MEIGS — Meigs City Council members are expected to hear an appeal from recently-terminated police captain Donald McNeil next week in an open hearing.

The only item on the agenda for the special called meeting Thursday, August 1 will be McNeil’s appeal.

During the hearing, McNeil will be allowed to present his case to the city council for why he should be reinstated.

The council will then vote either to confirm McNeil’s termination or have him reinstated — but only if enough council members are present to take action.

A special called meeting earlier this month had to be scratched when not enough council members were present to form a quorum, and three council members left during an executive session at a regularly scheduled meeting the following week.

“I would hope that all six members of the council attend,” said Mayor Cheryl Walters, who has never chaired an appeal in her capacity as mayor. “This is of importance to the city.”

McNeil was terminated July 1 after a recording surfaced of him allegedly using a racial slur to describe interim police chief Antonio Mango.

McNeil, a member of the Meigs Police Department since 2017, had been interviewed in June to be the city’s next full-time police chief prior to the recording’s discovery.

Mango has since forwarded the recording to the state Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council for further review.

Last month’s termination was not the first for McNeil, who previously resigned in February after then-police chief Darrell Laster concluded an investigation that he claimed showed McNeil was clocking into work but not reporting for duty.

A POST Council investigation into the earlier alleged misconduct was later dismissed.