Marion City Council’s regularly scheduled meeting, set for 6:00 p.m. in the council chambers at Marion City Hall, did not happen as planned.
Mayor Dexter Hinton took his seat at the head of the table as the meeting began, and waited for the councilmembers to arrive. Alabama state law requires a quorum, or minimum number of members, before a meeting may proceed. “A quorum of the council consists of a majority of the whole number of members to which the municipality is entitled to have on the council, including the mayor in municipalities of less than 12,000 in population,” according to the Code of Alabama.
When Nail arrived, Hinton told him, “We’re going to wait a few more minutes and then we’re going to call it.” By then, it had been nearly 20 minutes since the meeting’s scheduled start time.
When those few minutes passed, Hinton made the decision to cancel that night’s meeting and take up the matters from its agenda at the council’s next meeting.
“The city council meeting has been called because we don’t have a quorum, so we’ll take it up at the next meeting,” Hinton announced.
Items on that night’s agenda for discussion included: a contract with E-Footprint allowing them access to the city’s water tower for wireless internet service; a proposed ordinance to regulate gaming within the city; discussion of they city police department’s reserve officer policy, and repair to West Catherine Circle.
The agenda also included an item headed “National Guard Armory Reimbursements” with the note that the item was a “litigation matter to be discussed in executive session.”
Marion City Council meets the first and third Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. Meetings, which are open to the public, are held at Marion City Hall.
