Albany City Council held a special called meeting Thursday afternoon, October 3, two days following its regular monthly session.
The special meeting, which lasted approximately 15 minutes, had two items of business on the agenda and five of six council members present.
The council first had a bid opening on old water meters that had been declared as surplus property. City Attorney Jeff Hoover opened the two sealed bids that had been received.
However, prior to the bids actually being opened, the council discussed a “possible” situation that pertained to the “number” of meters to be bid on.
There had originally been an estimate–but no exact total–of meters calculated, of 1,000 old meters when advertised.
Later, however, the actual number of meters available was 642.
This prompted Albany Mayor James Bray to question attorney Hoover, who was unable to attend the regular meeting last Tuesday, whether the city could give vouchers up to 1,000 if someone had bid on that specific number, or divide out the amount of meters compared to the bids received.
Hoover said the city could not give out vouchers in that situation and also noted there were no “definitive” amount of meters specified, only an estimate.
The bids were then opened, with one being from David Adams of AVS Surplus Supply out of Alabama for $3 per meter.
The only other bid was from Mark Melton, who submitted a bid of $500 for all the meters.
Adams’ bid, considering the number of meters the city has, would amount to $1,926.00, and neither bid specified bidding on an exact total of meters they expected.
Councilwoman Renee York made a motion to accept the high bid of $3 per meter from Adams, aka AVS Surplus, with the motion passing unanimously.
The more complicated issue came about when discussing the city police surplus guns, which had also been declared as surplus property two days prior.
Also at that meeting, a motion had been made and passed to allow the mayor to dispose of the weapons “according to state law.”
Mayor Bray had advocated to find a way to allow current officers to obtain the guns and on Thursday recommended they be sold to APD officers for $100 each.
Hoover, however, had questions about setting a price of property that had been declared surplus, and recommended advertising the guns and taking sealed bids, or at public auction.
Albany Police Chief Mark Bell also went along with the idea of selling the guns via public auction.
The question was also asked how many total guns the PD had at one time, which Bell replied was seven, noting that four were apparently given to former officers when they left the force and/or retired.
Bell, who has been chief for less than two years, said the police department did not have specific records about where the four guns went, but some type of record may be at city hall.
Although a separate issue that could not be discussed or voted on due to it being a special meeting with specific items on the agenda, Hoover did express concerns about city purchased weapons being unaccounted for and said the council may need to investigate that issue in the future.
Eventually, Councilman Reed Sloan made a motion to sell the three surplus guns at public auction and enter into a contract with a gun dealer or licensed agent to conduct the sale. The motion passed unanimously.
The next meeting of Albany City Council will be a special meeting on Monday, November 4, at 5 p.m.