The Indianola Board of Aldermen met in a special called meeting Wednesday evening to discuss the city’s contract with Brown and Associates Inc., but took no action after spending about an hour in executive session.
A contract by itself is typically not a valid reason to go into executive session under the Mississippi Open Meetings Act. However, city attorney Mack Arthur Turner, who was attending by phone, explained the legal basis for the discussion before the closed session.
Turner said state law allows public boards to enter executive session when discussing matters involving current or potential litigation.
“Because of the issues around this particular contract, the board is at liberty to go into executive session to discuss the contract, considering actions that may impact current or prospective litigation,” he said.
The meeting was held at the City Hall Annex at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday after an earlier attempt by the board to meet Monday failed due to a lack of quorum.
The second attempt almost failed again for the same reason.
Only one alderman was physically present for the meeting, Ward 2’s Keith Spealman. Ward 1’s Alex Deason and Ward 3’s Calvin Moton attended by phone. Also physically present at the meeting were Mayor Ken Featherstone and City Clerk Stephanie Washington.
During the meeting, aldermen approved the agenda before taking up the re-evaluation of professional services contracts involving the Indianola-based Brown and Associates, which offers municipal management, community development, urban planning and grants administration, and is led by Dr. Adrian Brown, who was not present at the meeting.
Following a roll call vote from the aldermen present, the board entered executive session with Turner participating by phone.
The closed session lasted about an hour.
After returning to open session, Featherstone announced that the board would not make a decision on the matter during the special called meeting and instead would revisit the issue during its next regular meeting scheduled for Monday, March 9.
“The pleasure of the board is not to make a decision tonight,” he said.
The board then voted to adjourn.
