Anthony Hemstad has resigned as a member of the Board of Trustees that oversees the strategic alliance between Valley Medical Center and UW Medicine.

Hemstad sat on the trustee board as a Public Hospital District No. 1 commissioner. He’s the second hospital district commissioner to resign as a trustee; Dr. Aaron Heide resigned last year.

The 13-member trustee board was structured to include all five hospital district commissioners. Commissioners still serving as trustees are Dr. Paul Joos, Carolyn Parnell and Sue Bowman.

Hemstad couldn’t be reached for comment.

He notified Joos and Lisa Jensen, who chairs the board of trustees, on April 15 of his decision to resign.

His email to them read:

“As I’ve discussed with Paul over the past few months, I am now making my resignation from the Board of Trustees official.  This resignation is effective immediately.

“I am of course not resigning from my position as an elected Commissioner and will continue to be a very active member of the Board of Commissioners.”

Jensen said there is no process for replacing elected commissioners who resign as trustees as this situation was not anticipated in the strategic alliance agreement.

Hemstad voted against creation of the strategic alliance and along with Joos and Heide voted to take a legal challenge to the alliance to the state Supreme Court.