resignations Resignation with nothing in writing or verbal

[Guest Char]

Recently, our mayor said that a board member resigned and he the brought up another member to be voted on to take his place. The board did not receive any written or verbal from the resigning board member. Is this legal? 

[Joshua Katz]

The resignation is effective when accepted. It sounds like you didn't take any action on it, but took up the question of replacing the member, which is sufficient. Is the issue whether or not you should believe the Mayor? I suppose that's up to you, but if the Mayor is lying, presumably the board member will show up at some point...

In any case, you ask if it's legal. We can't answer that, we can only answer questions about parliamentary procedure. 

Finally, regarding "brought up another member to be voted on" (member of what? presumably not the board), the question is what  your rules say about filling vacancies. Absent any such governing provisions, in law, bylaws, or elsewhere, the body which first chose the member fills the vacancy. You don't say who is supposed to be voting on this, but I'm assuming it's the board, which may or may not be proper.

 

[Josh Martin]

53 minutes ago, Guest Char said:

Recently, our mayor said that a board member resigned and he the brought up another member to be voted on to take his place. The board did not receive any written or verbal from the resigning board member. Is this legal? 

I don’t know whether it is legal, but it is not in compliance with RONR. A resignation may be submitted orally at a meeting or submitted in writing outside of a meeting. The board may not accept a resignation which has not been offered.

49 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

The resignation is effective when accepted. It sounds like you didn't take any action on it, but took up the question of replacing the member, which is sufficient. Is the issue whether or not you should believe the Mayor? I suppose that's up to you, but if the Mayor is lying, presumably the board member will show up at some point...

Yes, but at this point, there is no resignation to accept. Regardless of whether the board believes the mayor, a resignation may be offered orally at a meeting or otherwise must be submitted in writing. Nothing in RONR permits a resignation to be submitted by a third party.

51 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

Finally, regarding "brought up another member to be voted on" (member of what? presumably not the board), the question is what  your rules say about filling vacancies. Absent any such governing provisions, in law, bylaws, or elsewhere, the body which first chose the member fills the vacancy. You don't say who is supposed to be voting on this, but I'm assuming it's the board, which may or may not be proper.

I would add that, if the rules in RONR are controlling, previous notice is required to fill a vacancy. Since this appears to be some sort of public body, however, it seems highly likely that there is some rule in applicable law governing this subject.

[Joshua Katz]

3 minutes ago, Josh Martin said:

I don’t know whether it is legal, but it is not in compliance with RONR. A resignation may be submitted orally at a meeting or submitted in writing outside of a meeting. The board may not accept a resignation which has not been offered.

57 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

What if the board member gets into a fight with the Mayor over lunch, screams "I'm quitting and I want nothing to do with this city ever again!" and leaves, never submitting a letter or coming to another meeting? Are they stuck with him occupying the spot unless they either use discipline or a "until successors..." clause to remove him?

[Josh Martin]

Just now, Joshua Katz said:

What if the board member gets into a fight with the Mayor over lunch, screams "I'm quitting and I want nothing to do with this city ever again!" and leaves, never submitting a letter or coming to another meeting? Are they stuck with him occupying the spot unless they either use discipline or a "until successors..." clause to remove him?

So far as the rules in RONR are concerned, yes. Nothing in RONR permits a member to submit a resignation orally to the Mayor alone over lunch.

[Joshua Katz]

With all respect, to that extent, I think the rules in RONR are incorrect. (Of course, readers should follow them instead of my rules of disorder, I'm just commenting.) If there is some question about the resignation, I agree with the rules in RONR, but where everyone knows the person wants out, the person has taken actions or made omissions consistent with that understanding (obviously, the body should not rush to accept a hastily-made resignation, but if the person has acted in a manner showing he wants nothing to do with the organization, such as returning property, etc.), and the body accepts it, in my opinion (and my opinion alone) there ought to be no need for discipline if the successors clause is absent. There might not even be, at least for quite some time, a reason for discipline, absent the screaming in my example.