PORT ANGELES — Jim Cammack, president of Olympic Medical Center’s board of commissioners, unexpectedly resigned from the board Monday.
The retired owner of Jim’s Pharmacy in Port Angeles, Cammack had been appointed to the board in January 2003 and won election to it outright the following November.
Cammack cited only “personal reasons” for the resignation that surprised hospital administrators.
“There are some personal problems,” Cammack told the Peninsula Daily News from his Lake Sutherland home Monday afternoon.
“I think it’s best for the hospital and best for me.
“It was a personal decision. I’d just as soon leave it at that.”
He said his resignation was not caused by issues at the hospital — the largest of which is OMC’s request that voters raise its levy from 11 cents to 44 cents per $1,000 of real property’s assessed valuation.
He has been a strong advocate of the proposed property tax increase, which will be on the Aug. 19 primary election ballot.
The increase, if approved by voters, would be the first since the original 11-cent levy was set in 1947 to create the public hospital district.
Cammack and other hospital officials have argued that OMC and its affiliated specialty clinics need the tax hike due to several factors, including bad debt and charity write-offs that might total about $7 million this year and operating losses caused by government payments not covering all costs for Medicare patients.
