Natividad former-chief Chad Chadwick’s disappearing e-mail.

In a late afternoon press release on Friday, Aug. 4, Chad Chadwick, Natividad Medical Center’s chief executive officer, announced that he would move out of the hospital’s top post and into an advisory role.

But according to a confidential July 26 e-mail from Chadwick, the CEO was pushed out well before Aug. 4, when he and the hospital’s new board of trustees announced the management reshuffling. In that letter, Chadwick says that Supervisor Jerry Smith essentially fired him.

In the letter, Chadwick details a July 17 meeting with Smith. “Supervisor Smith informed me that…I was being removed from my post as CEO in the very near future.”

Chadwick’s assistant e-mailed the letter to county officials at 11:59pm on July 26. It was later recalled at 1:15pm without any explanation.

Neither Smith nor Chadwick returned calls seeking comment.

Smith cannot fire Chadwick—or any other county department head—without majority approval from the Board of Supervisors. He didn’t have it on July 17, when he reportedly met with Chadwick.

“Jerry Smith doesn’t have any authority to go in and fire anybody,” says a county source. “There are six department heads that the board can hire and fire, but it takes a majority of the board, not just one person. It’s a complete abuse of power.”

In Chadwick’s letter, he writes that immediately following the meeting with Smith, he informed the hospital’s administrative team about “pending transition,” and that “Supervisor Smith and I agreed that I not attend the July 18 Board of Supervisors meeting or the July 21 Board of Trustee meeting.”

Chadwick did not attend either meeting, nor did he attend other Natividad-related events. His absence prompted many to question if Chadwick was on his way out. At the time, Chadwick said he had no plans to leave. And on July 22, Smith told the Herald that he had “spoken at length” to Chadwick about the hospital’s future and that he found nothing “odd” about Chadwick’s missed meetings.