Overview:
• Proposed policy would automatically record an ‘aye’ vote for commissioners with unexcused absences
• At least three of the seven commissioners say it is a bad idea
• Others say it will prevent commissioners from avoiding controversial votes
Cumberland County commissioners who don’t show up to board meetings could be penalized by being recorded as voting “yes” on agenda items, under a proposed policy that sparked debate on Monday.
This means that the absent commissioner could be listed as voting in favor of something they oppose. An elected official’s absence can determine whether policies, laws and ordinances pass or fail.
The proposed absence policy emerged in June after a new regulation for shooting ranges failed to pass in a 3-3 tie vote, with Commissioner Jeannette Council absent.
The seven-member board — again with Council absent — on Monday night argued about the proposed policy for nearly 30 minutes. The policy would apply to commissioners who miss board meetings without being granted an excused absence.
Several commissioners said they dislike the idea.
The commissioners in the end voted 6-0 to update their attendance policy without including the proposed rule. They plan to discuss it further at their Sept. 11 meeting.
For now, if a commissioner is absent without a pre-approval excuse, no vote is counted on their behalf.
The board’s policy says a commissioner who leaves in the middle of a meeting is counted as a “yes” vote on any items that come up after their departure. Commissioners who are present but don’t vote are also counted in the affirmation.
State law says that if a commissioner is absent, the rest of the board can order the sheriff to find the absent commissioner and bring them to the meeting.
Absences have consequences
There have been times when the absence of elected officials has had repercussions for the public.
In August 2005, two Republican state senators who opposed gambling allowed the creation of the North Carolina Education Lottery by being absent from the General Assembly. The 50-member Senate voted 24-24 on the lottery bill. Democratic Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue broke the tie, the lottery passed 25-24, and the bill was signed by the governor and became law.
On June 2 the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners voted 3-3 on a proposal to ban outdoor gun ranges from using targets that explode when shot. Council was absent. With the tie vote, the ordinance did not pass. (The board ultimately passed the ordinance on June 16 with a 5-2 vote, with Council present and Commissioner Pavan Patel switching from “nay” to “aye.”)
The ayes and nays on automatic ‘ayes’
There was feisty debate on whether an unexcused absence will result in “yes” votes on the part of absent commissioners.
Commissioner Henry Tyson argued for the new policy. He said it would strongly encourage board members to show up, even if they would rather duck a controversial issue.
“What this policy does is, it holds the people on this commission accountable to the people that elected them, by knowing that if they don’t want to take a decision on a hard vote, that their vote’s still going to count regardless of whether they show up or not,” Tyson said.
Board Chair Kirk deViere said the commissioners have a duty to the public to vote at meetings.
The proposal “provided the remedy for just not showing up and not being here to exercise your duty to vote, which you were elected to do,” he said. The practice of automatically recording a vote for an absent commissioner will create “something that is documented, on record,” deViere said.
Most of the time, absent commissioners will have excused absences instead of unexcused absences, deViere said, and the clerk will not record a vote on behalf of the absent board members.
If a commissioner skips a meeting to avoid voting, that should not count as an excused absence, Patel said.
“I believe this board’s willing to work in the best interest of this community,” he said. “And at the end of the day, if there’s an absence from a board member, I would only feel that all of us would be understanding, and move forward and conduct the business appropriately.”
It’s a bad idea to automatically record votes on behalf of absent board members, Commissioners Glenn Adams, Veronica Jones and Marshall Faircloth said.
“I think it’s unnecessary and I don’t really want to see the county commissioners having the first order of business to do excused absences for people,” Faircloth said.
Adams said that if commissioners don’t show up for their meetings, the voters will see that they had no votes recorded and remember that in the next election. “If you don’t show up for work, you get fired,” he said.
Jones, the vice chair of the Board of Commissioners, said she disliked the proposed policy, too.
“If you’re going to be considered ‘unexcused,’ that means your vote should just not be counted, period, at all,” she said.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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