LINDEN &8212; With only three of six board members present, the Marengo County E-911 board meeting failed to reach a quorum Tuesday.

The group was slated to discuss the progress of replacing the current communication system, but any action will be delayed until the board&8217;s next meeting. Baker said he hopes the next meeting will be in less than one month so that &8220;we can move forward on this.&8221;

Although Baker and fellow board members Mike Carlisle and Caroline Rogers were not enough to establish an official quorum, the group did agree to an executive session to handle an &8220;internal matter,&8221; which may have been a violation of the Alabama Open Meetings Act.

Betty Bates, chief of the Jefferson Fire Department, was also present at the meeting and requested speaking with the board in executive session, as she did at their last official meeting in February. The board agreed to hear Bates in a closed session.

According to the Alabama Open Meetings Act, any governmental body cannot go into an executive session without first establishing a quorum.

The E-911 board has met only three times since the Marengo County Commission opted to ask for blanket resignations from the former board members and repopulate it with new appointments in December. The former board had come under scrutiny after having difficulty establishing a quorum, hindering them from conducting any business related to the E-911 service.