Governence Committee Minutes
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Present: Members: Becky Sterrett, Sharon Young, Stephen Volkmann, Grayson Atha and David Hegley (Chair) Guests: Ayden Ergun (OSU Student) and Miles Curtis
Meeting called to order @ 6:10 PM
1. Discussed building an index for the UAC by laws.
Ø Goal is to identify key areas to build an index around. Each Committee member was assigned a general area to investigate and begin building an index around.
§ Committees – Stephen Volkmann
§ Elections – Becky Sterrett
§ Meetings – Grayson Atha
§ Members – David Hegley
§ Officers – Stephen Volkmann
§ Schedule – Sharon Young
Ø A draft of the information collected by each member will be collected prior to the next Committee meeting and complied by Commissioner Hegley.
2. Reviewed Robert’s Rules of order and how it deals with a motion to “refer to Committee”Ø “Refer to a committee”, According to Robert’s Rules the correct terminology is “Motion to Commit”, but refer to a committee is acceptable. The key points to this type of motion are:
§ It is a subsidiary motion to a main motion (treated just like a motion to amend)
§ Requires a majority vote to pass
§ Is amendable when it is the active motion on the floor. § Is debatable (only about the motion to commit). It is never in order to debate if the main motion is good or bad when discussing this subsidiary motion.
§ Always identify the committee to which the motion is being referred to
§ This motion can include instructions like: when to report back, etc.
§ Motion to Commit is amendable
3. Discussed whether there is merit to creating a formal letter writing policy for the Commission.
Ø The committee felt additional discussion was need on this topic but some areas discussed included:
§ Content of any letter the Commission is going to vote on should be provided with the agenda. If a letter is brought to the floor during the Commission meeting it should be referred to Committee.
§ There is merit to putting together a letter writing procedure that includes all the necessary information that could be covered in a letter from the Commission and where the letter should be sent, etc.
§ It was also recommended all committees include the roll call vote tally for any motion voted on including letters out of Committee.
4. Discussed if the January 2009 decision to follow Robert’s Rules of order in regards to when a Chairperson should speak was going OK. The Committee felt that situation is much better and moving forward with any additional by law changes is not necessary at this time.5. Commissioner Hegley gave an update on pending by law changes
Ø Ability of the Commission to rescind a vote, currently not allowed by UAC by laws, the committee voting to change this by laws after a review by City Officials. Currently this is under review by the City Attorney’s office and Mike Puckett .
Ø Removal of the Ex-Officio status currently held by all commissioners at Committee meetings. The Committee passed a motion to remove this by law pending Commission approval on 11/5/2008. Commissioner Hegley did not move this motion forward per original schedule at the April 2009 meeting. The Committee decided it was not fair with elections coming up to bring it the Commission in May for a first reading. The Committee recommends carrying this over to next Commission year business.
6. Commissioner Hegley provided a status update on Commission wide elections. The City has just provided the contact information requested by the Committee to send out letters of interest in this initiative. Letters should go out in May to all Area Commissions7. Other General Information
Ø The Committee would like to send out a highlight report that includes all the by Rules that were reviewed and clarified this year. This should be available by the June meeting.
Ø The Current speaker slips for the Commission were reviewed and the changes requested by the Committee. All were OK, although it was requested to change the time someone can turn in a slip to speak on zoning cases from 6:30 to 7:00.
Meeting Adjourned @ 7:03Next meeting is tentatively scheduled for June 3, 2009 @ Northwood and High Building, Room 100, 6:00 – 7:00 PM but this may change due to schedule conflicts for many of the Committee members.