PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center board member Gary Smith has resigned, effective next Sunday.
Smith has been working in the Marshall Islands during an excused absence from the board for nearly three months.
The job for the information technology expert has been extended, and he won’t be able to return by the time his excused absence ends on June 4, Smith wrote in an e-mail to the other board members.
Smith was re-elected in November 2005 to a District 3 (west of central Port Angeles) seat after being appointed to the seven-member board to fill a vacancy in 2004. His term is up in 2011.
“It has truly been an honor and privilege to serve the hospital and my community, but my circumstances prevent me from returning in as timely a way as I had first hoped when I asked to be excused from the meeting requirement,” Smith wrote.
Smith has participated in the board meetings via speakerphone during his absence.
‘Sorry to see him go’
“He’s been an invaluable member of the board,” said board President Jim Leskinovitch. “And we’re really sorry to see him go. He’s really a large loss to us.”
Commissioner Jim Cammack said Smith told the other board members that he is working for the military but couldn’t provide more information because of the sensitive nature of the job.
Leskinovitch said the board probably will not appoint a replacement, leaving the opening to the election process if more than one person files to fill the remaining two years for the position.
The candidate filing period is from June 1 to June 5. The primary election is Aug. 18. If only one person files for election, then the commission likely will appoint that person, he said.
The commission appointed John Nutter on May 6 to replace Cindy Witham, who resigned on March 4.
Smith’s resignation puts the number of commission position up for grabs later this year to five.
Commissioners Arlene Engel of Sequim, District 1; Nutter of Port Angeles, District 2; Cammack of Port Angeles, District 3; and Leskinovitch of Port Angeles, at large, will also be running for re-election, said OMC spokeswoman Rhonda Curry.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsula dailynews.com.
