Setting the agenda

[Guest Martin]

I'm a board member in a neighborhood council in Los Angeles. Our bylaws state that the executive committee shall set the agenda, but unlike other councils whose agendas say they need to meet, ours say nothing of the sort. For the last year we've been setting the agenda via email, always being cautious not to have serial discussions on the items to be debated.

Many neighborhood councils do the agendas this way, but a city rep informed my council president that we needed to meet to set the agendas, that emails were not allowed as it violates the Brown Act to send a proposed agenda for approval to all e-board members.

Does Robert's Rules say anything about what is appropriate and what isn't? I'll rephrase, what is legal and what isn't?

[jstackpo]

Neither RONR, nor us folks here, can (or do) offer legal advice - only procedural.

 

We do point out (p. 251( c ) ) that RONR does say that any procedural requirements in the law supersede RONR's requirements (where they may conflict), but that is it.   Whether "setting an agenda" falls under this heading, will be up to you and your legal team.

 

RONR also notes that voting by e-mail (or other absentee methods) is not proper unless authorized in the bylaws, but whether such authorization (if in bylaws)  is blocked by your state law is again up to you all to figure out.

[Tom Coronite]

http://www.robertsrules.com/faq.html#14

 

Click the link for some helpful info regarding agendas. Per RONR, the agenda isn't "set" until it's adopted at the meeting.  But it appears your bylaws have some specialized rules regarding how the agenda is set, and only your organization can properly interpret them. For legal issues (and the Brown Act) you're probably best served talking to an attorney.

 

(Sorry to repeat - the above reply didn't appear until I had submitted mine)

[Guest Martin]

Thank you both for your responses. No where on our agenda do we list 'approval of agenda' or even approve it at the outset of a meeting. Once the e-board approves it a week before and it is posted, it isn't changed. The remaining board members have no say in amending it or removing items either. They are asked to submit agenda items for consideration, however, before the e-board votes to approve the agenda.

Rather than giving a board member a chance to remove an item they no longer wish to speak to as suggested, the item is usually tabled for the next meeting and so forth. Since our bylaws say nothing about how the agenda should be put together, I will make a recommendation to the e-board to implement approving the agenda at the beginning of each meeting or amending it before we vote to approve it.

Thank you again. As for the issue of using email to set the agenda, I will meet with the city attorney to find out if we can continue doing it that way, which seems easiest and eliminates the need to meet given our busy schedules.

[jstackpo]

Also ask your lawyer, since you are apparently a public body, what the law says about any possible requirements to make your agenda public (well) before the meeting.  This way the general public (those who are interested, anyway) can ready comments (or something) and not have to put up with surprises.  This sort of relates to open meeting rules, I'll bet.

[Richard Brown]

I agree with the others but will add that your method of setting the agenda in advance....essentially setting it in stone prior to the meeting so that it cannot be amended at the meeting.... seems most unusual and is definitely contrary to RONR.

 

Unless you have a rule or state law to the contrary, RONR is quite clear that the agenda prepared prior to the meeting is merely a proposed agenda and does not become the agenda and is not binding until it is adopted at the meeting.  Prior to being adopted at the meeting, it can be amended by the members in attendance by majority vote.  After adoption, it can be amended by a two thirds vote.

 

Are you sure that either your rules or state law allow you to prepare a binding agenda in advance that cannot be modified by the members at the meeting?   That would be most unusual unless, as Dr. Stackpole pointed out, you are a public body of some sort and are bound by state open meetings laws (sunshine laws), where such a provision might be in the law. 

 

I will also echo the concerns that others in this thread raised about you conducting business and setting the agenda via email.  That is strictly forbidden by RONR unless your bylaws or state law authorize it.   Having the chairman email with the secretary and others before the meeting to come up with a non-binding proposed agenda to be submitted for adoption at the meeting is fine.  But to actually adopt it outside of a meeting is completely wrong unless you have a rule authorizing it.

[Guest Martin]

Since we've never approved an agenda at the beginning of a meeting I always assumed, perhaps mistakenly so, that we could never ammend it. Our bylaws say nothing of not being able to change the agenda at the outset of the meeting. Because this isn't a practice we've done since my term began a year ago, I will insist our agenda has a line item at the top requiring we vote to approve the agenda. This makes sense to me and I suspect it will make sense to our board. Our boundary area covers 60K residents, and there have been times when we've had time sensitive issues that we couldn't discuss or take action on because I just assumed we could not add to the agenda, so we had to wait another month to take it on...by then it was a bit late.

Thank you all for helping out this novice. I will bring this up to the e-board and the entire board at our next rules and bylaws committee meeting.

[jstackpo]

And be sure to check with the city attorney about the possibility of mandatory advance notice  --  if it is required then it wouldn't be proper to amend the agenda at the start of the meeting, at least by adding things.

[Guest Martin]

According to the Brown Act, we are mandated to post the agenda at least 24-hour before a Special Meeting is held. For any other meeting, ie general meeting, we are mandated to post the agenda at least 72-hours ahead of the meeting so the community can have a chance to prepare. We are also mandated to post the agenda in 1 location that is accessible 24-hours a day and 5 additional locations. If we have a website, we are only required to post in the 24-hour location and online. Either way we are required to give stakeholders some advanced notice.

[jstackpo]

That's fine, but be SURE to ask your lawyer whether those Brown Act posting rules preclude making additions to the agenda at the time of the meeting.

[Richard Brown]

According to the Brown Act, we are mandated to post the agenda at least 24-hour before a Special Meeting is held. For any other meeting, ie general meeting, we are mandated to post the agenda at least 72-hours ahead of the meeting so the community can have a chance to prepare. We are also mandated to post the agenda in 1 location that is accessible 24-hours a day and 5 additional locations. If we have a website, we are only required to post in the 24-hour location and online. Either way we are required to give stakeholders some advanced notice.

 

That's fine, but be SURE to ask your lawyer whether those Brown Act posting rules preclude making additions to the agenda at the time of the meeting.

I agree with Dr. Stackpole.  We are a bit hamstrung here because we do not render legal  advice.  Having read what I believe are the pertinent portions of the Brown Act, it seems to me that agendas posted prior to a meeting are not set in stone and can be amended at a meeting in certain circumstances.   It seems that California neighborhood councils are a particular type of entity that may be covered by the act.

 

So, I agree that legal advice from an attorney familiar with both the Brown Act and California neighborhood councils is in your best interest.  We here cannot advise you on what it requires.  We can only advise you on what RONR says.

[Shmuel Gerber]

According to the Brown Act, we are mandated to post the agenda at least 24-hour before a Special Meeting is held. For any other meeting, ie general meeting, we are mandated to post the agenda at least 72-hours ahead of the meeting so the community can have a chance to prepare. We are also mandated to post the agenda in 1 location that is accessible 24-hours a day and 5 additional locations. If we have a website, we are only required to post in the 24-hour location and online. Either way we are required to give stakeholders some advanced notice.

 

RONR does not require any public notice of meetings. However, it is obvious that such a rule as you refer to would be of little effect if the board could simply amend the agenda at the meeting by adding additional items that were not provided in the public notice.