UPDATE: Officials Cancel April Council Meeting, Move Follows Wight's Hiking Departure

Update March 28, 11:50 a.m.: Dr. Scott Batterton and Mayor Johnny Crist are expected to be out of town on April 8, according to the city clerk.

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Officials have announced that the city of Lilburn is cancelling the April 8 meeting because there may not be enough people present to vote.

A notice sent to the media indicates that the meeting was called off "due to the potential lack of a quorum." "Regular meeting schedule for the second Monday of each month will resume on May 13, 2013," it read.

Among other things, the April meeting was supposed to include a city update by the mayor.

The meeting would have been the first held since Councilman Thomas Wight announced he was taking a six-month sabbatical to go hiking. He leaves April 3, and is expected to return September 23.

In the meantime, however, that leaves just three council members and the mayor present for votes. With Wight absent until September, the potential for meetings to be cancelled increases.

The potential lack of a quorum at the April meeting suggests that at least one other council member and the mayor may not be present. Or, that at least two other council members may not be present. 

The city needs two council members and the mayor to form a quorum. And, in Lilburn, the mayor does not vote unless he is breaking a tie, or when one more vote is needed to pass an item.

The city's code read as follows, regarding the matter:

"The mayor, or mayor pro tempore, and two members of the council shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business before the council; on all questions before the city council, the mayor, or mayor pro tempore, if he or she be presiding, shall be entitled to vote only in case of a tie or in case only one vote is needed to pass any motion, resolution, ordinance or other question before the council.

"No motion, resolution, ordinance or other question before the council shall pass unless a majority of the members, including the mayor or mayor pro tempore, if he or she be presiding, votes for the same, and unless the said motion, resolution, ordinance or question receives at least three affirmative votes."

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