Appeal of board chair ruling

[Guest deebee]

Brief set up : board comprised of 6 elected members plus 2 non-elected (minority group representatives) ... total 8 

At a regular board meeting with two elected members absent, a member asked to give notice of motion for next month's regular meeting ... to rescind a motion from 2013. 

The board chair (E) ruled her notice of motion out of order and did not allow it. 

Board member appealed the chair's ruling. 

Vice-chair(T) assumed role of chair and asked for a show of hands to "is the ruling of the board chair overturned?"

There was some confusion by one member as to what exactly he was voting for or against i.e. to rescind a previous motion, the notice of motion, the chair's refusal to allow notice of motion.

At this point there is some whispering between chair(E), vice-chair(T), non-board staff at table...and the chair(E) says aloud: "you're voting for or against the chair"  

There are three yes, two no...and the board chair(E) votes no...and declares a tied vote.   He goes on to say that he, the chair, will vote to decide a tie, and declares his out of order ruling to stand and the notice of motion not allowed.

my question:  does the chair vote in an appeal of his own ruling? 

 

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Yes.

[Bruce Lages]

Did the Board chair, at any time during either the initial ruling of out of order or the appeal of that ruling, explain the reasoning behind the out of order ruling?  I can't think of very many situations which would warrant ruling that giving notice of a motion would is out of order.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

The chair may vote if he is a member. He need not turn over the chair to conduct the vote. The question should be phrased as whether the decision of the chair should stand, not the other way around. Your chair greatly confused matters by phrasing the question in opposing senses. And then, as Mr. Lages points out, it was a likely suspect ruling to begin with. Not an impressive performance.

[Joshua Katz]

I can't find a single thing here that was done correctly.

1.  How was giving notice out of order?

2.  There is no reason the chair can't preside over an appeal.

3.  Whoever is presiding needs to clearly explain the question and the meaning of a vote.

4.  The question is on sustaining the ruling of the chair, not overturning it.

5.  You are not voting "for or against the chair."  You are voting on sustaining the ruling of the chair, which is no more grave a matter than disagreeing with a member in debate.

6.  If there are three yes, two no, it is proper for the chair to vote if it would change the outcome, which it would in this case if voting no.  (Given the size of the board, it would also be proper to use small board rules and have the chair vote with everyone else.)  However:

a.  The board chair was not presiding, and hence should have voted with everyone else - the presiding officer, if anyone, should have held their vote to see if it would impact the outcome, and 

b.  The board chair cannot vote twice - if he cast his vote to create a tie, he can't then vote again to "break it."

7.  When the vote was tied, the motion should have been declared not adopted.  It isn't entirely clear to me what the motion was, but it seems everyone there understood the question to be such that "yes" overturns the (absurd) ruling and "no" sustains it, so when the motion failed, the ruling was not overturned.  This is in keeping with the principle that the chair's ruling stands until overturned by a majority.  

[Rev Ed]

It is rare that notice would be denied.  There are a couple occasions, for example if another motion is being discussed or if any another member has the floor.  So, I suspect, as others have noted, that the decision of the Chairman was incorrect.  However, when appealed, the proper question for the members would be "Do you accept the decision of the Chairman?"  If necessary, members should have it made clear that a Yes vote means that they believe the Chairman made the right decision and a No vote means that the members think the Chairman made a bad decision.