Making an Vote, taken within Executive Session, Public

[Guest KWE]

At a special meeting of the board in September, it went into executive session for one matter. This matter resulted in a straw vote taken to indicate to a guest the board's preference on a particular issue. The straw vote was taken within executive session. At a committee meeting, after that special board meeting, one member of the committee wanted to talk about the straw vote at the board's next stated meeting, thereby making public something that was done in confidentiality.

Question: Can a straw vote, taken within the context of executive session, be made public to a variety of observers at the board's next stated meeting, which will be in a few days? If you could provide a RONR reference that would be great.

[Rob Elsman]

At a special meeting of the board in September, it went into executive session for one matter. This matter resulted in a straw vote taken to indicate to a guest the board's preference on a particular issue. The straw vote was taken within executive session. At a committee meeting, after that special board meeting, one member of the committee wanted to talk about the straw vote at the board's next stated meeting, thereby making public something that was done in confidentiality.

Question: Can a straw vote, taken within the context of executive session, be made public to a variety of observers at the board's next stated meeting, which will be in a few days? If you could provide a RONR reference that would be great.

The board is certainly free to lift the secrecy of the "straw vote", which was improperly taken. The proper motion is Rescind or Amend Something Previously Adopted. I'm away from my copy of the book, so maybe someone else will kindly provide a citation.

[Sean Hunt]

At a special meeting of the board in September, it went into executive session for one matter. This matter resulted in a straw vote taken to indicate to a guest the board's preference on a particular issue. The straw vote was taken within executive session. At a committee meeting, after that special board meeting, one member of the committee wanted to talk about the straw vote at the board's next stated meeting, thereby making public something that was done in confidentiality.

Question: Can a straw vote, taken within the context of executive session, be made public to a variety of observers at the board's next stated meeting, which will be in a few days? If you could provide a RONR reference that would be great.

Notwithstanding that straw polls are normally out of order, the rules for executive session are quite simple: The only bodies that have the power to lift the secrecy on an executive session are the body that was in executive session, and (generally) any superior body. The board can opt to make the poll or any other portion of the executive session public.

[Chris Harrison]

There are two aspects to your question. First, a member can be subject to discipline for violating the secrecy of an Executive Session (RONR p. 96). That being said straw polls are not in order to start off with (RONR p. 429).

[Chris Harrison]

The proper motion is Rescind or Amend Something Previously Adopted. I'm away from my copy of the book, so maybe someone else will kindly provide a citation.

RONR pp. 305-310. However, I am not quite sure how Rescind/Amend Something Previously Adopted fits into this scenario.

[Gary Novosielski]

The board is certainly free to lift the secrecy of the "straw vote", which was improperly taken. The proper motion is Rescind or Amend Something Previously Adopted. I'm away from my copy of the book, so maybe someone else will kindly provide a citation.

I'm not sure how R/ASPA pertains here. The choice to change the status of some information from confidential to public seems to me to be a majority choice, and a simple main motion to lift the secrecy on some or part of the business would do the trick.

The twist is that this (presumably debatable) motion would itself need to take place in executive session, not simply raised in open session at the next meeting, lest the motion itself reveal the facts before the vote.