Scenario 1: A city council has six members and no vacant seats. Three of the members fail to show up for this month’s regular meeting, leaving only the mayor and the other three members in attendance. Scenario 2: The same council, but four of the six members attend the meeting, and the mayor is absent. […]
Posts Tagged ‘quorum’
Quorum and Members Who Don’t Vote: The Court of Appeals Weighs In
Monday, June 9th, 2014In my last blog post, I concluded that all members in attendance at a meeting of a local government board should be deemed present for quorum purposes, even those who for whatever reason decline or aren’t permitted to deliberate or vote on the business at hand. At the time I hadn’t seen a recent opinion by the North Carolina […]
Is a Quorum Necessary for a Public Hearing?
Friday, April 25th, 2014In accordance with G.S. 160A-364, a city has scheduled a public hearing on a proposed amendment to its zoning ordinance. Notice of the hearing has been provided in accordance with the statute, but it now appears that there will not be a quorum present on the day of the hearing. The council does not expect […]
Remote Participation in Meetings
Tuesday, August 20th, 2013A local government board member will not be able to attend an upcoming meeting. Can she participate by calling in? Regular blog followers may recall that I have written several posts on this topic. With the benefit of your comments and some additional research, I’ve replaced those blog posts with a Local Government Law Bulletin […]
Canceling and Rescheduling Meetings
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012Sometimes there just aren’t enough board members to have a meeting. Suppose that a clerk for a North Carolina city or county learns in advance of a meeting that several governing board members have conflicts and will not be able to attend. There won’t be a quorum without these members. What should be done? What […]
Calculating Majorities
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010Three members of a five-member city council are meeting to discuss city business. Is that a majority? You’d think this would be an easy question, but the answer depends on the context for the question. The basic definition of “majority” is more than half. (The official Robert’s Rules of Order Website has a discussion about […]
Electronic Meetings During the COVID-19 Emergency: Recommended Practices
Thursday, April 9th, 2020[UPDATE: Section 4.31 of Session Law 2020-3 enacted new G.S. 166A-19.24, which imposes a variety of procedural requirements on remote meetings held by public bodies during a state of emergency declared by the Governor or General Assembly. As defined by G.S. 166A-19.24, a “remote meeting” is one at which at least one board member participates […]
Tags:coronavirus, covid-19, Electronic meetings, Meeting notice, open meetings law, Public Comment Periods, public hearings, quorum, Voting
Posted in Featured Posts Related to COVID-19, General Local Government (Miscellaneous), Open Government, Open Meetings, Public Hearings | 2 Comments »