Rules & Procedures of the Green Party of Los Angeles County.
Updated 2008-07.
THE BYLAWS SUPERCEDE THESE RULES AND PROCEDURES, AND SUPERCEDE THEM WHEN THEY CONFLICT.
Table of Contents
SECTION 1: COUNTY COUNCIL MEETINGS.
Minutes.
Audio Recordings of Meetings.
County Council Member Intent in Voting.
Signed Attendance Sheets and Voting.
Old Business Carries Forward.
Meeting Video Recording Permitted.
Meeting Web-streaming Permitted.
Duration of Meetings.
Members with Conflicts of Interests Prohibited from Council Decisions.
SECTION 2: FILLING COUNTY COUNCIL VACANCIES.
Seating of Newly Appointed County Council Members.
SECTION 3: ALTERNATE REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES TO GPCA STATE COORDINATING COMMITTEE.
• Eligibility
• Length of Term
• Appointment
• Gender Balance
• Timing
SECTION 4: BEGINNING AND ENDING DATES OF GPCA STATE COORDINATING COMMITTEES REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE TERMS.
SECTION 5: DATA BASE.
Database Coordinator
Database Committee
Access to Database/County Council Members
Access to Database/Green Locals
Access to Database/Candidates
SECTION 6 : FUNDRAISING.
Donor and Volunteer Lists from the GPCA
Fundraising via email
SECTION 7: COMMUNICATIONS.
A) Process for Posting/Notification of Election of GPLAC Officers
B) Official Communications by GPLAC Officers
C) County Green General Discussion/Announcement Email List
D) County Council Discussion Email List
E) County Council Pre-Vote Discussion Web Pages
F) County Council On-Line Voting Voting .
G) GPLAC eRules
H) Referrals to Active Green Locals
I) County Council candidates (candidate statements, qualification signatures)
SECTION 8: ON-LINE VOTING.
SECTION 9: VOTING ON GPCA POLLING OF THE COUNTIES.
SECTION 1: COUNTY COUNCIL MEETINGS.
Minutes Taking for GPLAC Meetings:
Formal minutes of GPLAC meetings shall include at least a record of decisions taken on a particular proposal or motion, as well who voted for, against or stood aside, and a record of all outstanding concerns. (Changed 2007-05-19).
Audio Recordings of Meetings.
An official audio recording shall be made of every meeting, which would be used to settle questions about the minutes or anything else of the meeting's proceedings. Recording of the meeting shall be the responsibility of the Council Members and the Secretary.
County Council Member Intent in Voting.
For GPLAC officers such as Co-Coordinator, Secretary and Treasurer, and for Regional Representative to the State Coordinating Committee of the Green Party of California (or other such elections), the election shall be conducted so as disclose the intentions of the voter.
To accomplish this, County Council Members rank their choices on a written ballot, using the Single Transferable Vote, and identify themselves on the ballot.
Signed Attendance Sheets and Voting:
“Each councilor shall sign the Secretary’s attendance sheet in order to be counted as attended.” 2007-02-25.
“Only signed-in attendees shall vote during the meetings.” 2007-02-25.
“For the purpose of “attendance records for all County Council members” referred to in Bylaw 6.3.2, 'Meeting attendance' shall mean actually attending more than half of the scheduled duration of a meeting”. If members leave early, the Note-taker shall record the time of their departure. Added 2007-10-28.
Old Business Carries Forward. “Once proposed to the council, all proposal items shall always be carried forward to the next meetings, as 'old business' until either voted on, or recalled by the original presenter of the business.” 2007-02-25.
Meeting Video Recording Permitted. “Video recording of meetings shall be permitted.” 2007-07.
Meeting Web-streaming Permitted. “Web-streaming of meetings shall be permitted.” 2007-07.
Duration of Meetings. “Meetings last their scheduled duration, even if they start up to one hour late.” Passed July 2007.
Rationale: LA County is huge, and traffic problems the rule, so people often arrive late enough to prevent meetings from starting on time. This rule enables meetings to be extended up to one hour beyond their scheduled ending times in order to give the council a full three-hour meeting as scheduled.
Members with Conflicts of Interests Prohibited from Council Decisions. “A conflict of interest decision item is defined as any item where the council member has a financial or material interest in the outcome of the decision. Therefore, if the item concerns the council member, and the member has a financial or material interest in the outcome of the decision, then he/she shall not participate in deciding this item, because of the potential for the appearance of a conflict of interest.” Added 2007-05-19.
SECTION 2: FILLING COUNTY COUNCIL VACANCIES.
1) Any person appointed to the County Council at a face-to-face meeting, can participate at the next face-to-face meeting, or as part of post-meeting on-line or conference call votes, as soon as their Nomination Petition signatures are validated.
