Hancock Commission adopts meeting procedures following record dispute

NEW CUMBERLAND - Hancock County commissioners on Friday formally adopted Robert's Rules of Order, following weeks of disagreement over the detail included in the official record of their meetings.

Minutes from the commission's Aug. 7 special meeting, and Aug. 14 and Aug. 28 regular meetings, have all been tabled, with Commissioner Paul Cowey previously noting concern as to whether the minutes followed Robert's Rules.

Friday, Cowey moved for the three sets of minutes to be removed from the table, requesting they, instead, be set for consideration at the commission's Oct. 9 meeting as a matter of regular business.

"We're still waiting for the minutes to line up with Robert's Rules of Order," Cowey said.

In addition, during Friday's meeting, no motion was made for action on the Sept. 11 meeting minutes.

It was during the Sept. 11 meeting when County Clerk Karan Valenti took issue with the continuous tabling of the minutes, saying commissioners no longer wanted details of discussion included - only a record of who made the motions and the results of votes - despite, she said, it being long-standing practice to include such discussion information.

According to the 12th edition of Robert's Rules, "the minutes should contain mainly a record of what was done at the meeting, not what was said by the members. The minutes must never reflect the secretary's opinion, favorable or otherwise, on anything said or done ... To modify the rules governing what is regularly to be included in the minutes requires adoption of a special rule of order, although a majority vote may direct the inclusion of specific additional information in the minutes of a particular meeting."

Under West Virginia Code 6-9a-5: "Each governing body shall provide for the preparation of written minutes of all of its meetings. Subject to the exceptions set forth in section four of this article, minutes of all meetings except minutes of executive sessions, if any are taken, shall be available to the public within a reasonable time after the meeting and shall include, at least, the following information: (1) The date, time and place of the meeting; (2) The name of each member of the governing body present and absent; (3) All motions, proposals, resolutions, orders, ordinances and measures proposed, the name of the person proposing the same and their disposition; and (4) The results of all votes and, upon the request of a member, pursuant to the rules, policies or procedures of the governing board for recording roll call votes, the vote of each member, by name."

Commission President Eron Chek previously had stated the commission had, at one time, voted to formally follow Robert's Rules, but noted Friday, they were unable to find precisely when such a vote took place.

"We couldn't find a record of when this was adopted," Chek said.

Cowey noted he had reached out to former Commissioner John Sorrenti, who has trained as a parliamentarian and presents workshops on Robert's Rules throughout the state.

"It has to have been over 30 years," Cowey said, of the timing for the county's procedural adoption.