May 15, 2024 - County Commission Votes to Break Their Own Rules

by Josh Blevins

At Tuesday evening’s County Commission meeting, the first commissioner to speak on the $10.4 million Capital Outlay note was Chairman of the Rules Committee Biff Farrar. He clearly and concisely laid out how voting on this bundled package would break precedent and break rules that the commission had put in place to make sure proper debate and consideration was given to individual projects through the committee process. He then offered an alternative motion that would follow the rules and move forward with the Liberty School expansion with no delays. Inexplicably, 9 commissioners voted to ignore the Chairman of the Rules Committee and break the rules set in place by the commission. Those 9 commissioners were Greg Vick, Tony Smith, Linda Yockey, Scott Johnson, Jason Boyette, Sylvia Pinson, Janice Brothers, Julie Sanders, and Mark Thomas.

These same 9 commissioners also voted against an attempt to break up the 5 items in the Capital Outlay Note and vote on them one at a time. Eventually, the majority of commissioners decided they wanted to get home and agreed to stop further debate and vote on the original resolution. This stopping of debate was done without using the proper procedure from Robert’s Rules of Order, in keeping with the night’s theme of ignoring the rules.

The 9 commissioners who voted to ignore their own rules were joined by Commissioner John Boutwell to give the 10 vote approval needed to pass the resolution authorizing the $10.4 million in taxpayer money for 5 projects, most of which never saw a vote in any committee other than Finance.

 

Commissioner Biff Farrar highlights the rules that are being violated