A lack of quorum two nights in a row stalls LaFayette council

Published 9:20 pm Wednesday, August 28, 2024

For the second night in a row, LaFayette City Council was unable to hold a council meeting due to a lack of quorum. Without a quorum, the council can not vote to go into session.

Only two of the five council members were present at Wednesday’s meeting;  Tammy Williams and David Ennis. There must be at least three members in order to have a majority rule on agenda items at business meetings.

Mayor Kenneth Vines and City Attorney Mac Tucker were also present. The members absent were Chairman Terry Mangram and Council members Michael Ellis and Toney Thomas.

The meeting on Tuesday was canceled due to the same reason. Both meetings were special called meetings, rather than regularly scheduled meetings.

The agenda items for both meetings were a report of officers, some notices of claims and the acceptance of an Ovarian and Gynecological Cancer proclamation to representatives from the Spencer Cancer Center. A representative was also present at Thursday’s meeting.

The main agenda item was the resolution to hear the recommendation from the police committee on making Interim Police Chief Christopher Trice LPD Chief, officially.  Trice will remain interim chief until the council votes on the issue. While the committee did make their recommendation to council members present at Tuesday’s meeting, they were not able to vote on it either night, due to lack of majority.

Williams, Ennis, Vines and Trice had no comment on the lack of quorum. As of Wednesday night, Vines said the council will likely not meet until the regularly scheduled meeting in September.