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Who can speak on an item


Guest QuestioninJuly

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Guest QuestioninJuly

Hello!

 

So I'm a member of my University's Student Government. This government is split into three branches.

For the simplicity of this question, the Executive officers are the Attorney General, President, Vice President, Senate President, Chief of Staff and Secretary. The legislative officers are senators.

 

Senate meetings are subject to open meeting law and robert's rules of order, these meetings are chaired by the Senate President. Senators are able to make motions and vote on these motions.

When discussing an action item, is there anything in RROR that would prevent the Secretary, Attorney General, or Chief of Staff from speaking on the item? Either when it is opened, or in the period of question and discussion.

 

Thank you!

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Under the rules of RONR, the right to speak in debate is limited to members of the body that is meeting.  If the executive officers are not members of the Senate, then they are granted no right to speak in Senate meetings, at least not by RONR.  If they are members, then they have all the rights of members.

But the Open Public Meeting law is a different story.  It may very well grant the (possibly limited) right to speak to virtually anyone who shows up.  However, legal questions are beyond the scope of this forum, so determining exactly what legal rights belong to whom in your specific jurisdiction is something we're not prepared to offer advice about.  You'll need to check your local regulations, possibly with the aid of an attorney.  What I can confidently say is that there's no rule in RONR to suggest that those officers have any less rights under the Open Public Meetings laws than anyone off the street would have.

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If your governing documents do not make the executive officers members of the senate, then according to RONR they would have no rights with respect to the conduct of business in the senate. This would include having no right to speak  - either in the course of debate or not - and certainly no right to vote. Although RONR would also not grant the executive officers a right to attend senate sessions, since you indicate that your meetings are subject to an open meeting law, this would override the restriction imposed by RONR.

Whether the senate president is also subject to certain restrictions, or is considered to also be a member of the senate as well as an executive officer will have to be in your rules somewhere. For comparison, the vice president of the United States acts as the presiding officer of the US senate, but only has the right to vote if the senate is equally divided in votes.

Note also, that according to RONR, the senate may grant executive officers (or any other non-membesrs)the right to speak when no motion is pending by a majority vote, and to speak in debate on a motion by a 2/3 vote

Edited by Bruce Lages
added last sentence
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5 hours ago, Guest Guest said:

This is a student government. The Senate President is the chair of the p.

Could they yield the floor to an executive officer so that they may speak on a matter?

These meetings are subject to OML

As has already been explained, if these persons are not members of the Senate (as appears to be the case), they have no right under RONR to speak at a meeting of the Senate. The Senate may, if it wishes, permit non-members to speak in debate by a 2/3 vote (or unanimous consent), however, that is not a decision the President can make on his own. The Senate could also adopt its own rules on this subject if it wishes. For example, perhaps the Senate would prefer to adopt a rule permitting executive officers to speak in debate, rather than deciding each instance on a case-by-case basis. Such rules would be special rules of order, which require a 2/3 vote with notice or a vote of a majority of the entire membership for adoption.

What rights non-members do and do not have under your state's open meeting law is a question for an attorney.

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