HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992-07-27 92-377 ORDER„ovacti Action
Date 7=4!7�2 Item No. 92-3])
DRESSER; Disrasshw, PmCaE¢e £e AppoiastapyR of City Cwn:Sl
Item/Subject Chair Pm Sorpote
Responsible Department: City Cwrcil
Commentary:
g9a [ausfeipal Cp¢atiws oo eitnae has disaased various pev rxae rot3ch tla
Council might adopt Far the appoinhoatt of a Coun:hh Q iz Pm 1Hrprae. 111s;
diswasims vas as a resuht of Cwnadll S .B suggestion at the hast Comn£1
lipeatin9.
the Cnieiteas £alt that it azvhd be apptoprahta to solleit tha vlewe of the full
Cwrcil prior to pxaresduri arty furthec on the issue.
Attachad phase find a w this issue prepared! W Erik Bheq;i h, City
SoliciTm.
D[Parn n, load
Manager's Comments:
Ci[y Monngn
Associated Informadom
order, NaaR.'asvLm,'e .
Budget Approval:
1`11111CDir[
Legal Approval: �y. 01A sqa,,/ ViltJ5 / srx [
Wori{s� /l/w$saZ. Wlfh Jph< iuXl5 9ny5as}ien ciryseekil”
vn ns#AX; rn[rnd),
Introduced For
OPassage
❑ First Reading Page _ of—
❑ Referral
In City Council duly 27, 1992
Council voted by shw of hands
5 Yes 4 No to vote for a vice
chair at no first meeting i
Novevkei a lose with voting for
Chai n
Council Attorney to draft propOael
r
City CI
q�a1J
as
92-377
MEMORANDUM
July 17, 1992
T0: Bangor City Council
FROM: Erik Stumpfel, City Solicitor
RE: procedure for Appointment of City
Council Chair Pio Tempore
Following Councilor Jane Saxl's suggestion at last Monday's
City Council meeting, I have retrieved my Memorandum dated February
21, 1992 addressing appointment of acting City Council Chairs. The
relevant sections of that Memo are attached.
Under Article II, Section 3 of Bangor's City Charter,
unless the Council makes some alternative provision, the City
Council retains the power to appoint an acting Council Chair or
Chair pro tempera in the absence of the regular Council Chair. As
stated in my earlier Memo, however, the Council has the authority
to determine its own rules of procedure, and therefore may make any
reasonable provision for appointment of an acting Council Chair or
Chair pro tem. Such provisions could include, for example, any
of the following:
(1) Selection of a permanent Council Chair
one tte oorr_e at the start of a given Council
year. This position could be selected as a
distinct office by majority vote of the
Council, or could perhaps be awarded to the
candidate who finishes second in the Council's
vote to select the regular Council Chair.
(2) Selection of a Council Chair pro tempers on a
rotating basis as the need arises according to
a predetermined list, as suggested by
Councilor Saxl.
(3) Selection of a Council Chair pig, tampers as the
need arises on the basis of seniority among
those Council members present.
(4) Allowing the regular Council Chair, by rule, to
designate a Council Chair pro tempore whenever
the regular Chair anticipates being absent from
a Council meeting.
Selection of an acting Chair or Council Chair oro tempore
under paragraphs (1)-(2) above could be done annually, by vote or
order of the Council, or the Council could amend its legislative
ordinance to prescribe the selection method.
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The chief purpose and benefit of prescribing a selection
method other than the current ad hoc procedure would be to
eliminate delays at outset—ofthe Council meetings and to remove
the selection process from the political arena.
P'S.
S.S.
Attachment
PC; City Manager
City Clerk
M
M
92-3A
IExcerpt from Memorandum dated February 21, 19921
ISSUES:
1. Anncintment Of Actino Council/Coomittee Chairs
(a) City Council Chair. Article II, Section 3 of the
Bangor City Charter, regarding appointment and duties of the
Council Chair, provides in its entirety as follows:
"At the first meeting, or as soon thereafter
as possible the City Council shall elect one
of its members as chairman of the council for
the ensuing year, and until hiscsor is
elected and qualified, and the City Council
may fill for the unexpired term any vacancy
as Chairman that may occur.
If the chairman shall fail from sickness,
disability, absence from the city or other
cause to attend to and perform the duties
incumbent on him as such chairman, the -
remaining members of the City Council may by
unanimous vote, after notice and hearing,
terminate the term of office of said chairman
and remove him therefrom and thereupon by
majority vote may elect some other member of
said City Council chairman and such newly
elected member shall thereupon and thereafter
hold the office and perform the duties of
chairman for the balance of that year, and
until his successor is elected and qualified.
m
The Chairman shall preside at all meetings of 92-37I
the council, and shall perform such other
duties, consistent with this office, as the
council may provide. He shall be entitled to
vote, and his vote shall be counted upon all
matters and things asvote of other members
of the council. The chairman shall be
cognized as the official head of the city
for ceremonial
ial purposes, and shall have the
pow and authority given to and perform the
duties required of mayors of cities for all
purposes of military law, and shall act a
mayor in so far as representation is provided
for the city by the mayor upon any board or
commission or otherwise provided by any
statute. In the temporary absence or
disability of the chairman of the City,
Council may
select a chairman Pro tempore
from among its number and he shall exercise
all the powers of the chairman ^ (Emphasis
Added)
Under this provision, the City Council is authorized to
select a chairman oro tempo_ by majority vote whenever the regular
chairman is absent from a Council meeting.
