The Autryville Board of Commissioners canceled its monthly meeting last Tuesday due to a lack of a quorum.
This past Wednesday, Lisa Jones, Autryville’s town clerk, explained that she found out the morning of the board meeting that three board members were out of town.
“It is a volunteer thing to do,” Jones noted regarding the Board of Commissioners positions, “so whenever they can’t make it, we’re understanding.”
Mayor Grayson Spell added that a lack of a quorum tends to occur only during the summers.
“Most summers we’ll have at least one or two, but to me, it’s not a big deal,” Spell said Wednesday.
He said in most cases, things are able to be pushed off to the next board meeting.
“Fortunately, with a town as small as Autryville, we don’t have a lot of big projects going on that require major decisions every month, so most things can be pushed off to the next meeting,” Spell added.
“Most of the time, if there are things on the agenda that are time-sensitive, then we’ll schedule a special meeting,” Jones explained, “but there wasn’t anything on the agenda this month that couldn’t wait another month.”
The mayor expressed that he doesn’t blame any board members who don’t attend meetings.
“Most — if not all — of our board members are small-business owners. They all have families, they have children and grandchildren, and most people may not realize that neither the Board of Commissioners nor the mayor’s position are paid positions,” Spell explained.
“There’s no obligation for them to come,” he stressed, “and I don’t expect them to put the town over family obligations nor business obligations.”
Spell stated that as the son of a small-business owner, a lot of times business-related issues “can’t wait, and you have to look after your livelihood. … You have to put that ahead of the town’s obligations, so I don’t blame them at all for that.”
“The business of the town still goes on, and like I said, if there’s a big decision that needs board action, we just usually wait till the next month — and we haven’t ever had any issues with that.”
Spell emphasized that the board works “extra hard” to make sure any decisions that are going to be made for the town of Autryville “are made in front of the public so that the public has an opportunity to know everything that’s going on with their money.”
The Board of Commissioners’ next scheduled meeting is set for Oct. 20.