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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
A ‘No-Show’ for Leesburg Town Council work session
Posted by:
Your Tax Dollars At Work - NOT!!!
()
Date: September 15, 2011 06:37AM
A ‘No-Show’ for Leesburg Town Council work session
Tue., Sep. 13 | 03:54 PM
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/a_no-show_leesburg_town_council_work_session_canceled898/
A work session for Leesburg Town Council could not be called to order on Sept. 12 because not enough members of the council were present.
“As you can see there’s only three of us here and we do not have a quorum. We do not anticipate having a quorum in the next 15 minutes,” Vice Mayor Kevin Wright said. “We’re not going to be able to officially call the meeting to order, but what we’re going to do is go through a couple of the items simply from a presentation standpoint.”
For a council work session or meeting to take place, there needs to be a quorum or more than 3 members of the town council present.
“Four council members are needed for a quorum; a quorum is required to open the meeting in order to take any action on an item,” Town Attorney Jeanette Irby said in an email. “If the mayor is not present the vice mayor can then step in. If the mayor and vice mayor are both absent then the most senior member of council can run the meeting so long as four members in total are present.”
According to the Roberts Rules of Order which Leesburg Town Council follows, “The majority of the members of the council shall constitute a quorum. If a quorum fails to exist, the meeting shall stand adjourned to a time and place agreed upon by a majority of the members present. At the discretion of the presiding officer, the members present may conduct briefings at the Committee of the Whole Work session.”
On Sept. 12 there were only three members of council present: Wright and Council members Dave Butler and Katie Hammler. Town Manager John Wells and Town Attorney Jeanette Irby were also present along with a number of presenters on the docket to address council.
The meeting, which wasn’t officially held, only lasted 13 minutes. One item discussed, without the intention of making decisions including the Sycolin Road/ Tavistock Drive intersection where Deputy Town Manager Kaj Dentler spoke.
But the two other topics on the docket for the work session, the revised legislative agenda and the presentation from the Watershed Committee, were not able to be presented due to the decision making of each topic and the Watershed Committee left the meeting after it was decided there was no quorum. Research and Communications Manager Betsy Fields stayed for the meeting to present the revised legislative agenda but wasn’t able to.
“There not a rule, certain people on town staff when asked if there was a rule said two minutes,” Wright said about how long to wait for other members to show up. “Most of the participants that would have presented to us have left.”
Other members of staff said there isn’t a definite rule about the quorum wait time.
Hammler mentioned that most of the missing members might have been at back-to-school nights. According to Council member Ken Reid, he was attending a back-to-school night at Heritage High School for his children and Mayor Umstattd was attending a back-to-school night as well, both had told Wells of the absence prior to the meeting. Council member Tom Dunn informed Wells that he would be late due to a work commitment.
“This is the first time in my five years on the Town Council that any meeting was canceled due to a lack of quorum,” Reid wrote in an email. “One work session lacking a quorum out of some 235 meetings failing a quorum is not bad.”
Tue., Sep. 13 | 03:54 PM
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/a_no-show_leesburg_town_council_work_session_canceled898/
A work session for Leesburg Town Council could not be called to order on Sept. 12 because not enough members of the council were present.
“As you can see there’s only three of us here and we do not have a quorum. We do not anticipate having a quorum in the next 15 minutes,” Vice Mayor Kevin Wright said. “We’re not going to be able to officially call the meeting to order, but what we’re going to do is go through a couple of the items simply from a presentation standpoint.”
For a council work session or meeting to take place, there needs to be a quorum or more than 3 members of the town council present.
“Four council members are needed for a quorum; a quorum is required to open the meeting in order to take any action on an item,” Town Attorney Jeanette Irby said in an email. “If the mayor is not present the vice mayor can then step in. If the mayor and vice mayor are both absent then the most senior member of council can run the meeting so long as four members in total are present.”
According to the Roberts Rules of Order which Leesburg Town Council follows, “The majority of the members of the council shall constitute a quorum. If a quorum fails to exist, the meeting shall stand adjourned to a time and place agreed upon by a majority of the members present. At the discretion of the presiding officer, the members present may conduct briefings at the Committee of the Whole Work session.”
On Sept. 12 there were only three members of council present: Wright and Council members Dave Butler and Katie Hammler. Town Manager John Wells and Town Attorney Jeanette Irby were also present along with a number of presenters on the docket to address council.
The meeting, which wasn’t officially held, only lasted 13 minutes. One item discussed, without the intention of making decisions including the Sycolin Road/ Tavistock Drive intersection where Deputy Town Manager Kaj Dentler spoke.
But the two other topics on the docket for the work session, the revised legislative agenda and the presentation from the Watershed Committee, were not able to be presented due to the decision making of each topic and the Watershed Committee left the meeting after it was decided there was no quorum. Research and Communications Manager Betsy Fields stayed for the meeting to present the revised legislative agenda but wasn’t able to.
“There not a rule, certain people on town staff when asked if there was a rule said two minutes,” Wright said about how long to wait for other members to show up. “Most of the participants that would have presented to us have left.”
Other members of staff said there isn’t a definite rule about the quorum wait time.
Hammler mentioned that most of the missing members might have been at back-to-school nights. According to Council member Ken Reid, he was attending a back-to-school night at Heritage High School for his children and Mayor Umstattd was attending a back-to-school night as well, both had told Wells of the absence prior to the meeting. Council member Tom Dunn informed Wells that he would be late due to a work commitment.
“This is the first time in my five years on the Town Council that any meeting was canceled due to a lack of quorum,” Reid wrote in an email. “One work session lacking a quorum out of some 235 meetings failing a quorum is not bad.”
Re: A ‘No-Show’ for Leesburg Town Council work session
Posted by:
Anne M
()
Date: September 15, 2011 05:05PM
So let’s make this clear.
Missing from the Town Council meeting were: Mayor Umstaad,Ken Reid, Marty Martinez and Tom Dunn.
Very disappointing.
Missing from the Town Council meeting were: Mayor Umstaad,Ken Reid, Marty Martinez and Tom Dunn.
Very disappointing.
Re: A ‘No-Show’ for Leesburg Town Council work session
Posted by:
Respect
()
Date: September 15, 2011 05:46PM
How do these people not show up and no one knows where they are? Don’t they respect the office they hold? Apparently not.
Re: A ‘No-Show’ for Leesburg Town Council work session
Posted by:
LOLZ
()
Date: September 30, 2011 06:44AM
Our tax dollars at work!
Re: A ‘No-Show’ for Leesburg Town Council work session
Posted by:
Critical
()
Date: October 06, 2011 12:27PM
Communication….it says in the story that both Reid and Umstadd had told Wells that they were not going to be there due to back to school nights. Why Wells didn’t say anything might actually be the question and perhaps the focus should be placed on him, not the two parents.