5.D. PRSR 07-12-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Introduction TtffSE RULES OF PROCEDURE were designed for use by small local government boards. "Small" is a relatiwe~ term; boards with as many as twenty-five members may fmd the rules useful. Appendix A lists some of tEte kinds of boards for which these rnles were designed. The roles incorporate general principles of parliamentary procedure and applicable North Carolina laws. Essentially the rules are a modified version of those found in Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (hereinafter referred to as RONR). However, RONR is intended primarily to guide the deliberations of large legislative bodies; its detailed rules aze not always appropriate for small governing boards. A small board can afford to do some things that aze not appropriate for a large body, and in some cases the procedme prescribed by RONR for larger assemblies is unnecessarily cumbersome. RONR itself recognizes that more informality is desirable with small boards (RONR § 48, pp. 477-78). These roles detail the more informal procedures that might be expected with a small board. This book modifies RONR with the following principles in mind: 1. The board must act as a body. 2. The boazd should proceed in the most efficient manner possible. 3. The board must act by at least a majority. 4. Every member must have an equal opportunity to participate in decision making. 5. The boazd's rules of procedure must be followed consistently. 6. The boazd's actions should be the result of a decision on the merits and not a manipulation of the procedural rules. The North Carolina laws that establish or authorize the many small boazds used in local government usually provide little or no guidance as to the procedures to be followed by such boazds. The laws r.-. governing city councils and boazds of county commissioners do give more specific guidelines for those `. s boards; rnles of procedure for them are covered in two sepazate Institute of Government publications. [See d Joseph S. Ferrell, Rules of Procedure for the Board of County Commissioners, 2d ed. (Chapel Hill: Institute of Government, 1994) and A. Fleming Bell, H, Suggested Rules of Procedure for a City Council (Chapel Hill: Institute of Government, 1986, new edition forthcoming).] Any procedural rules adopted by a small board must of course follow the requirements specifically prescribed for that boazd by the state legislature or other authorizing body. Particular procedural statutes for some of the more common kinds of small local boazds authorized by state law aze listed in Appendix A. The roles presented in this book are drafted somewhat generally so that each kind of local boazd can easily adapt them to comply with statutory requirements particulaz to it. Many of the roles suggested here, do, however, reflect the provisions bf the North Cazolina open meetings law, Chapter 143, Article 33C, of the North Cazolina General Statutes (hereinafter G.S.) (G.S. 143-318.9 to 143-318.18). The open meetings law applies to practically all of the small local government boards that would have occasion to use this book: it covers all elected or appointed authorities, boazds, comarissions, councils, or other bodies of one or more counties, cities, school administrative units, or other .political subdivisionsor public corporations in the state that (1) have two or more members and (2) exercise or are authorized to exercise a legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, or advisory function. It also applies to most public hospital governing boards, including the boards of nonprofit hospital corporations. The law does not apply,. however, to certain staff meetings. See G.S. 143- 318.10(b) and (c). When the roles in this book state procedures that aze required by sections of the open meetings law, that fact i~ noted in the Comments. Local boards must follow procedures required by the open meetings law whethecor hot they adopt some version of the rules in this book. And, of course, there maybe other proc8~ra1 statutes that apply to the boazd as well (see Appendix A). ~. A local board has a relatively free hand in designing its own roles of procedure, as long as the