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RONR for this situation


Guest Bystandingtaxpayer

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Guest Bystandingtaxpayer

There's much debate over this issue in our town related to a school facility issue.  We have a situation facing the school board to fund repairs to a debilitated building.  The SB hired a consultant to determine bids for the various aspects of the project and to come up with an overall estimate to determine whether it was worth making the investments or not.  A taxpayer who was also a bidder on the project showed up at the meeting to present his bid.  Difficult situation as the bidding process was not closed but his tax payer rights would have been violated.  One of the board members commented that we was going to recuse himself from the meeting while the presentation was made due to the fact that is was circumventing the RFP process for this project.  There was NO conflict of interest in the case so likely a misuse of the word excuse.  The member continued to part of the discussion for another 10 minutes until the taxpayer took the stand to do this presentation then commented, "I'm going to step away until this is done."

 

After the presentation was complete the member returned to the meeting immediately and continued with the discussion.  In the end, said member made the motion to not make the investments which seconded and passed by the Board.

 

Understand the rules as far as conflict of interest go but what do RONR say in this case?  Is this simply a misuse of the word recuse?  It is within this members rights to take part in parts of the discussion?  Is it right for them to make the motion and also vote?

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RONR doesn't use the term "recuse."  However RONR p. 407 does say,

 

No member should vote on a question in which he has a direct personal or pecuniary interest not common to other members of the organization. For example, if a motion proposes that the organization enter into a contract with a commercial firm of which a member of the organization is an officer and from which contract he would derive personal pecuniary profit, the member should abstain from voting on the motion. However, no member can be compelled to refrain from voting in such circumstances.
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Understand the rules as far as conflict of interest go but what do RONR say in this case?

 

See FAQ #9.

 

Is this simply a misuse of the word recuse?

 

RONR doesn't use the word "recuse."

 

It is within this members rights to take part in parts of the discussion?  Is it right for them to make the motion and also vote?

 

The member always has the right to speak in debate, to make a motion, and to vote, unless these rights are suspended as a result of formal disciplinary procedures or a provision in the organization's bylaws or applicable law.

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I have no idea what the member was trying to accomplish by leaving the meeting.  If he thought procedures were violated he should have raised a Point of Order.

 

I'm not sure where the taxpayer's "rights as a taxpayer" come in, but they're not in RONR.  If the board feels that what he did was unseemly, that might affect how they vote on his proposal, but other than that, no rules in RONR were broken, as long as the board consented to hear what he had to say.

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