Firing an employee in executive session

[Guest Christy]

Can a Director of the meeting dismiss an employee in executive session then adding the dismissal for a vote after executive session during the meeting. The dismissal of the employee was not on the original agenda.

[Guest Zev]

What do the bylaws say about who can hire and fire employees?

[Joshua Katz]

While we're waiting for that answer, here are a few thoughts. So far as parliamentary procedure is concerned, firing an employee is a main motion and can be adopted in executive session or open session, so long as the body adopting it has that power. Applicable laws or your own rules may apply, however, as well. So far as RONR is concerned, a matter need not be on the agenda to be adopted; again, your rules or applicable laws may have something to say. Finally, I'm troubled by this phrase in the question:

3 hours ago, Guest Christy said:

Can a Director of the meeting dismiss an employee in executive session

Just what is meant by "Director of the meeting"? In general, a director is a member of a board, but there's no reason to add "of the meeting" after that unless something else is meant.

Also:

3 hours ago, Guest Christy said:

dismiss an employee in executive session then adding the dismissal for a vote after executive session during the meeting.

It's almost certainly the case that a single director cannot fire an employee. Directors have no power (unless your rules say otherwise) except as members of the board, i.e. except to vote on board matters. They don't carry individual authority around with them - again, unless your rules say otherwise. Also, an individual can no more take actions in executive session than in open session, leading me to suspect that "executive session" might have been misused in this question. To clarify, an executive session is a meeting or portion of a meeting which is closed to non-members (except those who are invited), whose minutes are kept secret, and whose participants are not permitted to discuss the proceedings with those not permitted to attend. Is this the sense in which you're using it, or do you mean something different?

As a general matter, motions adopted in executive session are just as good as those adopted any other time, so there's no need to adopt a motion twice, once in executive session and once out, and doing so is usually out of order.

[Richard Brown]

I agree with the post immediately above by Joshua Katz and I agree with his questions and concerns about the original post. I'm having a hard time understanding the original post.

The only thing I would add to Joshua's comment is that if this is a public body of some sort, such as a city council or a school board, the state open meetings law (Sunshine Law) might permit or require that certain Personnel matters be discussed only in executive session, but require that any actual votes on those items must be taken in open public session.

[Josh Martin]

12 hours ago, Joshua Katz said:

It's almost certainly the case that a single director cannot fire an employee. Directors have no power (unless your rules say otherwise) except as members of the board, i.e. except to vote on board matters. They don't carry individual authority around with them - again, unless your rules say otherwise.

Well, it may be that “the Director” is not a reference to a member of the board, but is instead a reference to the Executive Director, a common name for the principal employee of a nonprofit society. Frequently, the arrangement is that the board hires and fires the Executive Director, and the ED hires and fires other staff.

If that is the case, however, it is not clear why a vote is being taken. The original post seems to suggest that the person is being fired twice, which doesn’t make much sense.

[Joshua Katz]

17 minutes ago, Josh Martin said:

Well, it may be that “the Director” is not a reference to a member of the board, but is instead a reference to the Executive Director, a common name for the principal employee of a nonprofit society. Frequently, the arrangement is that the board hires and fires the Executive Director, and the ED hires and fires other staff.

 

That is one of the options I was thinking of (although the ED is not the Director of the meeting), but I'm still confused on how it fits with the rest of the question. I still think more information is needed.