The Image in tonight's Post is The Linn County Republican Central Committee Parliamentarian taking a publicly partisan position by voting.
When I was first appointed to the position the current Parliamentarian holds, I did quite a bit of research on the duties and responsibilites.
One of the First things I learned was that for a Parliamentarian neutrality ie non paritsanship was considered paramount
That a Parliamentarian shoud never vote unless by Secret Ballot.
That was a position I adhered to during my term in office,
Our present Parlaimentarian does not seem to value neutrality as an attribute of their position
When questioned on the propriety of their actions they replied that their opinion was that it was up to the discretion of the Parliamentarian.
While it IS true there are situations where a Parliamentarian may vote, tonight was not one of them.
I source Robert's Rules of Order
Chapter 18 Most Frequently Asked Questions
Voting
Under the questions
Does the Parliamentarian have a vote on motions, can he or she speak to motions
Can you please give me some insight as to how a parliamentarian should act during a meeting?
Unfortunately copy and paste is disabled for that website, so the readers will have to click on the above link and go to almost the bottom of the page
However it turns out that that very same issue was also ansered on the RONR (Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised) Discussion Forum
- Members
- 1,812 posts
- LocationNew Orleans, LA
Posted 17 April 2015 - 03:06 PM
And if a member of the assembly, the parliamentarian should not be voting. From page 467:
"A member of an assembly who acts as its parliamentarian has the same duty as the presiding officer to maintain a position of impartiality,
and therefore does not make motions, participate in debate, or vote on any question except in the case of a ballot vote.
He does not cast a deciding vote, even if his vote would affect the result, since that would interfere with the chair's prerogative of doing so.
If a member feels that he cannot properly forgo these rights in order to serve as parliamentarian, he should not accept that position.
Unlike the presiding officer, the parliamentarian cannot temporarily relinquish his position in order to exercise such rights on a particular motion."
I do not know upon what basis the LCRCC Parlaimentarian made their decision to vote publicly but the above seems rather clear and to the point.
Maintain the outward appearance of neutrality by refraining from voting with the excpetion of a secret ballot or
Resign
Another example of the difference between what Can be done and what Should be done was the brief flareup between the Chair and Mr Dahlsten over his Photos.
Mr Dahlsten has objected to the LCRCC Webmaster using photos upon which he has embedded Copyright Claims.
The Chair and our Webmaster seem to have taken the position that if Mr Dahslten puts the photos up on Facebook they have every LEGAL RIGHT to avail themselves of the use of those images.
It is True that the Policy of Facebook is to allow that as long as the Images are posted on Facebook. I believe that is in the Terms of Service,
This however does not address the ethical concerns
Since Mr. Dahlsten objects so vehemently to their use of his images why do they insist on doing so?
I suppose it might be true that as long as they insist on only torturing Mr Dahlsten there might not be as many wingless flies stumbling around the area, but besides that , what IS the point?
Updated: Wednesday, 22 April 2015 2:50 AM CDT
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