VARNELL, Ga. — The Varnell City Council typically meets the third Tuesday of each month, but Mayor Anthony Hulsey did not call a meeting for tonight, the third straight month he has not called a meeting. In that time, the council has left much business unfinished, including setting the property tax rate.

City Manager Mike Brown said Hulsey told him Friday he would not call a meeting this month. Attempts to reach Hulsey on Monday were unsuccessful.

“He really didn’t say why. He just said we wouldn’t have one,” Brown said. “Anthony is the mayor, and he makes that decision.”

Hulsey also did not call meetings in September or October.

“He said there were scheduling issues,” Brown said.

But council member David Owens said he thinks there is another reason why.

In July, Owens and fellow council members Andrea Gordy and Jan Pourquoi voted to dissolve the police department. Council member Ashlee Godfrey voted against that move. Hulsey later vetoed that vote.

Gordy later resigned following questions about whether she actually lived in the city, and at an August meeting, Owens and Pourquoi were prepared to vote to override Hulsey’s veto, but Godfrey walked out, denying the meeting a quorum.

“I think the mayor has not had a meeting because he knows that we may override that veto. I do not think he will hold another meeting this year,” Owens said.

Pourquoi did not seek re-election and leaves the council at the end of the year.

“They don’t want to have another council meeting with me,” he said. “This is all political.”

The lack of meetings has meant that the council members have not taken care of some business. For instance, council members have not set a property tax rate this year.

“The mayor did that administratively,” said Brown.

Brown said the council set the rate at 2.4 mills in 2016 and Hulsey said he had the authority to set it as long as he left it at that level. Asked if Hulsey has that authority under either the city charter or state law, City Attorney Terry Miller said Monday afternoon that was something he would have to research.

“It is not a matter that has been brought to my attention in terms of asking for a legal opinion (by city officials),” he said.

Later Monday afternoon, Brown said he had spoken to Miller and Miller had advised him that the council members must vote to set the property tax rate.

Whitfield County Tax Commissioner Danny Sane said tax bills based on the property tax rate submitted by Varnell have already gone out.

“They have responsibilities, and so do I,” he said. “I do not know if they followed their protocols, but we were 100 percent compliant with what we did.”

Sane said he will contact the state auditor to find out if any problems may have been caused by Varnell submitting a tax rate that had not been approved by the City Council.

Typically, the City Council adopts the city’s budget before Dec. 2, but Brown said the 2018 budget will be adopted in January.

“I’ve sat down with council member Ashlee Godfrey and (Mayor-elect) Tom Dickson and done the budget. Ashlee is the finance chairman. We’ll send it out to the council in December and hold two meetings on it in January,” he said.

Dickson said he isn’t concerned that the council may not have met for four months when he takes office in January.

“I’m looking forward to getting started in January and having a clean slate to work with,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to create a problem. We’ll have a list of things that have to be done, and we’ll get down to the business of getting them done.”

Godfrey did not immediately return a telephone message on Monday.

“The mayor hasn’t called a meeting in three months. I doubt we will meet again before the end of the year, but Mr. Owens and I are still being sued for supposedly violating the state’s open meetings law,” said Pourquoi.

Former Varnell city manager Ralph Morgan and his son Bill, a former council member, have sued the two, claiming the meeting at which they voted to dissolve the police department violated the state’s open meetings law.