Following the trend of the past few meetings, the City Council once again failed to have enough members present to have a quorum. And once again, the “meeting” was extremely brief because of it.
“As the Mayor of the City of Minden, I was elected to serve the city. I was elected to serve the entire city, the entire community, everyone. That’s what I’m trying to do, said Mayor Terry Gardner.
“It’s hard to run a city when your city council will not come and show up for meetings.
I’m doing everything possible as the mayor that I know to do to get them here.”
Gardner scheduled another meeting for tomorrow, Thursday, May 7 at 4 p.m.
“We’re going to keep calling these meetings until we can get a quorum and taking care of city business,” he said.
“Know that it’s not just about District C, it’s not just about District B, it’s about the entire city. It takes everyone to be here to keep the city functioning.”
He also noted that there were some important items on the agenda that needed to be addressed, including the hiring of a new police officer, fireman, and approving a grant for the airport by early June.
Councilman Pam Bloxom of Dist. E made a comment about her colleagues’ attendance.
“I’d like to say that concerning the code of conduct for the council, there has never been a need, in all the years I’ve been attending these meetings as an observer, there’s never been a need for a code of conduct. Councilmen who were elected attended the meetings religiously and I can attest that I never remembered Mr. Bradford missing a meeting the whole time he was serving prior to this.,” said Bloxom.
“I also want to take this opportunity on behalf of the city to apologize to Andre Anthony and to TJ Hughes who are awaiting approval to come on board and serve as policeman and fireman for the City of Minden. They’re on hold until the council can acquire a quorum.
I would like to stipulate too that when we took our oath of office, we were agreeing that we would vote on every issue, and in order to vote, you have to attend the meeting.
So there’s some question about whether or not all of our councilmen are living up to their duties and obligations, especially to their constituents.”
Before ending the “meeting,” Gardner assured the public that himself and the other present councilman were doing everything they could to do what’s best for the city.
“Just know that the councilwoman and the councilmen that’s here as well as myself, we have our city at heart. We all have an agenda and our agendas are to move our city forward, to grow our city, we have a wonderful city, and we appreciate your patience. And just like the COVID-19, we’ll go through this together, and at the end of the day, everything will be good,” said Gardner.