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Anniston council removes chairman from hospital board [The Anniston Star, Ala.]
[October 02, 2014]

Anniston council removes chairman from hospital board [The Anniston Star, Ala.]


(Anniston Star (AL) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 02--The Anniston City Council removed Regional Medical Center board chairman Greg Kernion from his seat Wednesday for dereliction of duty and misconduct.

The decision came one day after the RMC board barred City Manager Brian Johnson from attending its meeting, though the council had appointed him to the body Sept. 22. The ordeal was the latest skirmish in a weeks-long struggle between the city and the board over whether the board is a public entity, how autonomous it is from the city and how much information about the Anniston-based hospital it must provide to the public.



Physicians, residents and a few board members packed the council chambers during Wednesday's brief meeting. The council approved the resolution to remove Kernion with only Councilman David Reddick abstaining during the called meeting.

Immediately after removing Kernion, the council, with only Reddick voting no, appointed Anniston resident Paula Watkins to fill out the remainder of Kernion's term, which ends May 31, 2018. Watkins previously served on the Anniston Museum Complex Board.


Attempts to reach Kernion for comment Wednesday evening were unsuccessful.

City Attorney Bruce Downey said that Kernion had violated the city ordinance that created the board, which warranted his removal from his position. The ordinance allows the council to remove a board member if he or she engages in conduct detrimental to the city, in gross dereliction of duty, misconduct or illegal activities.

Downey cited several of what the city considered violations by Kernion, including planning to move 15 psychiatric beds from RMC to RMC Jacksonville without the city's consent, denying Johnson access to a board meeting though he had been appointed to the board and refusing to comply with basic information requests from the city.

"Kernion engaged in conduct of bad faith -- he acted as a member of the board, to interfere with the operation and management of the board," Downey said. "He engaged in confidentiality agreements with board members that blocked the public's access to information and the city's access to information regarding the status and direction of the hospital." Mayor Vaughn Stewart declined to comment about the vote after the meeting.

"I think the resolution speaks for itself," Stewart said.

Johnson also declined to comment about the council's decision.

"I have nothing to add to what pertains in the the ordinance," Johnson said. "I am an instrument of the elected body and I serve at their pleasure." Johnson's appointment and the council vote Wednesday comes after a tumultuous few months for the hospital. In July RMC canceled its contract with the state's dominant health insurance provider, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, part of an effort to get the insurer to pay more for care provided to patients at the hospital. If the cancellation had stood, Blue Cross -- the insurance carrier for 90 percent of Alabamians with private health insurance -- would no longer have paid the hospital for many services, leaving patients to pick up the bill on their own.

In September, after RMC announced it had reached a deal with Blue Cross, hospital CEO David McCormack abruptly resigned, reportedly to spend more time with his family.

City officials have said Johnson's appointment was a way to improve communication between the city and the board -- a decision that stemmed from the fight between RMC and Blue Cross.

With 1,500 employees, RMC is the largest employer in the city.

Reddick said he did not understand why the rest of the council wanted to get more involved with RMC.

"I think it's funny that we're putting so much time in the hospital when they're being successful, and we're failing in so many ways," Reddick said, referring to the department cuts in the city's 2015 budget approved last month. "Let's clean up our own house first." Dr. Terry Phillis, a urologist at RMC who attended the meeting, said he did not like that the council did not discuss the issue with the public before voting to remove Kernion.

"I don't know if it was the correct decision or not, but people were not given enough information," Phillis said. "I'm embarrassed for (the council) ... the people should be involved." ___ (c)2014 The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.) Visit The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.) at www.annistonstar.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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