No Council Meeting; Mayor Unable to Reach Two Council Members

For the second time under the current Minden City Council, a meeting was not held due to lack of quorum.

The council was set to meet Monday at 5:30 pm in the Pelican Conference Room at City Hall. As 5:30 approached, it became apparent that both Vincen Bradford and Terika Walker were not going to make the meeting in time. Mayor Terry Gardner announced that the meeting could not be held due to lack of quorum, but made two efforts to reach both Walker and Bradford. Both calls to Walker immediately went to voice mail, while Bradford’s call to his cell phone rang and then went to voice mail. A call placed to the home number for Bradford was found to be disconnected.

At this point, Gardner stated that the meeting would not be held due to both members being absent and needing 3 members present to have the meeting. Gardner asked both council members Pam Bloxom and Keith Beard if they had any comments that didn’t pertain to the agenda, since it couldn’t be discussed.

“I hope we’re not disappointed tonight with not having a call back from our two other council people,” Bloxom said. “Just to remind them and remind their constituents that it’ s the law that they attend City Council meetings and take care of the business of the city.”

“It’s a tough time, but we’ve taken precautions tonight to be here, and I wanted to be here tonight to take care of business,” Beard said. “We’re trying to hire folks for our fire department and police department and there are things we need to take care of so it’s important that we’re here.”

Gardner later said that he had tried numerous times to reach both Walker and Bradford about the meeting Monday afternoon. According to Gardner, he had emailed Walker several times and had called Bradford the past seven days trying to reach him concerning the council meeting. One of the biggest items on the agenda was filling the empty seat for District A vacated by Herbert Taylor, who had resigned from the position at the end of March. Gardner said that if the council was unable to name a replacement for the seat, the Governor would do so on April 23^rd. Since Taylor was also Mayor Pro Tempore, he also held signature authority, meaning if something happened to Gardner, not only would there not be someone to fill his role as mayor, but checks for payroll and bills would be in jeopardy as well. Other items that were to be addressed at Monday’s meeting included:

• Police Department hire
• Fire Department hire
• Termination of City Attorney
• Hiring of new City Attorney
• Calling for a Special Election for City Council Representative for District A

At the time of the meeting, it is unclear if a special meeting will be called. The next scheduled meeting is Monday, May 4^th.