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Vacant seat on APG
to remain empty for now
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE —There has been much controversy in recent months about some of the actions of the Alpine Planning Group approach to filling vacant seats and the issue came to a head Thursday, Dec. 8, when tempers flared among members and a motion to declare vacancy of Scott Lamb’s former seat was denied.
The contretemps followed receipt of a letter from District 2 Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who rebuked the group for failing to follow its standing rules governeing procedure for filling vacancies.
In a letter to APG Chairman Mark Price, Jacob said that she was returning the appointment of Jim Easterling to the planning group after a review of the October meeting showed that the group did not follow the rules in properly noticing and declaring and filling the vacant seat.
“Based on this review, the APG standing rules have not been followed and therefore I am returning this appointment back to the Alpine Community Planning Group so that the item could be considered in accordance with the APG standing rules,” Jacob wrote.
At the October meeting, board member Jane Fitz brought up the fact that the group was not following its own rules. Fitz argued that the planning group only accepted Lamb's resignation at the September meeting, and that an official declaration must be included on the next agenda as a separate item. That would have gone on the Oct. 27 agenda. Only after that, at the November planning group meeting, should the seat be filled, Fitz said.
Fitz’s motion to delay making the appointment until the next meeting failed 4-8, with one abstention.
Price argued that he had researched agendas back 15 years and found that, at no time had the standing rule been followed — including in the process for his own appointment.
“The fact that the group has not followed it’s own standing rules in the past doesn’t matter,” Rohal said. “The issue has been brought up on several other occasions by myself and others on the board.”
The appointment vote was 8-3 for Jim Easterling, with Paul Rohal and Jane Fitz abstaining. After the meeting, Fitz and Rohal wrote a minority report about the appointment, arguing that the rules had not been followed.
A number of residents wrote letters to The Alpine
Sun, decrying the decision to move forward with the seat selection without first declaring the vacancy. Further angering writers, the APG, for the second time, had passed over former planning group candidate Linda Richards in favor of Easterling.
At the Dec. 8 meeting, several items were placed on the agenda regarding the vacant seat. One of the items, added by Price, would have invoked a little-known provision of Roberts Rules of Order in which a group may temporarily suspend its own standing rules.
The specific item (L1) stated that the suspension would include the rules governing vacancies, and would have allowed for the group to announce the vacancy Dec. 8 and then vote in the replacement at the same meeting. Price however, pulled the item from the agenda just prior to the meeting.
“The minority seemed determined to have us vote on the announcement of the vacancy,” Price said. “After giving it thought, I decided to see if they were serious about voting on a vacancy or whether they were more interested in stalling the appointment. I gave them that opportunity.”
When the item regarding the declaration of the vacancy came around Price asked for a motion to “re-announcement” the vacancy, which was made by Larry Urdahl and seconded by Doug Benson.
Rohal objected to the motion on the grounds that nowhere in the standing rule does it state anything about a re-announcement.
“The agenda says re-announcing, and if it’s declaring a vacancy then we have somewhat of a misnomer here,” he said. “I don’t know where you’re going with this because I don’t see anything in the standing rules about re-announcements.”
“This is a matter of semantics,” Benson said. “A declaration or an announcement is basically the same thing.”
Rohal also questioned the removal of the item regarding changing the standing rules saying that it would likely come up again at future meetings.
When questioned about bringing back the item, Price said that he “is considering the possibility.”
According APG members, the board’s standing rules are reviewed annually by a coordinating subcommittee, which is made up of the APG chair and group members that chair subcommittees.
“This year alone, there have been several opportunities offered on the APG agenda to change the standing rules,” said APG Secretary Cheryl Lenz. “No changes regarding vacancies or appointments were suggested.”
In the end, an amended motion was put before the board that would have declared the vacancy. The vote failed by a vote of 5-4, with Rohal, Fitz, Joe Forlenza, Ned Holmes and Lenz voting against.
“I voted no on the vacancy because the agenda had been manipulated by the chair. Three of the four items on the agenda pertaining to this vacancy were pulled at the last minute,” said Ned Holmes about his vote to not declare the vacancy. “Obvious manipulation of this type has no place on the board and I won't support it.”
After the vote, the meeting concluded quickly, but not before Price commented on the issue and said to Easterling in the audience: “We appreciate having you here and I’m sorry that you have to put up with juvenile, in my opinion, behavior.”
Larry Urdahl also called the vote ridiculous.
When asked afterwards about the goings-on at Thursday’s meeting, Price responded simply, “Democracy is not pretty.”
The declaration of the vacancy will be placed on the Jan. 26 agenda and will be voted on again by planning group members. Also at that meeting, the group will vote to install new board officers. Price announced Thursday that he will not stand in January for the 2006 APG chairmanship next year.
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Christy Scott
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