Spectators at Tuesday afternoon’s City Council meeting were miffed when Chairman E.C. Jones unexpectedly adjourned the meeting. At about 3:45, after he had called the roll and realized that the there were not enough members present for a quorum, Jones shocked all present by announcing that there would be no meeting.
Just as Jones made this announcement, the absent council members began pouring in from outside of council chambers. Councilman Brent Taylor told the Flyer that one of the reasons that the members were late in arriving was that the executive session, a meeting which Jones chairs, had run late.
In attendance at the full council meeting Tuesday were about 100 supporters of NBA Now, the group pushing for Memphis to have a National Basketball Association team. Though the council was not scheduled to hear any resolutions related to the basketball effort, the NBA supporters were on hand to show the council that they were in favor of getting a team. As these NBA supporters began grumbling about the adjourned meeting, Councilmember Barbara Swearengen Holt announced that City Council Attorney Allan Wade had been contacted to determine if the session could legally reconvene after it had been officially adjourned.
At about 4:15 Wade appeared in the council chambers and announced that what Jones had done, in effect, was to recess the meeting, not adjourn it. It was Wade’s determination that the meeting could legally begin. After Councilman Joe Brown made an apology “to the people of Memphis” for Jones’ actions, the meeting was reconvened.
