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By Fred Guarino

The Lowndes Signal

The town of Hayneville will hold a federal court-ordered special election on Tuesday, March 21^st to fill a vacant council seat. And Hayneville Mayor David Daniel said he is waiting until after the election to call a council meeting.

Also, concerned citizens have asked the attorney general to look into what is going on with the council.

Daniel and Town Clerk Susie Smith confirmed candidates for the post are former Council members Carole C. Scrushy and Rickey Bell. And Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill confirmed the special election was ordered by the federal court.

Daniel said he tried to call a meeting early on, to which he said council members did not attend. And, he said, the Town Council is not complete with one vacancy.

“So, what we are doing now is waiting until all council members are in place before we have a meeting,” he said.

Hayneville Council member Sharon Reeves said, “Our regular meeting is the second Monday of every month.”

Reeves said that on Feb. 13, the council was supposed to meet, but the meeting was cancelled that Monday evening. She said three of the council members wanted to meet at that time, but were told that a meeting with only three council members would be “illegal.”

She said a meeting scheduled Monday night, March 13 was also cancelled.

Reeves said the only meeting she recalled that the mayor wanted to have was a meeting with both old and new council members. She said only two (of the new) council members had been sworn into office at the time and there was “nothing that could be done.”

Reeves said the Mayor said the council will meet March 27^th after the election.

She declined to comment further, but confirmed that concerned citizens in Hayneville have asked the State’s Attorney General to look into what has been going on with the council.

However, the business of the town is being conducted, Daniel said.

He said, “We received a USDA grant to buy new police equipment and all of that for the Town of Hayneville… new cars and whatever else the Police Department needs. And we have a grant from ADEM to put in new (water) meters. They (the old ones) are somewhat obsolete. We’ve been trying to get that done.”

Daniel said the town also received a grant from Alabama Power to put up a new welcome sign.

He said the town is working with Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores to get that in place.

Daniel explained regarding the special election that one of the Town Council candidates who ran last August was a convicted felon who was disqualified.

Daniel said the last official meeting of the Town Council was in November of 2016. He said no one showed up for the December meeting.