Editorial of December 19, 2024

Officials, Public Need a Refresher on Meeting Decorum

First and foremost, hats off to Otsego County, the City of Oneonta, the Village of Cooperstown and the Town of Hartwick. From what we can glean, these are the only Otsego County municipal entities that currently livestream and record meetings and make them available to the public for viewing online. We encourage all of Otsego County’s villages and towns to follow their lead.

That being said, while sitting in on some of these meetings, or watching them online afterward, we have noticed that some folks—both municipal officials and members of the public—could use a refresher course on meeting etiquette.

According to Robert’s Rules of Order, “parliamentary procedure is a set of rules for conducting orderly meetings that accomplish goals fairly.” The benefits of parliamentary procedure include the following: justice and courtesy for all; maintenance of order; consideration of one item at a time; all sides get heard; ability for each [board] member to provide input; majority rule; and protection of the rights of all members, including the minority.

Among the basic principles of Robert’s Rules are that all [board members] have equal rights, privileges and obligations; no person should speak until recognized by the chair; personal remarks or side discussions during debate are out of order; and, full and free discussion of every main motion is a basic right.

The role of the presiding officer of such meetings is to introduce business in proper order per the agenda, to recognize speakers, to determine if a motion is in order, to keep discussion focused on the pending motion, to maintain order, and to put motions to a vote and announce results.

General rules of debate, according to Robert’s Rules, include: all discussion must be relevant to the immediately pending question; no [board] member should speak more than twice to each debatable motion—the second time takes place after everyone wishing to debate the motion has had an opportunity to speak once; all remarks should be addressed to the presiding officer—no cross debate is permitted; debate must address issues, not personalities; and members may not disrupt the assembly.

Sample rules of order provided by the Association of Towns of the State of New York echo Robert’s Rules, although the two are not always entirely in sync.

Regarding public hearings, the Association of Towns recommends: “It shall be the duty of the Supervisor to preside at all general or special business hearings to instruct all persons addressing the Board to state their names and addresses and to request those in favor of the proposal before the Board to speak first and those in opposition to speak last. At such hearings the Board may by special rules prescribe the time to be allotted to each speaker and the number of times each speaker may speak.” And, at the close of the public hearing, “…the Supervisor may grant any member of the general public in attendance at such meeting a reasonable opportunity to be heard on any question or subject in which the Town or its government is concerned.”

The Association of Towns also advises that “no motion or resolution may be brought to a vote except by the majority consent of those present, unless printed or typewritten copies thereof are presented to each member of the Board 48 hours prior to the opening of the meeting at which such motion or resolution is offered.”

And with regard to members of the public attending these municipal meetings, the Association of Towns is very clear: “No member of the public shall engage in any demonstration, booing, hand clapping or otherwise disrupt the formality of a town board meeting,” and, “Any persons speaking to the Board with the consent of the Supervisor shall address their remarks to the Board, not to other members of the audience in the form of a debate.”

These are just some of the basics with regard to parliamentary procedure and civility. It is our opinion that it is the civility aspect of some of these meetings that really needs attention, and, as pointed out earlier, both municipal officials and the public are at fault here.

The Institute for Local Government has this to say: “In the context of democratic debate, civility is about how people treat each other. Civility involves the display of respect for those who have positions with which one disagrees. Even though disagreement plays a necessary role in governance and politics, the issue is how one expresses that disagreement. The key is to focus on the strengths and weakness of proposed solutions to community problems—not to engage in personal attacks against those who favor different solutions. An even more powerful leadership strategy is to listen for the concerns and values that underlie people’s diverse perspectives to try to identify points of agreement and common ground.”

The rules of order are intended to create an atmosphere in which members of the municipal body and members of the public can take care of business efficiently, fairly, and with full participation. At the same time, it is up to the chair and the members of the municipal body to maintain decorum and common courtesy.

Municipal officials have a difficult, often thankless, job and we respect that. Citizens are frustrated and worried about the future. We understand and respect this as well. However, the fact remains that neither municipal officials nor members of the public have any excuse for behaving badly during these meetings. In the Town of Hartwick, in particular, both town board members and those in the audience could benefit from this “refresher course.”

As we move into the new year, our hope is that more of Otsego County’s municipalities will begin to livestream their meetings and post them online for the benefit of their residents. It’s not all that expensive or difficult an undertaking. And we hope, when they do, courtesy and decorum are the order of the day.