Member involved in ethics investigation running for office

[Guest Jim Salsberg]

Can a member of a private Association run for office while charges are pending against them? The member has been served with the charges and the Association is in the process of empaneling an ethics committee. The member is currently on the ballot and the Board is unsure of how to handle the situation or if the membership should be informed of the pending allegations.

All responses and advice are welcome. Thank you.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

Can a member of a private Association run for office while charges are pending against them?

Yes.

No rule of Robert's Rules of Order is violated.

[Gary Novosielski]

Can a member of a private Association run for office while charges are pending against them? The member has been served with the charges and the Association is in the process of empaneling an ethics committee. The member is currently on the ballot and the Board is unsure of how to handle the situation or if the membership should be informed of the pending allegations.

Why would the association need to be informed that it is in the process of empaneling an ethics committee? Wouldn't it know that already if it was actually doing it?

The board had better be careful and handle the matter as described in the bylaws or in Chapter XX of RONR. If the committee is just being established, how can charges (and presumably specifications) already be pending? Things don't sound right.

There is no rule in RONR under which a member would be prohibited from running because he is under investigation. People might not decide to vote for him, but that's another matter.

[Josh Martin]

The board had better be careful and handle the matter as described in the bylaws or in Chapter XX of RONR. If the committee is just being established, how can charges (and presumably specifications) already be pending? Things don't sound right.

Considering the talk of "empaneling an ethics committee," I suspect that the organization has customized disciplinary procedures, and the term "pending" is clearly not used in the parliamentary sense. Organizations which have customized disciplinary procedures usually don't have charges and specifications, either. They have just one category, often called either "charges" or "grievances," which tends to be in the nature of what RONR calls "specifications."