With the Watsonville hospital sale complete, the work of public representation begins.

Marcus Pimentel of Royal Oaks says he owes his life to Watsonville Community Hospital. He was born premature and dangerously underweight, spending the first few months of his life in the neonatal unit until he could reach 3 pounds. At age 7, he contracted meningitis on a camping trip and nearly died. The staff of the hospital saved his life a second time.

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for this hospital,” he says. “I knew early on that I owed a lot to this community.”

Pimentel is now returning the favor, devoting most of the last year to saving the hospital’s life after its former owner, for-profit Halsen Healthcare, filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 6, 2021, and announced it would close Watsonville Community Hospital. It would have left 100,000 people – including over 6,500 North Monterey County residents – having to travel 30 minutes or more to hospitals in Santa Cruz or Salinas. The hospital sees over 30,000 people a year in its emergency room and delivers over 800 babies, according to CEO Steven Salyer.

A herculean effort by community members and local officials like Pimentel, who works for the county of Santa Cruz as its budget manager, as well as state elected officials led by Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, facilitated the creation of the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District in February. Pimentel and four others were appointed by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to the new district board. They received court approval to purchase the hospital by the end of August and in just seven months they raised over $60 million, with money coming from the state, the boards of supervisors of both Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, and health organizations like the Central California Alliance for Health and Kaiser.

At 12:01am Thursday, Sept. 2, the hospital officially changed hands to public district ownership. The change was imperceptible the next morning: Patients came and went, including those in wheelchairs being discharged and a mother leaving while cradling her newborn. The smooth handover came after the board hired the existing CEO, Salyer, and kept all 650 employees.

The biggest change is that the hospital is out of the hands of a private corporation and is now controlled by the community, represented by the five-member board of directors.

Voters have their first opportunity on Nov. 8 to decide who will represent them on two of the five seats. Pimentel is an incumbent and a first-time candidate, along with fellow incumbent Jasmine Najera. Both are hoping to retain their seats. Najera is a licensed clinical social worker currently serving as interim CEO of Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance, which provides health education, mental health and substance abuse services and counseling.

The two have a challenger in retired physician Joe Gallagher, who worked at Watsonville Community from 1986 to 2020, according to his candidate statement. “We’re all three great candidates,” Pimentel says.

Since he and Najera have invested their time since February getting ready to take the reins of the hospital, “it would be a shame to lose what we’ve already done within two months of the start of running the hospital,” he says.