The Minden City Council meeting opened on a celebratory note, honoring the city’s 8U, 10U, and 12U All-Star softball teams for their podium finishes in the Diamond Youth Softball World Series. On top of that, the council also finalized the city’s annual budget, addressed sensitive matters concerning the city’s bank account, and made a major personnel decision regarding the termination of a Minden Police officer.
The meeting started with the mayor presenting some proclamations to the Minden 8U, 10U, and 12U All-Stars for their outstanding performance in the Diamond Youth Softball World Series. In this event, all the teams podiumed, with the 8U and 12U All-Stars earning 3rd place in their respective tournaments.
The 10U All-Stars claimed the championship title in their tournament, beating out the competition and finishing with a score of 7 wins and 1 loss.
Later in the meeting, during closing comments, City Councilman Michael Roy of District D revealed that Minden will be the location for the 2027 World Series. “I believe, if I’m not mistaken, that we’re hosting the ‘27 World Series.”
Councilman Andy Pendergrass of District E elaborated, “We did win the bid this week. We bid on the World Series for the girls’ softball in 2027, and we won.”
“That’s a huge deal for our community, to welcome quite a few people here in the 71055, and we have a little under two years to get ready for it.”
Later during the meeting, the council voted to reschedule the September city council meeting to Monday, September 8, due to the Labor Day holiday
The council has spent the past few weeks in many workshops to finalize the city’s budget for the upcoming year. During this meeting, the council voted to approve said budget.
“I would like to thank our city clerk, our assistant city clerk, the council … and all the department heads who worked to submit their wishlists and their baseline budget,” said Mayor Nick Cox. “An awful lot of work goes into a one-minute vote.”
In another agenda item related to the city’s finances, the council unanimously voted to approve the closure of the City of Minden’s existing bank account, the opening of a new bank account, and the transfer of all existing funds from the existing account to the new account.
“We had what we would consider an uncomfortable exposure to the city’s… bank account number and routing number,” said Mayor Cox. “The way this is going to work is just like if you had a very uncomfortable situation in your checking account, you would close that account and get a new one.”
One of the final agenda items is one that took place primarily behind closed doors in executive session, lasting roughly an hour and twenty minutes. That item pertained to the council’s consideration of Police Chief Jared McIver’s recommendation to terminate Lieutenant Christopher Hammontree following an internal investigation arising from his conduct. A 16-year veteran of the department, Hammontree was already on administrative leave for a separate reason when he was charged in mid-July for simple criminal damage to property and, following an internal investigation, Chief McIver submitted a disciplinary recommendation to the council.
The council, at the request of the attorneys, decided to go into executive session, so the discussions surrounding his termination were not open to the public. However, once the council came out of executive session, they unanimously voted to terminate Hammontree from the Minden Police Department.
The monthly Minden City Council meetings are held on the first Monday of each month at 6 PM at the Minden Civic Center. Meetings are open to the public and are also livestreamed on the City of Minden’s Facebook page and YouTube channel, both titled “City of Minden,” for those who cannot attend in person.