SF business delayed for lack of quorum

By CHRIS MENEES
Staff Reporter
If at first you don’t succeed ... try, try again.
The South Fulton City Commission tried to meet for its regular monthly meeting Thursday night, but the rare occurrence of the lack of a quorum changed those plans.
The city commission consists of five members and at least three of them must be in attendance to constitute a quorum and allow the meeting to be held.
Two commissioners — Tony Perry and Charles Moody — had arrived by the scheduled time for Thursday evening’s meeting to begin and the city manager, city attorney and city recorder were all in place. The audience consisted of only a few people, one of whom had business on the agenda.
The city recorder knew in advance that commissioner Thomas Pettigrew would not be in attendance due to illness.
After waiting about 10 minutes, city manager Jeff Vowell attempted to contact the remaining two commissioners — Mayor David Crocker and Vice Mayor Keith Curlin — who both apparently had been detained by job-related commitments.
The meeting will likely be rescheduled some time over the next few days since there were several items of business on the agenda, according to Vowell.
The monthly agenda included discussion of bids for property on Williams and Wade streets; resolutions pertaining to a lease agreement with utility funds and a major road plan; and a request for a lot to be donated for construction of a home through CAN.
Among those in the sparse audience Thursday evening was Chris Hill of South Fulton Baptist Church, who was there to discuss the request for the lot to be donated for the home construction. He said he has been working for about the past 3 1/2 years to find assistance for a couple whose home is falling down around them and has finally found a community action group willing to help with the construction of a new home. However, the couple’s current home is in a flood plain and the group will not rebuild there.
Hill said he approached the city manager to see if there was any way for the city to help and a lot by the city’s old high school was chosen for possible donation for the home construction. He said benefits of the action would include placement of a new building on a vacant lot, an addition in tax revenue, improvement to the city and an opportunity to help someone in need.
His request will be among the items addressed by the commission when its monthly meeting is rescheduled.
Although no business could be transacted Thursday evening, before the crowd left, Vowell noted that South Fulton Police Department Sgt. Rodney Mitchell was being honored with a traffic enforcement-related honor by the Governor’s Highway Safety Office and he commended him for his efforts.
———
Staff Reporter Chris Menees may be contacted by e-mail at cmenees@ucmessenger.com.
Published in The Messenger 2.19.10

Print