Anniston council makes appointments

The Anniston city council has appointed a new member to the Regional Medical Center board and four members to an organization to develop downtown Annisston.  The  Council during its Monday meeting made the five combined appointments to the Regional Medical Center board and the Main Street Anniston board.   The council still has one appointment left for the nine-member Main Street board. A separate board that controls Main Street's nonprofit wing will appoint people to the other four seats.  Last month, the council created the board for Main Street Anniston, an organization focused on downtown development and formerly known as Spirit of Anniston. 

The city appointed Paula Watkins to finish out the remaining three years of RMC board member Greg Kernion. Watkins is the senior vice president of corporate human resources for staffing firm Lyons HR's Gadsden office.  Kernion, who served the last three years as board chairman, resigned last week, saying it was to help the hospital move forward after its months-long legal dispute with the city, much of which was resolved in December.  The disputes started almost a year ago over arguments about whether the board was adhering to state open meetings law. The disputes escalated, with the council later voting to rescind Kernion's appointment to board and replace him with Watkins. The board responded by suing the city, then a temporary court injunction blocked Watkins’ appointment and kept Kernion as chairman until the matter was resolved.