Shift in majority

[Guest Evelyn]

Last week a majority of the Board voted not to continue the employment of the President at our University. On July 1, two new Board members will come on to the Board and the majority will become the minority. Is there anyway to stop a rescension of the vote taken last week.

[George Mervosh]

Vote against it, or against a motion to re-hire him.

[hmtcastle]

Last week a majority of the Board voted not to continue the employment of the President at our University.

They should have voted to fire him. If it was just a matter of letting his contract expire, they didn't have to do anything. In any case, once his employment is ended, it's too late to rescind the motion. But, as Mr. Mervosh noted, he could be re-hired.

[Weldon Merritt]

They should have voted to fire him. If it was just a matter of letting his contract expire, they didn't have to do anything.

It could be a situation where the contract has an automatic renewal clause, unless one party elects not to renew. If so, it seems to me that a motion to not continue the employmeht would be in order. Otherwise, I concur.

[Guest dan]

Take some sort of action that will make it difficult to rescind the action.

[J. J.]

Take some sort of action that will make it difficult to rescind the action.

What sort?

[Guest dan]

Take away the budget for salary for the position. Reduce or eliminate any benefots for the employee. Throw him out of an employer supplied housing. Or something like that. It could be a challenge, but try to be "creative". Put up a lot of extra hurdles for a mew majority to overcome.

Perhaps terminate the person immediately with the remaining part of the contract paid in cash -- and then some.

Remember the motion that passed to paint the clubhouse blue -- it can be rescinded UNTIL the paint has gone on the clubhouse -- then it is too late.

[J. J.]

Take away the budget for salary for the position. Reduce or eliminate any benefots for the employee. Throw him out of an employer supplied housing. Or something like that. It could be a challenge, but try to be "creative". Put up a lot of extra hurdles for a mew majority to overcome.

Perhaps terminate the person immediately with the remaining part of the contract paid in cash -- and then some.

Remember the motion that passed to paint the clubhouse blue -- it can be rescinded UNTIL the paint has gone on the clubhouse -- then it is too late.

There can always another motion to repaint the clubhouse orange.

[Trina]

Last week a majority of the Board voted not to continue the employment of the President at our University. On July 1, two new Board members will come on to the Board and the majority will become the minority. Is there anyway to stop a rescension of the vote taken last week.

July 1 is less than two weeks away. Does the board have the capability to meet again before then? If not, the board (as a body) has no way of taking any further action anyway.

Further, if the board's opinion on the issue (the continued employment of the University President) is about to change, with the change in board membership, why are some of the current board members seeking ways to take away the freedom of action of the future membership?

Rescinding a previously passed motion does take a higher voting threshhold than passing the motion in the first place -- two-thirds vote without notice OR majority vote with notice OR majority vote of the entire membership (of the body which is voting). You can hope that the new membership will not have the votes to rescind. You can try to persuade other members not to vote to rescind.

Also, motions can only be rescinded to the extent that they have not been fully carried out.

ETA:

Mr. Gerber makes the important point that we don't know if your board's vote was for or against a motion. If the motion was 'to continue the employment of John Doe as president', and the motion failed, then the exact same motion can be brought again at the next meeting, and would require only the usual voting margin to pass (majority, unless your own rules specify a higher vote margin on such issues). There would be nothing to rescind.

[George Mervosh]

Also, motions can only be rescinded to the extent that they have not been fully carried out.

That gets quite sticky to determine in areas of contracts and employment. Thankfully we don't deal with that part here.

[Josh Martin]

Take away the budget for salary for the position. Reduce or eliminate any benefots for the employee. Throw him out of an employer supplied housing. Or something like that. It could be a challenge, but try to be "creative". Put up a lot of extra hurdles for a mew majority to overcome.

Removing the salary and benefits from the budget for the President of the University seems counterproductive to the poster's goals, as well as just generally unwise. This might make it harder for the board to retain or rehire the current person, but it would also make it hard to hire anyone else, which I assume would be the goal of those who wish to remove the current President from the position.

The housing suggestion, while it is at least not counterproductive, seems rather childish and ineffective. The board could easily put the President back in the housing provided by the university (if indeed any such housing is provided). I think the board should probably also run the legality of that by a lawyer if they wish to look into that option.

Perhaps terminate the person immediately with the remaining part of the contract paid in cash -- and then some.

Remember the motion that passed to paint the clubhouse blue -- it can be rescinded UNTIL the paint has gone on the clubhouse -- then it is too late.

If the person has already been fired the motion couldn't be rescinded but a new motion could always be made to rehire the person, although it may complicate things as the board may need to follow the university's hiring processes at that point. Of course, I suspect there are also contractual difficulties with terminating the person immediately, but that's a question for a lawyer. Likewise, the clubhouse could always be painted again.

[Shmuel Gerber]

Last week a majority of the Board voted not to continue the employment of the President at our University. On July 1, two new Board members will come on to the Board and the majority will become the minority. Is there anyway to stop a rescension of the vote taken last week.

A vote cannot be rescinded; only an adopted motion that has continuing force and effect can be rescinded. Since we don't what motion was voted on and whether that vote was in the negative or the affirmative, it's difficult to say what the procedural options are. (Although that has not prevented some intrepid attempts to do so. )