2) Nomination Petition signatures shall be validated within seven business days of their delivery to either of the GPLAC Co-Coordinators. Nomination Petitions may be delivered before a County Council meeting, or at a County Council meeting.
3) The Co-Coordinators and the Secretary shall have the responsibility to ensure that the Green registration status of the petition signers is validated. Validation must occur within seven business days of signatures being handed in to the Co-Coordinators. Validation will include comparing the signatures to those at the County Registrar's Office.
4) A person may also be appointed to the County Council by virtue of an on-line vote of the County Council, as long as their signatures have been validated before the vote occurs. They may then participate as a full voting member at the next face-to-face meeting, if they are appointed by the deadline for the release of the agenda for that meeting.
5) A person appointed in an on-line vote may also participate in on-line votes, but not before the next face-to-face meeting occurs, or after 30 days if no face-to-face meeting occurs in that time.
6) If there is a dispute over the Green registration status of petition signers, an appeal may be made to the County Council and agendized at its next meeting. The Co-Coordinators shall make a written report of their findings available for inclusion with the agenda for that item.
SECTION 3: ALTERNATE REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES TO GPCA STATE COORDINATING COMMITTEE.
• Eligibility
Any GPLAC member is eligible to be an Alternate GPLAC Regional Representative. A Coordinating Committee member may not also be a County Co-Coordinator, but an Alternate may be. In a case where an Co-Coordinator is an Alternate, should the Representative leave the seat (through resignation, recall or other cause), and should such an Alternate assume the seat in his/her place, then that Alternate shall be considered to have immediately resigned their Co-Coordinator position.
• Length of Term
The GPLAC seeks to retain flexibility in its selection of Alternates, in order to be able to appoint Alternates for periods of specified duration.
Current GPCA Bylaws state that the term of an Alternate shall be concurrent with the term of the Representative. If the GPCA Bylaws change to allow for the option of flexibility on behalf of counties, this clause shall establish that flexibility for the GPLAC.
If that occurs, an Alternate may be appointed for the same term as the Representative, or for a period of lesser duration.
• Appointment
The voting procedure for each seat shall be by Instant Run-Off Voting, using a simple majority threshold, as referenced in the GPCA Bylaws (Section 7). CONSIDER REPLACING WITH STV-PR.
• Gender Balance
To ensure that at least one Alternate is male and one female, Alternates shall be chosen first for the male and female Representatives. If at this point, there are at least two of each gender, out of the five selected (three Representatives, two Alternates), then the last Alternate may be from either gender. If not, then the final Alternate shall be chosen to ensure that there are at least two of each gender. DELETE THIS SECTION.
• Timing
Alternates will be elected at the same time as regional representatives, and their terms will run concurrent to the regional representatives they are elected with. CONTRADICTS EARLIER SECTION.
SECTION 4: BEGINNING AND ENDING DATES OF GPCA STATE COORDINATING COMMITTEES REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE TERMS.
The length of the term for GPLAC Regional Representatives to the GPCA State Coordinating Committee is set by the GPCA at two years. NO IT NEVER WAS; IT WAS SET AT A NOMINAL TWO YEARS. FURTHERMORE, THIS HAS BEEN SUPERCEDED BY THE NEW BYLAW PASSED IN APRIL 2008 IN BERKELEY.
Regional Representatives will be elected on or about the 4th Sunday in November of even numbered years. CONFLICTS WITH NEW STATE BYLAW.
Both were deleted April 2008 to become consistent with the new GPCA bylaws passed in Berkeley.
A Regional Representative is considered seated upon election.
SECTION 5: DATA BASE.
Database Coordinator.
There shall be a Database Coordinator that is responsible for managing the Database according to the direction set by the County.
Among his/her tasks, the Database Coordinator would be responsible for maintaining the database, including cleaning and updating the email addresses, and entering information as needed that comes from web and phone referrals, the GPCA from its fundraising and volunteer records, and from any Green local or candidate that chooses to share it.
The Database Coordinator will provide quarterly reports to the GPLAC.
The Database Coordinator will not provide access to, nor share the contents of the database with any individual or organization, unless specified to do so by the County Council, and the Database Coordinator will sign a document with the County Council to this effect.
Database Committee.
There shall be a Database Committee that shall work with the Database Coordinator to help implement County Council direction regarding the Database. The Committee shall include the GPLAC Co-Coordinators, the Database Coordinator, as well as additional members as appointed by the County Council.
The Database Committee shall create options for GPLAC members, so that they could receive by email, the type of information they are interested in.
