A hospital board appointment led to Ralph Dance’s first tie-breaking vote as mayor in Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
The makeup of the Magnolia Regional Health Center Board of Trustees will continue as is, but half of the aldermen wanted to pause and take a look at options.
The board voted 4-3 to reappoint Steve Dobbins, who was first appointed to the board in 2018. Of the seven-member hospital board, it is the one seat that is jointly appointed with the county. The Alcorn County Board of Supervisors also met Tuesday evening and voted to reappoint Dobbins, who is a principal with Dobbins & Mitchell, P.A.
“We are lucky to have someone like him willing to serve,” said Supervisor Steve Glidewell, who made the motion to reappoint Dobbins. “He is a real asset to the hospital board.”
In the city board meeting, Alderman Ben Albarracin made a motion to table the appointment for further consideration. With the vote tied 3-3, Dance cast a “no” vote on tabling, leaving the matter up for consideration.
Alderman at Large David Curry then made a motion to reappoint Dobbins, producing another 3-3 vote. Voting with Curry to reappoint were Aldermen Joshua Bryant and Steve Hill. Voting “no” were Aldermen Chip Wood, Albarracin and Johnny Butler. Dance again broke the tie with a “yes” vote.
Albarracin said he feels Dobbins has done a great job but was concerned that a family member of Dobbins ran for public office.
Everyone agreed, however, that a financial professional such as Dobbins is needed on the board.
When Dobbins was appointed in 2018, the seat had been vacant for about a year because the city and county had not reached agreement on an appointment.
The rest of the hospital board members are Rebecca Spence, Tim Smith, Lex Mitchell, Frank Howell, Steve Gaines and Randall Frazier.
The city board on Tuesday also made appointments to the Corinth Historic Preservation Commission. Rebecca Lewis and Nancy Nunley are new appointments, while Claire Windsor and Robert Gray were reappointed to the commission.
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