Alexander's regular monthly meeting canceled, Mayor forgot to post notice

Or did she?

COMMENTARY

At the regular meeting of the Alexander City Council held Monday evening, October 20, Mayor Michelle Hobbs told the aldermen she "forgot" to post the date and time of the meeting. So the meeting had to be canceled. A special meeting to make up for this meeting was not scheduled.

For those of you who actually believe she forgot to post the meeting notice I can let you have Highway 111 for a good price and you can operate it as a toll road. She's done this before. A few months ago Hobbs canceled a meeting when "only" five members of the eight member council showed up. Even though five is a quorum she claimed it wasn't enough to vote. Never mind having a quorum means you have enough to vote. All the votes would have had to be five "yes" and three "no" (for those who were absent) but it's enough to vote.

Mind you the mayor does not have to personally type, print and post the meeting notice. City hall staff or the city recorder could have done it. Is she so incompetent she can't delegate tasks, or does she have an ulterior motive?

What does she gain by canceling the meeting? At least two actions were expected to take place at Monday night's meeting; appointing the only applicant to the vacant seat in Ward-2 Position-1 and a potential vote on a resolution lowering the pay of the mayor and aldermen beginning January 1, 2015.

First, the appointment:

Currently, because that seat is vacant it is being counted as a "no" vote as required by state law. The person offering to fill the vacancy until December 31, Kenneth D. Miller, is also running to be elected to the same seat in November. She probably doesn't expect him to vote her way every time and could be trying to put this off until after the election hoping voters will select her choice for that spot, if she has a choice. For now, it is a guaranteed "no" vote.

The resolution:

The pay issue is another matter. The proposed resolution will reduce the mayor's salary from $840 every two weeks to $250 every two weeks and aldermen salaries from $100 per month to $25 per month. It was introduced at the August meeting but had to be tabled to make changes to the resolution. The September meeting was adjourned before getting to the resolution. If approved the new pay scale will go into effect beginning January 1, 2015.

And, there's the rub! By law the pay of elected officials can't be lowered after they take office. It can be increased, just not lowered. Any lower pay rates can't go into effect until January 1 after the next election. If by some miracle Michelle Hobbs is elected mayor she is not going to want that resolution considered before January 1, 2015, much less passed.

Also, her husband is running unopposed for the Ward-1 Position-1 seat. Another reason to postpone voting on the resolution.

There are two more "regular" meetings between now and January 1, November and December. In order to avoid the issue of whether the salaries can be voted on between the election and December 31, to go into effect January 1, I strongly urge the council call a "special" meeting scheduled before the November 4 election with only two agenda items; the appointing of Kenneth Miller to the Ward-2 Position-1 seat and the discussion and voting on the resolution reducing the pay of elected officials.

If the meeting can be scheduled I fully expect Hobbs and her minions to be absent in an attempt to stop the meeting. However, under state law an alderman can be selected to fill in for the mayor. Also, Alexander only needs four aldermen present to start the meeting and appoint Miller with four "yes" votes. That will give the council the five it needs to vote and pass the resolution. It will be interesting to see who attends the meeting and who votes for lowering their potential future salary.