Madison County board member to circulate petition calling special meeting; pro tem nomination stalls committee work

A member of the Madison County Board announced they will circulate a petition at the end of the meeting to call a special meeting next Tuesday at 5:00 to consider repealing the resolution that established a new system.

The announcement came as the board opened nominations for a Pro Tem chairperson; a board member nominated Mick Madison, and members exchanged seconds and repeated names while attempting to record support. The record provided does not include a completed, recorded vote that clearly seats a Pro Tem.

The nomination and a separate motion to adjourn collided with procedural concerns. After a motion to adjourn was made and seconded, several members objected that adjourning before committee work would prevent the board from acting on committee assignments — and, one member said, could leave the board "not gonna be able to pay any bills this month." The motion to adjourn was then withdrawn amid confusion and discussion.

A staff member advising the board said the county ordinances, "the way our ordinances set it up," allow only a Pro Tem to nominate committee assignments and that, as the staff member put it, until a pro tem is seated there can be no vote on committee assignments. That interpretation was the central reason members paused committee business at this meeting.

The meeting included repeated roll-call-style name-calling and confirmations (several speakers repeatedly said names such as Stacy Pace, Mick Madison and others), but the provided transcript does not show a definitive vote tally or a clear formal appointment of a Pro Tem during the recorded segments.

The board’s next procedural step, as stated on the record, is the special meeting planned for Tuesday at 5:00 to address the resolution in question; committee assignments were not finalized in the sections of the meeting included in the transcript.