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APG to vote on suspension of standing rules at special meeting
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE — Members of the Alpine Planning Group will be asked to consider whether or not to suspend the group’s standing rules at a special meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 11.
The special meeting has been called to specifically address the much-disputed vacancy left by Scott Lamb when he departed in September. The contretemps follows receipt of a letter from District 2 Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who rebuked the group for failing to follow its standing rules governing the procedure for filling vacancies.
In her Dec. 2 letter, Jacob cited the group’s standing rules, writing, “…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 can be considered in accordance with the APG Standing Rules.”
In general, appointment requests forwarded to county supervisors are placed on the next San Diego County Board of Supervisor’s agenda for approval by whichever supervisor represents the planning or sponsor group area in question. Only rarely does a supervisor question a group’s choice and, while Jacob has received many such protests, she has acted on only two others in recent memory — both in Ramona, according to her chief of staff, Geoff Patnoe.
Easterling’s appointment would have been on a November board of supervisor’s agenda, but Jacob delayed it in order to review a minority report filed by APG members Jane Fitz and Paul Rohal. The report said the group’s standing rule regarding appointment of new members to a vacant seat was not followed when the group took action and appointed Jim Easterling to the seat at the Oct. 27 meeting.
“This review has not been about any specific individual but rather a simple issue of fairness and whether or not the rules have been followed by the Alpine Community Planning Group,” Jacob wrote.
Price defended the appointment of Easterling, saying that he had researched agendas back 15 years and told
The Alpine Sun he had found that the standing rule had never been followed — including in the process for his own appointment.
According to Rohal, that point is moot.
“The fact that the group has not followed it’s own standing rules in the past doesn’t matter,” he said. “The issue has been brought up on several other occasions by myself and others on the board.”
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.
Robert's Rules, Section 22, allows a motion to suspend rules.
“The motion to suspend the rules may be made at any time when no question is pending; or while a question is pending, provided it is for a purpose connected with that question,” the rulebook states. “When the assembly wishes to do something that cannot be done without violating its own rules…it ‘suspends the rules that interfere with’ the proposed action. The object of the suspension must be specified, and nothing else can be done under the suspension.”
Price pulled the specific item regarding suspension of standing rules from the agenda just prior to the December 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.”
The Dec. 8 vote regarding the declaration of a vacancy ended with the motion failing by a vote of 5 to 4, with Rohal, Fitz, Joe Forlenza, Ned Holmes and Lenz voting against.
According to San Diego County Planning and Sponsor Group Coordinator Mary Morales-Silva, the suspension of the rules, would “allow the group to deal with this issue in one meeting rather than the two meetings, declaring the vacancy, and then filling the vacancy called for in the current standing rules.”
According to the rules, a vote to suspend would only affect that particular meeting, unless the group’s standing rules were officially changed as a separate item.
If the motion to suspend the standing rules passes at the Jan. 11 meeting, the group would announce and fill the vacant seat at the same meeting.
“If a vacancy replacement is voted on and chosen at the special meeting I have been told that the person, very likely, would be on a board of supervisors agenda in time for the new member to be seated at our regular January APG meeting,” said APG chairman Mark Price.
According to Jacob aide Jennifer Stone, the item would likely be placed on the Jan. 24 supervisors’ agenda, as there will be no BOS meetings held Jan. 17 or 18, due to legislative week.
This time around, if the group suspends the rules that were in question, the supervisors would likely have no reason to deny or delay the appointment.
Some board and community members have been skeptical about why the item is being given its own special meeting and rushed through the process in prior to the regular board meeting on Jan. 26 where the board’s 2006 officers will be chosen.
Price, however, doesn’t believe that the appointment will affect those positions either way.
“I don't see any rush,” he said. “The seat has been vacant since September, a four to five month delay in appointing a vacancy is far from a rush.”
If the suspension of rules is accepted at the special meeting, the vacant seat will be filled that same evening. Anyone interested in vying for the seat should contact Price and plan to attend the Jan. 11 meeting, which will be held at the Alpine Community Center at 6:30 p.m.
Application information may be sent to Price by mail at P.O. Box 1329, Alpine,
Calif. 91903-1329, by e-mail, or by fax at 445-8351.
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Christy Scott
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