did not sign her initials to the document as it indicates; and,
• The document is not an official communication of the Board of Nursing.

Holtry said while “false information in always concerning,” the agency does not know who produced the document, who is distributing the document, or who has received the document.

“Anyone who was a first-hand recipient of that document may certainly contact the board,” Holtry said.

Three people sent a copy of the letter to YachatsNews and said they received it from Ruberg.

Ruberg has attended just two of eight Yachats fire board meetings since taking office in July. After the last meeting Oct. 24 she said had been ill and plans to regularly attend future meetings and that she has no intention of resigning from the board.

Other Yachats fire board members have not addressed the election or attendance issues directly or publicly with Ruberg, but have expressed frustration with chronic, long-term absenteeism from meetings.