Third Time Wasn’t The Charm For Minden City Council

For a third consecutive meeting, the Minden City Council failed to meet due to lack of quorum. Council members Pam Bloxom (Dist. E)  and Keith Beard (Dist. D) were in attendance, while council members Vincen Bradford (Dist. C) and Terika Walker (Dist. B) were once again no-shows for the special meeting.

Minden Mayor, Terry Gardner said that he had heard from Bradford via email stating that he had prior plans and could not attend. Walker had emailed on Tuesday to the council agenda email, simply replying “Thanks” but not giving any indication of attending. A call to Walker at the meeting went unanswered and to voice mail.

Gardner expressed frustration with the lack of quorum on Wednesday, stating, “As the mayor of the City of Minden, I was elected to serve the city.” Gardner further said that “it’s hard to run a city when your city council won’t come and show up for meetings.” Though disappointed with the lack of another meeting, Gardner stated, “We will continue to keep calling meetings until we get a quorum and take care of city business.”

This is the 4th council meeting that Walker and Bradford have missed as council members since the recent term began in 2019. One of the meetings was the walk-out in protest of the Employee Manual not being placed on the agenda in November of 2019. A records request on councilman Bradford’s attendance shows that he missed 5 times during his previous 4-year term:

• 8/12/15 Special Session
• 1/6/16 Regular Session
• 5/1/17 Regular Session
• 1/2/18 Regular Session
• 11/12/18 Special Session

City business that has not been addressed since the April meeting include:

• Police and Fire Department hires
• Election of new Mayor Pro Tempore
• Signature authority
• Airport Grant
• Calling of Special Election to fill term of Council District A
• Appointing an interim representative for Council District A.

In a letter last week, the Governor stated that he cannot act on the appointment if the city can not meet until after the emergency orders are lifted, which means if the council fails to meet and appoint a an interim representative, the District A seat could be vacant a little longer.

Another special meeting has been called for Thursday at 4 p.m. at the Pelican Conference Room. The public is not invited to attend due to the Stay-At-Home orders in place, but can be viewed on the City of Minden Facebook page and will be aired on KASO AM 1240 and streamed (audio only) at kbef.com.

The updated agenda can be found here.