By Shaun Szkolnik, for the Tribune
TRUSSVILLE — The city of Argo held a special meeting regarding the recently vacated council seat Monday, July 15.
See Related: Argo to leave council seat vacant until after next election
The council previously considered the topic at a special meeting Wednesday, June 10.
During the June 10 meeting, the council considered several options, which included the possibility of not having an at-large councilperson for the remainder of the 14 months before the next election, approving the decision to replace the councilperson or tabling the matter until the next regularly scheduled council meeting.
At the end of the meeting, the council held a roll call vote to fill the vacant seat:
- Councilperson Ann Cowan voted no
- Councilperson Corky Massey voted no
- Council President Tony Alldredge voted yes
- Councilperson Ann Brown voted yes
- Mayor Betty Bradley voted no
The decision of the council was that the seat would not be filled until after the next election.
The purpose of the July 15 meeting was to answer some concern that the decision would be prohibited by state law. Shortly after the meeting started, the council went into executive session.
“The attorney (City Attorney Johnny Brunson) called to go into executive session to discuss the concerns that one of the council members had, there was an allegation made about some illegal stuff,” said Mayor Betty Bradley. “And so, he called to go into executive session. We came back out, and basically, nothing changed. The seat is going to remain vacant. He did say that if anybody, one of the council members, wanted to submit a name to the governor that they could submit a name to the governor. But basically, nothing changed.”
The reason that a council member would submit a name to the governor is because, as explained by the city attorney at an earlier meeting, if the council failed to fill the seat (or did not explicitly choose to not fill the seat) within 60 days of the resignation being offered, then the matter would go to the governor who would then choose a replacement.
