Peg Schaffer Follows Through
Borough Attorney Marguerite Schaffer showed clearly at Thursday’s meeting of the Mayor and Council that not only is she a woman of her word and believes in transparency, but she’s also sure enough of herself and can admit she doesn’t know everything in spite of nearly half a century practicing law.
The attorney had promised at the previous council meeting she would research the question of whether a board, council, or commission member can vote to approve minutes of a meeting they did not attend. As has been the practice at almost every meeting of every board for decades, she opined she did not believe they should vote on minutes they did not attend, an opinion practiced by most.
The questions came up at the meeting after Harbor Commission attorney Gregory Cannon had told that appointed board an absent member could indeed vote to approve minutes of a meeting he or she did not attend. Schaffer, as the borough attorney, was asked if that was correct.
At this week’s meeting the attorney said has spoken with the harbor commission attorney and further researched the question and determined surprisingly there is no state law making the distinction. In those cases, she said, boards and commissions follow Roberts Rules of Order which says absentee members can vote to approve minutes, indicating they believe they are an accurate portrayal of what happened at a meeting, even if they did not attend. Boards can, however, adopt their own rules or the borough can enact ordinances or statutes to make it clear a member has to be present for a meeting in order to vote to approve its minutes.
Not as gracious or transparent as the borough attorney, however, was Mayor Lori Hohenleitner. When asked if the Mayor and Council would then suggest or advise the Harbor Commission of the suggestion to adopt a position that would be more in line with what is the practice in so many committees and commissioners, the mayor’s response was “we are not bullies.” The statement seemed to indicate the mayor felt elected officials would be overstepping their bounds in making a suggestion to the appointed commission rather than be more open to residents who expect only people who attend a meeting should vote on whether the official report of it is accurate.
Here again, however, attorney Schaffer showed she listens to the people and believes they should be kept up to date on recommendations and decisions of attorneys. Schaffer explained she has spoken with Cannon and neither feels comfortable with the idea of voting when not present and both feel the best practices policy should be followed. She said Cannon indicated he is going to recommend to the commission they go by the best practices position and recommend members only vote on approval of minutes of meetings they have attended.