This would include notice of County Council elections (and filing deadlines), notice of the election of GPLAC Officers and GPLAC reps to the GPCA CC, County Council meetings and agendas, and other items directed by the County Council.
Access to Database/County Council Members.
County Council Members will have no special access to the Database, just because they are County Council Members.
Access to Database/Green Locals.
The GPLAC Co-Coordinators are directed to send an email to Green locals asking them under what circumstances would they be willing to work with the GPLAC in developing the GPLAC data base. The results of this outreach would be reported to the County Council and options provided at a future County Council meeting (the goal would be April, which would give locals time to discuss it first and then have the options reflect those discussions.)
Access to Database/Candidates.
Candidates endorsed by the GPLAC County Council may have emails sent on their behalf to registered Greens in the GPLAC database, at the discretion of the County Council. The County Council shall develop a plan for how often this opportunity will be provided.
SECTION 6: FUNDRAISING.
Donor and Volunteer Lists from the GPCA.
It is the responsibility of the GPLAC Co-Coordinators to are directed to communicate to the GPCA that the GPLAC would like to obtain the donor and volunteers lists for Los Angeles County in the GPCA's possession.
Fundraising via email.
The GPLAC will develop and authorize periodic fundraising appeals directly to its members via email and the PayPay link on the county's website.
SECTION 7: COMMUNICATIONS.
A) Process for Posting/Notification of Election of GPLAC Officers
In order to post/notify when elections for GPLAC officers and for GPLAC representatives to the GPCA-CC will be held, and to inform about the process by which those elections will be conducted: the GPLAC will:
1) post such information on the GPLAC website, at the same time as this information is made available to the County Council;
2) send such information via email to all Green locals on the County list and to any others that request it;
3) include the opportunity to receive such information among the email options presented to registered Green Party members in LA County, including as part of a GPLAC data base policy;
4) send such information via email to all Green locals on the County list and to any others that request it;
B) Official Communications by GPLAC Officers;
Official Communications on behalf of the GPLAC, either of the GPLAC Co-Coordinators or the GPLAC Secretary shall be copied to the two others. Official communications by the Treasurer shall be copied to the Co-Coordinators and Secretary.
All such communications shall use the following email addresses in copying communications to each other: gplac-cocos@cagreens.org, gplac-secretary@cagreens.org and gplac-treasurer@cagreens.org. These email addresses shall be attached to a web-archive, which will archive GPLAC official communications.
C) County Green General Discussion/Announcement Email List
(gplac-forum@cagreens.org)
Purpose/Charter: For open discussion by any LA County Green Party member about issues, strategy, trends, organizing and other activities of the Green Party in Los Angeles County.
1) GPLAC County Council members (and GPLAC state Coordinating Committee regional representatives) are encouraged to subscribe to this list, either in full or digest form.
2) Event Announcements should be limited to those related to the activities of the Green Party and/or Green Party members.
Participants: Read/write participation by any Green Party member in LA County. Participation subject to the Green eRules attached below. Sign-Up: Sign up will be by submission form on County site. The List Administrator will check all submission against the list of registered Greens in LA County. By signing up one agrees to abide by the Green eRules. Submission requests will be processed within seven days. Green registration status of participants will be checked each time the GPLAC obtains a new voter registration list.
D) County Council Discussion Email List.
(gplac-cc@careens.org)
Purpose/Charter: For discussion purposes only among County Council members.
Participants: Read/write participation by County Council members; Read-only status for any other Green member in LA County, available either through a web archive or as email.
Individual Greens retain the right to directly email a County Council Member. That Council Member could then choose to forward that email to the group. However, County Council members should only repost within reason to make a point, rather than to insert the non-County Council member into the debate in an ongoing manner.
Note: County Council decisions will not be made on this email list. County Council votes will be cast on a separate voting web page. See #3 below.
Sign-Up: The List Administrator will automatically place all County Council members on the email list as full participants. In participating, all County Council Members agree to abide by the Green eRules.
E) County Council Pre-Vote Discussion Web Pages.
(www.cagreens.org/lacounty/pre-discuss)
Purpose/Charter: For two purposes: pre-vote discussion of agenda items for on-line votes and face-to-face meetings.
Participants: Read/write status for any Green in LA County.
Sign-Up: Sign up will be by submission form on County site; the List Administrator will check all submission against the list of registered Greens in LA County. Posting will be password protected, with individual passwords linked to individual e-mail addresses. By signing up one agrees to abide by the Green eRules. Submission requests will be processed within seven days. Green registration status of participants will be checked each time the GPLAC obtains a new voter registration list.
F) County Council On-Line Voting Voting.
(www.cagreens.org/lacounty/CC-vote)
Purpose/Charter: For conducting and recording on-line votes of the County Council.
