MEIGS — Meigs City Council members met for a special called meeting with the intentions of reviewing the procedure for hiring a new police chief, but were unable to get underway when they failed to reach a quorum.

The city is relaunching its efforts to hire a new police chief after the only candidate interviewed was terminated, but council members Dorothy Wimes, Tommy White and Lizzie Battle were not present for a meeting Thursday night in which the process for doing so was to be laid out.

Both White and Wimes said they were not aware a meeting was set to take place, citing a lack of public advertisements.

“Nobody called me or told me anything,” White said. “If it was a called meeting, it would have run in the paper.”

Battle said could not attend the meeting due to a doctor’s appointment outside of town.

Government meetings cannot take place without a quorum, the minimum number of city council members who must be present for any formal actions to occur.

In Meigs’ case, a quorum consists of four council members not including the mayor, who may only vote in the case of a tie.

Mayor Cheryl Walters said a review of the process of hiring a police chief will be added to the agenda for the council’s next scheduled meeting Monday.

“The procedure will be discussed if there’s time,” she said. “If not, I’ll have to call another special meeting.”

Any vote on whether to hire someone as chief will take place no earlier than next month.

The council previously met behind closed doors last month with the intentions of interviewing two candidates for the position.

One of the two candidates backed out of the interview before it could take place, and the other, former Meigs police officer Donald McNeil, was terminated after a recording surfaced of him allegedly using a racial slur to describe interim police chief Antonio Mango.

The meeting ended up being cut short when Mango arrived with the recording and the council ultimately dispersed with no action having taken place.

“After Mr. McNeil left, there was quite a scene,” said Walters, who added that she feared for her safety during the incident with Mango.

Mango has disputed Walters’ characterization of the confrontation.

With no candidates remaining, the entire process must now start over from the beginning.

That process involves placing advertisements and conducting interviews with interested candidates.

Following a review of each candidate’s qualifications, the council would then vote in open session on whether to hire a particular individual.

If no one is selected as police chief, the process will repeat until an individual is hired, something that Walters said must take place.

“As long as we have a police department, we have to by law have a police chief,” Walters said.

Meigs has been without a police chief since February, when Walters broke another tied vote in favor of terminating former chief Darrell Laster just days after he accepted McNeil’s resignation.

As the only officer remaining in the city’s police department, Mango was promoted to interim chief, a position he has held ever since.

Mango withdrew his name from consideration for the full-time position last month, citing complaints of his performance originating from within the city council.

The council is authorized to pay a salary of up to $40,000 to whomever is eventually appointed to the full-time position.