It, during the course of a Council meeting, the Council
Chairman finds it necessary to step down from the Chair, for
ample, to better participate in the debate on a particular item,
appointment of a chairman pro tezzoore is governed by Article 2 of
the Council's Legislative Ordinance (Chapt. I, Article 2, Laws and
Ordinances of the City of Bangor). The Legislative Ordinance does_
not address this issue specifically, but instead, in Section 14,
adopts Robert's Rules of Order as the procedural authority to
direct the course of the Council's proceedings. Section 58 of
Robert's Rules of order in turn contains the following discussion
of a chairman's power to appoint a temporary successor.
"If it is necessary for the chairman to
vacate the chair the first Vice President, if
there is o should take the chair, and i
his absencethenext one in order should take
it. If there is no vice president in the
hall, then the chairman may, if it is
necessary to vacate the chair, appoint a
chairman 'pro tem.', but the first
adjournment puts an end to the appointment,
which the assembly can terminate before, if
it pleases, by electing another chairman.
But the regular chairman, knowing that he
will be absent from a future meeting, cannot
authorize another member to act in his place
at such meeting; the secretary, or, in his
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92-3I]
absence, some other member should insuch
case call the meeting to order, anda
chairman 'pro tem.' be elected who wouldhold
office during that session, unless such
office is terminated by the entrance of the
president or a vice president, or by the
election of another chairman 'pro tem.• which
may be done by a majority vote."
The Bangor City Council has no regular "Vice President^ or
permanently -designated chairman pro tempore. Accordingly, under
the provision quoted above, a regular Council Chairman who is
present at a meeting of the Council, but who steps dawn from the
Chair, normally should be entitled to appoint a chairman pro
tempore.
An unresolved
solved issue i whether the Council Chairman should
be entitled to appoint a chairman pro tempore when he or she
Cates the chair due to a conflict of interest in regard to a
particular item under consideration by the Council. This situation
is not clearly addressed by our Legislative Ordinance or by
Robert's Rules of Order. However, Robert's Rules does discuss the
importance of avoiding any appearance of partiality on the part of
the chairman of a deliberative body. in addition, Section 3.7 of
the City's Code of Ethics (Chapt. 1, Art. 6, Laws and Ordinances of
the City of Bangor) provides as follows:
"3.7 Conflicts of interest. Bangor City Council
Agenda Items.
(A) Deliberation and Vote Prohibited. No City
Councilor
Board Member or Commission Member shall, in
such capacity, participate in the deliberation
on vote, or otherwise take Dart in the decision-
making process, on any agenda item before his or
her collective body in which he or a member of
his immediate family has a financial or special
interest, other than an interest held by the
public generally.
(D) Avoidance Of Assearance of Conflict. To avoid
the
appearance of a violation of this section, once
any individual City Councilor, Board Member or
Commission Member is determined to have a
conflict of interest in respect to any agenda
item, said individual shall immediately remove
himself or herself from the meeting room or t
the area of the xoom occu d b the1
Dubli c.' He or she shall not return to his
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I
h 1 t emb f th b tl it
deliberation 0 1 action on the item is com-
pleced. Nothing herein shall require an
individual Councilor, Hoard Member or Commission
Member to remove himself or herself for any
item contained on a 'Consent Agenda' o which
there has been determined by the other
members, and the right to abstain from voting
on the item has been granted." (Emphasis Added)
Under these provisions, it is possible that a Council
Chairman appointing a chairman pro taxoQre could be deemed to be
"taking part' in the decision-making process in violation of
Section 3.7(A). It is also possible to construe Section 3.7(D) as
meaning that a Council Chairman who has been disqualified from
participating on a particular item due to a conflict of interest
has not merely 'vacated" the Chair within the meaning of Section 58
of Robert's Rules of Order, but is in fact no longer present at the
Council's meeting for purposes Of the particular item concerned.
Under either of these interpretations, it would be appropriate for
the Council, by majority vote, to select a chairman pro two_.
Many of the issues relating to appointment of an acting
council chairman could be resolved by election of a permanent
council chairman oro tempore_. Although this office is not
designated in the City Charter, election of a permanent chairman
Pro tempore would be well within the Council's authority to
determine its own rules Of procedure under Article Ii, Section 8 of
the City Charter. Such a procedure could have the benefit as well
of encouraging regular attendance at Council meetings by future
Council chairmen, if a tradition developed of electing Council
members with differing political views to the respective offices of
Council Chairman and chairman uro, tempore.
(b) Committee Chairs. The procedure for appointment of
Committee Chairmen is set out in Article 3, Section 6 of the City's
Legislative Ordinance, Under that section, committee members and
chairmen are appointed by the Chairman of the City Council. The
ordinance makes no provision for appointment of temporary Committee
chairmen.
In the absence of a specific provision under the City's
Ordinances, Robert's Rules of Order again would control. The
procedure specified in Section 52 of Rcbert's Rules of Order for
selection of committee chairmen is as follows.
"Unless the assembly has appointed a chairman,
either directly or through its presiding
officer, the first named on a committee, and
in his absence the next named member, becomes
chairman, and so on and should act as such
unless the committee by a majority of its
number elects a chairman, which it has the
right to do if the assembly has not appointed
one, and which a standing committee usually
does.'
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92-377 a1
Under this provision, the senior member of the Council
Committee present, as designated by the Council Chairman at the
time Committee appointments were made for the yearconcerned, would
normally chair a Committee meeting in the absence of the regular
chairman, unless the Committee by majority vote decide to elect
mother member of the Committee as chairman oro tempore.
Accordingly, acting chairmanship of a Council Committee should
normally devolve without vote to the senior Committee member
present, unless there is an objection raised and a special vote
taken.
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