EDITORIAL – Motion to adjourn special council meeting was out of order

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

ONE OF THE THINGS that cheesed off some of the public gallery this week after listening to Coun. Bill Sarai’s apology was the abrupt manner in which the meeting was adjourned.

As Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson attempted to follow up with a couple of questions for Sarai and Coun. Dale Bass, Coun. Margot Middleton suddenly interjected, “Move we adjourn!”

When Hamer-Jackson tried to keep going, she said it again. Her fellow councillors quickly agreed, so the meeting closed with no opportunity for discussion.

That adjournment was illegal under Robert’s Rules of Order, which governs how Kamloops City council meetings are run. Robert’s does allow members of a board or council to call for adjournment. It’s not the strict prerogative of the meeting chair.

However, there are limits. Such a motion must be seconded and approved by a majority. That prevents members from calling for adjournment on a whim if they don’t like the direction the discussion is taking, or if they’re feeling a bit peckish and feel the need to go out for pizza.

So far, so good for Middleton. But there’s an additional protection that prevents abuse of adjournment. Nobody can move adjournment if another member has the floor and is speaking. It can’t be used simply to cut somebody off if you don’t like what the person is saying.

Hamer-Jackson clearly had the floor and was in the process of speaking when Middleton made her motion. Nobody pointed that out. Not the mayor, who simply wasn’t aware of the rule, not anyone else on council, and not corporate officer Maria Mazzotta, the council’s parliamentarian.

There are, in fact, quite a list of motions that can’t be made when somebody else is already speaking. But this council has never been particularly astute when it comes to rules of order, such as when they insist on making “points of order” that aren’t actually points of order.

Middleton was being consistent with council’s record of discouraging debate when it doesn’t suit. Right at the beginning of the meeting, councillors refused to even considered Hamer-Jackson’s attempt to open it up to public inquiries. But her motion to adjourn was out of order.

It’s just the kind of thing that frustrates taxpayers who have something to say, or something they want to hear, but find themselves being shut down.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.