Rallying Hazel Hawkins nurses say focus should be on services  

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Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital nurses hosted a rally nearly a week after the hospital’s Board of Directors announced its plan to appeal the dismissal of its bankruptcy filing.

The April 3 rally’s goal was to demand that management abandon the bankruptcy appeal and focus on patient care, Sonia Duran, a California Nurses Association (CNA) member and registered nurse at Hazel Hawkins told BenitoLink.

Judge Stephen L. Johnson dismissed the bankruptcy filing March 21, siding with the CNA after finding that the financial reports submitted by the San Benito County Health Care District and consultant B. Riley were “unreliable.”

Duran said one of the many ways the hospital could save money is to not appeal the judge’s ruling.

Registered Nurse Sonia Duran said Hazel Hawkins Hospital has shown “a terrible disrespect” to its nurses. Photo by Leslie David.

“They’ve lost millions and millions of dollars with the consultants and the lawyers that they’re paying, that totally messed up the bankruptcy to begin with,” Duran said.

BenitoLink submitted a request under the California Public Records Act for the invoices from B. Riley to the health care district but has not received them. 

BenitoLink did receive a 2023 copy of a contract between the district and B. Riley, which stated that B. Riley charges $275 to $650 an hour for its services.

“And now they want to pay millions of dollars to appeal with the same information that the judge already dismissed,” Duran said. 

Health care district spokesperson Marcus Young could not say how much the district paid its legal counsel or consultants but said B. Riley wasn’t solely brought on for the bankruptcy filing. 

A group supporting the nurses union crosses the road in front of Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital during the April 3 rally. Photo by Monserrat Solis.

“They were initially brought in to stabilize the hospital’s finances—they did that—and to find us either a buyer or strategic partner—and they’ve done that—and finally to support the bankruptcy filing,” Young said.

Young said some of the data in the CNA news release for the rally was inaccurate.

The release mentioned the district hiring Mary Casillas as chief executive officer and granting her a $100,000 raise, bringing her salary to $450,000, “even as she cuts services to patients and pushes nurses out of our hospital with scare tactics.” 

“The accusations that Mary is intimidating employees and that’s causing them to quit, is a false narrative,” Young said. “[The public] is entitled to complain about how much Mary is making, but Mary is the lowest paid CEO in California. Mary has had a lot of experience; she was acting COO for a year and it’s not uncommon for that person to move to a CEO position.”

In 2022, Casillas was named chief operations officer/vice president of ambulatory service by then-CEO Steve Hannah.

The CNA news release mentioned the California distressed hospital loan, which promised $10 million to Hazel Hawkins. But Young said the hospital has not received those funds. 

“The bankruptcy court’s decision is complicating that,” Young said. “When we do finally access those funds, it’s going to be a line of credit. We’d have to submit a request for funds, we won’t get the entire funds.”

Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital registered nurse and California Nurses Association member, Kelley Staley speaks to unionized nurses during a CNA rally on April 3. Photo by Monserrat Solis.

Young said the paperwork for the state loan was submitted, but after the bankruptcy ruling, the district was required to start over. 

A wave of CNA-red scrubs and t-shirts worn by nurses and residents greeted cars driving by the hospital with signs reading “Save our Community Hospital.” Several nurses spoke to the rally: Kelley Staley, a registered obstetrics nurse; Duran; Jennifer Jean Pierre, chief nurse representative at Natividad Hospital in Monterey County; and Eddie Perez, a member of the National Union of HealthCare Workers.

“It has been almost a year since the Hazel Hawkins board of directors declared bankruptcy and we are out here again today because this past Friday Hazel Hawkins publicly announced their decision to appeal,” Staley told the group.

She said Hazel Hawkins should not be in bankruptcy.

“Like many other decisions, there has continued to be a lack of transparency and accountability,” Staley said. “A key point of our case and what our case highlighted: the financial records don’t lie.”

Among the nurses in red were two people who were not medical personnel at the hospital.

Jiovanni and Carmen Silva, the cousin and mom of a hospital employee who works in the emergency room, held up signs in support of the nurses.

“We need them [the nurses],” Jiovanni said. “They’re very important to us. Without them, we wouldn’t live. We should be here for them.”

As Jiovanni and Carmen stood on the corner of the hospital’s entrance with signs in the air, people honked in support as they drove by.

Carmen said the county needs Hazel Hawkins and its medical services “instead of people going out of the county” for their medical needs.

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