This one of my parli-pro rants, so continue only if you are willing to wonk this way...
This conference is being hosted by the County, and members of the County Council will be there as a Committee of the Whole.
The Herald ran a story on this conference and this line jumped right out at me:
Because it's a council Committee of the Whole meeting, the council could make a decision Monday, but Crawford doesn't expect that.
This statement in the Herald story is incorrect.
The members of the County Council have announced the meeting as a meeting of the Committee of the Whole.
That’s a committee meeting... not a council meeting.
The difference is a subtle one, but the difference is also worth explaining.
When the members of County Council meet at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday, and there has been public notice of the meeting as a meeting of the Council... that is an “assembly”.
When the members of Council announce a meeting as a Committee of the Whole, that is not an “assembly”.
In parliamentary terms, “assemblies” can take official action... and since a committee is by definition not an “assembly”, it can’t take official action. Even if the committee consists of the all of the members of County Council.
The agenda of this conference clearly identifies the members of county council meeting as Committee of the Whole.
Here is an excerpt from the conference agenda:
Although the suggestion of specific outcomes is welcome during this conference, it is not our goal to resolve these complicated issues in one day.
Resolving any issue can’t be the goal of the County Council when they enter Committee of the Whole. Committee of the Whole can’t resolve anything, it can only make recommendations.
Since this is has been released as a Committee meeting, it is no more possible for the members of county council to take official action at this meeting than it would be possible for them to take official action as a council at the committee meetings regularly held on the Tuesday afternoons prior to regular council meetings.
The concept of Committee of the Whole is explicitly described in Robert’s Rules of Order:
The committee of the whole and its... alternate forms are devices that enable the full assembly to give detailed consideration to a matter under condition of freedom approximating that of a committee.
RONR (10th ed.) page 512, lines 23-28
In committee of the whole... the results of votes taken are not final decisions of the assembly, but have the status of recommendations which the assembly is given the opportunity to consider further and which it votes on finally under its regular rules.
RONR (10th ed.) page 513, lines 11-16
...a committee of the whole is a real committee in the parliamentary sense. Therefore, the time that a meeting is “in committee of the whole,” even though the committee consists of the entire body of members in attendance at the assembly’s meeting, it is technically not “the assembly”.
RONR (10th ed.) page 514, lines 14-19
The bottom line: The members of the County Council don’t have the option to come out of Committee of the Whole and bring a County Council meeting to order during this UGA conference. Such a meeting would be in blatant violation of the Open Meetings Act, since no notice was given that an actual council meeting was being held.
I have no idea who told the Herald otherwise, but if the members of County Council attempted to do business on Monday as if they were a meeting of the County Council, then all motions used to transact that business would be out of order. Motions that are out of order are null and void.
It's a good thing the County Council held a retreat a few weeks back to discuss things like this. With that information fresh in their minds, I’m sure the members of county council know better than to attempt to take official action in violation of the Open Meetings Act during this upcoming UGA conference.
This will be the best UGA conference ever.
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