The board that oversees Whidbey’s public hospital district recently changed its leadership.

WhidbeyHealth’s elected officials voted to remove James Golder from his position as the board president during a Nov. 20 meeting. Three of the members of the board voted in support of the motion while two abstained. Then in a unanimous decision, the board elected Marion Jouas as the new president, effective immediately.

CEO Nathan Staggs provided a statement following the vote.

“We appreciate the leadership that James Golder provided during his time as president of the board,” according to the statement. “The board’s decision to elect Marion Jouas reflects their commitment to ensuring strong governance and guidance for WhidbeyHealth. I look forward to working closely with Ms. Jouas in her new role as we continue to strengthen health care access and services for our community.”

In an interview, Golder said his leaving the position of president was a mutual decision and that he has complete confidence in Jouas. He said he has no plans for leaving the board.

The board members made the change at the end of the meeting but did not publicly discuss their reasons, although a board member said it was “unfortunate and not without considerable regret.”

At the beginning of the meeting, Staggs asked for a closed-door executive session with the board. He said he had new information he had learned in the last 24 hours. Later, he said the reasons for going into executive session were “personnel and legal.”

The Open Public Meetings Act allows executive session only for specific reasons. According to the Municipal Research and Service Center, the presiding officer is supposed to announce the executive session and cite a specific subsection of the law, which did not happen. The board isn’t allowed to speak about any generic “personnel” or “legal” issue behind closed doors, but the law allows conversations about specific personnel and legal issues. The board can review the performance of an employee, for example, or discuss litigation or potential litigation.

Morgan Damerow, assistant attorney general for Open Government, explained in an email that a board of elected officials is able to go into executive session “to receive and evaluate complaints or charges brought against an elected official,” but whether the hospital board can talk about removing the presiding officer is “fact specific” to the discussion and subsequent action.

Board member Greg Richardson, who’s moving to Portugal this week, explained in an interview that Staggs and other members of the administration expressed concerns about a board member’s “overreach” into administrative matters. Under the structure of the hospital leadership, the CEO is the board’s only employee and board members are not supposed to give instructions to employees, especially not outside of board meetings.

In addition, Richardson said it was important to have the matter of setting a new board president settled before the upcoming changes in the board. Two doctors, Mark Borden and Kirk Gasper, were elected to the board in November.

At a meeting earlier in the month, the board members discussed amendments to their bylaws. Ironically, Richardson expressed concerns about proposed rules regarding the removal of the board president and expressed doubt about whether the board could legally speak about such an issue in executive session.

A few years ago, the Oak Harbor City Council took a similar action in removing the mayor pro term, which is comparable to the president of the board. The council discussed the issue in public at length.

Richardson also expressed his complete confidence in Jouas and was optimistic about the future of the hospital.