BLUE RIDGE, GA — FYN has obtained the emails between the city attorney and council members that will expose what will happen tonight at the Blue Ridge City Council Meeting when council member Angie Arp will introduce the meeting policies and procedures to be voted on. Subject:
Re: Parliamentary Procedure Guide for City Officials

Date:
Mon, 09 Mar 2015 16:11:31 -0400

From:
[email protected]

To:
Rhonda Thomas

CC:
R. David Syfan , bruce pack , harold herndon , [email protected], Donna Whitener , Donna Whitener

David, Mayor & Council,
I do think it is a good idea to have restrictions on the mayor and
council concerns and reports. I agree it has become an area of debate
and I myself have been guilty of getting caught up in debates also. That
being said it may be more appropriate that the mayor and council
eliminate the reports and concerns item on the agenda and just simply
put the issue or concern on the agenda for discussion of the entire
council. We would have to adhere to the time restrictions between the
mayor and council as the policy states for all other agenda items. This
is how we have always done it until recently when mayor reports and
concerns stated being put on the agenda. It would be more transparent if
any of our concerns was put on the agenda rather than us bringing up
issues that are not listed on the agenda.
I will add this to my procedure and take the mayor and council concerns
off as an agenda item. I think this will address your concern, Rhonda.
As to the public comment section I would like to say that it is not my
intent to stop the public from speaking, however since David has
indicated in his email today, we are not mandated by law to allow any
public comments and certainly not mandated to participate in question
and answer sessions with the public. And since the GMA procedure that
the mayor suggested we go by, does not allow for public comments, I
think what I have proposed is very fair.
I have allotted (5) minutes per individual but they must notify the
city clerk (5) calendar days in advance and specific the subject in
order to be able to speak. I am of the opinion that the council should
allow one thing or the other, if we require individuals to be on the
agenda (5) days in advance of the meeting, stating your subject, then in
order to be fair to those that are on the agenda, we could not allow
those that are not on the agenda to speak. I have ask a couple of the
members what they think and from what I have heard is public comments
should be put on the agenda with the subject of the comment at least (5)
days in advance. So I am going to leave that in mine proposal.
I also want to note that since the council has allowed not only public
comment but harassment from the same group of people for many months
now, I think we should try a meeting procedure allowing public comments
and if the intimidation and harassment continues we can then eliminate
public comments.
The primary purpose of council meetings is for the elected officials,
which have been elected by the voters of Blue Ridge, to make decisions
for this city. Again, public comment is always welcomed but decisions
are made based on what council members elected think are best for the
citizens and the city. It would make much more sense for an individual
with a true concern or issue to contact the mayor or a council member
with their concern and then the mayor or council member could address it
at a meeting if it is something that the mayor can’t take care ofunder
her day to day administrative authority. I believe David indicated this
was a normal way of addressing the public’s concerns as well.
I think my proposal has covered main issues the council has faced and
is very fair to the mayor, council as well as the public.

Angie

On 2015-03-09 13:29, Rhonda Thomas wrote:
Angie,
Please add the following to your procedure; I sent these to David
Syfan this morning. I did copy you on them.

David,
I’ve been putting a lot of thought into the procedures. Here are two
items I would like to see added:

1. The Mayor/Council reports give us a chance to voice concerns to
our constituents and other members of the council; however, this time
has become a debate of sorts. I would like to see this time used by
the Mayor/Council to voice their concerns without any retort from
audience or fellow council members. It would be a good idea to have
a
timed limit of 3 minutes per person.

2. As Kristy Petrillo stated in last meeting, I would like to see a
public comment section of 1 minute per person, to equal no more than
20 minutes. If people want to address something that has been said in
the meeting and they aren’t on Agenda, this will give them a good
opportunity.

As my concern has been from the beginning, we want order but not at
the expense of taking away our citizen’s rights.

Thanks!

Rhonda Thomas
Broker/Owner
Mountain Place Realty
(P)706-455-3933
(F) 678-623-3256
www.mountainplacerealty.com

—–Original Message—– From: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2015 1:14 PM
To: R. David Syfan
Cc: [email protected] ; > ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; Rhonda Thomas ;
[email protected] ; [email protected]
Subject: Re: Parliamentary Procedure Guide for City Officials

Hello David,

I have attached the revised version of the meeting procedure I
prepared. It included several things the mayor mentioned as well as I
added a section on workshops that does not have time restrictions on
the mayor and council discussion. It does still have restrictions for
representatives or speakers, otherwise we will be in the same
situation that we are in now. The same group of people that have been at these
meetings for many months now will just shift and start coming to the
workshops rather than the regular meetings. One of the purposes of
having a policy for the meetings is to get some order in our meetings
so that the council can conduct city business rather than argue, debate,
or fight over who is going to run this city, which is the council or a
select group of business owners. I have a few other things to
mention, > but I wanted to go ahead and get this to you. I will email later on
the > other items.

Thanks,

Angie

On 2015-03-09 10:14, R. David Syfan wrote:
Mayor, Angie and everyone:

This email is in response to the recent email by Angie and regarding
Rules of Procedure for the Council meetings. Attached above is a
copy of the Parliamentary Procedure Guide prepared by GMA and which
tracks the guidance that I have given to the Mayor and Angie in telephone
conversations on this issue.

I do want to note several points that the Guide directly or
indirectly makes. First the Rules of Procedure can be just a policy
and do not have to be enacted by ordinance. Second the above Guide
[without the example of a meeting discussion] is only 14 pages, and
that is much simpler to study and learn than the 300 pages of
Robert’s Rules of Order. Third, the Guide as I have also consistently said,
notes that the Council by its Rules can put time limitations on the
audience speaking in the “Public Comments” portion of the agenda,
and
also can put a time limitation on debate by Councilmembers as to an
agenda item. Fourth, the Guide indicates that the Rules can also
include Rules of decorum, for both audience members allowed to
speak, and also by members of the governing entity [Mayor and Council].
Fifth, a member of the governing body, can make a motion to appeal a
procedural ruling which cannot be ruled out of order by the
presiding officer, and which can compel adherence to the procedural rules by a
vote of a quorum of the Council. Sixth, a member of the Council can
move to end debate and call the question [i.e. vote on a motion],
and if the motion passes, then debate ends and the council votes on the
motion. Seventh, the Council can make a motion to prevent
reconsideration and which sets a time limit [if passed by the
Council]
before a prior issue decided by the City Council can be brought up
again. Eighth, your Rules of Procedure do not have to be unduly
complex, and you can adopt simple, easy to understand rules, that
will allow you to have efficient and orderly meetings.
An interesting indirect point, is that the existence of the guide
means that similar procedural issues have come up for very many
other cities, and that there was enough interest in these issues for GMA
to prepare and publish the guide [i.e. our City is not the only city to
go through these issues]. Of course, this Guide by GMA is just
composed of suggestions, and the Council has the power and authority
pursuant to Section 3.14(a) of the City Charter to craft its own
Rules
of Procedure as the Council determines will work best for having the
meetings be run in an orderly and efficient fashion.

I thought that the Guide is helpful, short and concise, and comes
from an entity similar to myself, that everyone can consider
neutral.
Angie, I understand that you are working on Rules of Procedure, to
add some suggestions made by the Mayor to the prior version of the Rules
that you developed; when you have the modified version done, I would
appreciate you sending them to me, and I’ll check them for legal
issues.

I’ll be glad to discuss. Thanks, David

R. David Syfan
HULSEY,OLIVER & MAHAR, LLP
200 E.E. Butler Parkway
P.O. Box 1457 (30503)
Gainesville, GA 30501
770.532.6312
770.531.9230 (fax)