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Though two San Benito County Health Care District board members have missed enough meetings to be dismissed from the board, the district will apply its policy to only one of them, according to a district representative.
Former director Dr. Nick Gabriel was ousted on June 25 for missing three of five consecutive meetings. However, Board president Bill Johnson, who did not attend the meeting when Gabriel was booted off the board, will not lose his seat despite having missed at least three consecutive board meetings.
Erika Yanez, Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital marketing and public relations manager, said board members have not raised the missed meetings issue regarding Johnson because of his overall attendance record and “special circumstances” for missing two special meetings.
According to the district’s bylaws, which is almost a carbon copy of the state’s Health and Safety Code 32100.2, the board “may” declare a vacancy if a board member is absent from three consecutive regular meetings or from three of five consecutive meetings of the board. The bylaws do not differentiate between excused or unexcused absences and they do not define what an excuse absence is.
Johnson, who is in his second term representing Zone 3, missed the board’s June 25 regular meeting and the two previous special meetings on June 9, June 22. Johnson also missed a June 25 special meeting that was consolidated with the regular meeting.
“Although President Johnson was absent for three out of five consecutive meetings, two of them were special meetings that were scheduled when it was known that Director Johnson was out of the country and would not be able to attend,” Yanez said.
She went on to say, “However, Dr. Gabriel, by contrast, missed three of five consecutive meetings, two of which were regularly scheduled board meetings. In addition to those absences, Dr. Gabriel had missed the last four board meetings.”
The resolution notes Gabriel missed five of the eight regular and special meetings since January 2026.
Johnson said his absences were different than Gabriel’s because his occurred in a span of a month and included two special meetings. He said Gabriel’s absences were over “a long period of time.”
Since Gabriel joined the board in December 2024, he missed nine meetings. In the same period, Johnson missed four.
Asked to explain the point of the board’s missed meetings bylaw is if it’s not applied uniformly, Johnson said, “I don’t know. That’s not the way they interpreted it. I’m just an elected member. I don’t have a say.”
Gabriel missed four consecutive meetings between May and June, including a regular meeting on May 28 and three special meetings on May 18, June 9 and June 22.
Before that, he missed a regular meeting on February 26.
What differentiates the state and district’s law on declaring a vacancy is that the health code uses “shall,” which according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, is a mandatory action, whereas the district uses “may,” which provides discretion to a governing body.
Yanez did not respond to follow up questions including who called for the board to consider vacating Gabriel’s seat and whether the district knew Gabriel planned to miss the board meetings when he was absent.
She did say no board member has directed that a discussion for Zone 3 be placed on the agenda “given the Director’s past attendance record, and the special circumstances for missing the two special meetings scheduled while he was abroad.”
Asked about applying the district’s bylaws to oust Gabriel and not Johnson, director Devon Pack referred BenitoLink to Gabriel’s June 25 comments where the general surgeon stated he worked for seven hospitals across the state. Pack said it was made clear that Gabriel’s professional responsibilities precluded him from attending meetings.
At the June 25 meeting, Gabriel said that on a seven-day call schedule he works up to 168 hours and that he missed the meeting in February because he was called to treat a patient.
Asked why the board meeting attendance policy does not apply to Johnson, Pack referred BenitoLink to Gabriel’s comments during previous meetings regarding his ability to attend meetings. He declined to provide further statements.
Gabriel, who mostly attended board meetings via Zoom starting in June 2025, has acknowledged he could not attend meetings in person because he worked outside the county. Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital did not renew his contract as a general surgeon in November 2024, about a month before he took the director’s position.
Directors Victoria Angelo and Josie Sanchez did not immediately respond to requests for comments. Gabriel also did not respond.
Gabriel’s relationship with the district has been strained since before he took office.
As the lone candidate for the Zone 5 board seat in the 2024 general election, Gabriel publicly opposed the proposed sale of the hospital to Michigan-based Insight Health, which the health care district administration strongly supported and which voters approved in that election.
Insight walked away from the potential lease-to-buy deal last year.
One day after Gabriel was elected to the health care district board, the district notified him that his contract as a surgeon would not be renewed. Gabriel had been providing services in the county since 2022.
In December 2025, Gabriel sued the district, seeking $100 million in damages stemming from the cancellation of his contract. The lawsuit is ongoing.
In summer 2025, the health care district investigated Gabriel’s eligibility to serve on the board based on his residence in District 5. He was later confirmed to be eligible.
In fall 2025, the board of directors approved a new policy limiting remote (Zoom) board meeting attendance to three meetings per calendar year. The district said the new policy was adopted in response to challenges in satisfying the state law that requires the majority of directors to be physically present at meetings.
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