MEIGS — A former Meigs police chief who was fired in March 2014 was appointed by the Meigs City Council to fill a vacant city council seat.

Edward “Blue” Rauls was selected by the council over Laurie White, Meigs only restaurant owner, who also vied for the seat.

Rauls was appointed and sworn in at the beginning of the special called meeting Tuesday night and took his seat next to the other council members for the remainder of the meeting.

Rauls became chief of police in January 2014 after Chris Luckey, Meigs police chief for more than two years, resigned within days of Linda Harris taking office as mayor, citing a “hostile work environment.”

Luckey’s resignation was followed by the resignation of everyone else in the police department except Rauls.

Two months later, Rauls was terminated by then City Manager, Marsha Demonga.

Levon Gassett, Jimmy Layton, Stephanie Battle and Levon Gassett voted for Rauls.

Dorothy Wimes and Lizzy Battle abstained from the vote. Lizzy Battle later said she abstained “because she wanted to see how the election went first.”

The only other major decision made by the council was to leave its millage rate at its current level.

The long, disorganized meeting began with Harris informing the 25 or so citizens attending the meeting that “anyone speaking aggressively will be escorted out by police.”

She demanded respect but showed the current police chief, Gary Price, very little.

During the police chief’s report, Price was grilled regarding a Meigs police officer being spotted shopping in Thomasville. He explained that the officer had taken a vehicle to Thomasville for repairs and was shopping during his lunch hour. Harris constantly interrupted Price but reprimanded him for doing the same.

Harris told the chief she wanted the city council to be told whenever a police car left the city limits.

Price told the council that his officers notify dispatch when they leave and that they let Price know.

He implored the council, “We got to show efforts of working together.”

Price admonished the council for creating a hostile work environment. Several members of the council denied this accusation.

Later, Harris and several others struggled to understand the financial report prepared by Roy Long. Harris had several questions for city manager Sidney Perry about the report.

At one point, the mayor stopped the meeting saying, “This is embarrassing. We have council members being disrespected.”

She then apologized to the citizens for asking employees numerous questions, saying that it was the only way she could get any information. Harris was banned from city hall and most of her powers were stripped by the council shortly after she took office.

On Wednesday, Perry described the meeting as “very mild” in comparison to previous ones.