Participants: County Council members. Results will be available to be read by all, with a link from the GPLAC home page and County Council page.
Design: This will be a variation of the GPUS Voting Page at http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/index. The code is open source and the GPLAC will incorporate this into a design using the GPLAC's own graphics.
Sign-Up: The List Administrator will automatically place all County Council members on the email list as full participants, and assign each a password.
G) GPLAC eRules.
(www.cagreens.org/lacounty/erules)
Participation in GPLAC on-line forums is open to all Green Party members in Los Angeles County. It is based upon the premise that people participant in order build the Green Party and advance the Ten Key Values.
Green eRules are meant to help promote a productive, transparent and respectful environment for this to occur. GPLAC on-line forum participants are encouraged to state their views, inform one another, and discuss issues in depth, in a manner that enables energy to be focused on productive work. Disagreement over issues and ideas should be honored as an expected part this process, and is not to be considered a disruption or impediment.
The full text for 'Expectations and Standards' and Restricting Disruptive and/or Unethical Behavior' is contained at or www.cagreens.org/lacounty/erules
H) Referrals to Active Green Locals.
The GPLAC share forward to Active Green Locals, referrals for those areas of Los Angeles County that those locals are recognized for, that come in through the County web site's - "Interest/Volunteer page", as well as referrals that come in from the Green Party of the California and the Green Party of the United States.
I) County Council candidates (candidate statements, qualification signatures)
1) Providing information to Green voters about County Council candidates
In order to provide information to Green voters about County Council candidates, a URL will be provided on the GPLAC web site, for every ballot qualified County Council candidate.
Such candidates will be free to post as much content as they'd like (including links to other sites) as long as their content (and that of the links) is
- issue and organization-based, and
- does not critically name or single out individuals in the Green Party.
In general, candidate statements should observe the same general decorum outlined as appropriate for Green Party email lists/forum on www.cagreens.org/lacounty/gplac_erules.html
A candidate may post a photo, but is not required to do so.
To qualify, a candidate shall send the html page to the GPLAC Co-Coordinators, and the GPLAC shall be responsible for uploading the page.
2) Signatures for County Council candidate nomination petitions
In order that Green Party members can be made aware that they can sign the nomination petitions for Green County Council candidates in their district, and to aid potential County Council candidates in connecting to Green Party members in their district, contact information for County Council candidates will be provided on the GPLAC web site so that Green Party members who may want to sign for someone in their districts, will have the information to do so. The Los Angeles County Registrar's web page has a link to this information and linking to it from the GPLAC site, along with an explanation of why, can fulfill this requirement.
SECTION 8: ON-LINE VOTING DECISONS.
Online decisions extend the in-person decision making processes of in-person meetings to the realm of the Internet, and may be used for all of the decisions made in in-person meetings, except for secret paper balloting.
(Note that this is equivalent to establishing a Standing General Assembly for the County Council.)
Online Decisions shall follow the normal consensus process to the extent possible. The decisions made through this process may include those that are routine and/or straightforward in nature, that have had significant preparatory work already done at face-to-face meetings, or that are time sensitive.
Time sensitive items shall include a 'statements of findings' statement explaining the need to compacted for a shortened decision-making schedule. Other items should be saved for face-to-face meetings.
Any GPLAC County Council Member can may make a proposal.
Online Proposals shall include:
- The person or group who initiated the proposal. (EMAIL MAKES THIS REDUNDANT.)
(proposals may originate from a non-County Council Member but must be sponsored by a GPLAC County Council Member), and also who will reply to clarifying questions. OBVIOUS AND REDUNDANT.
A clear statement of the issue being addressed and the action/decision requested (PROPOSAL);
The Relevant background information (which may be web links);
The Identifiable consequences of yes (and no, if appropriate) vote, monetary and/or otherwise. affirmative decisions (and negative decisions, if appropriate);
The Applicable decision making schedule and procedure (normal or shortened) .
Except for time sensitive issues (which will have a compacted shortened schedule to meet any strict deadlines required for the decision), the decision making schedule and procedure will follow the following outline:
1) Proposal made: posted to the email, voting page, or other mechanism established for the County Council to consider such the decision.
2) Discussion period: Questions/concerns/affirmations/friendly amendments for seven days. During this time, County Council Members should indicate if they are in consensus with the proposal. If consensus is reached by the County Council at any point before the full week, the proposal is considered to be passed passes. , but it must be consensus including any amendments accepted. Consensus must include any accepted amendments.
3) If consensus has not been indicated reached during the Discussion period, there shall be a test for consensus. If no consensus, the proposer has the option to recall the proposal, to put the proposal on the next available face-to-face meeting agenda, or to go to a vote.
4) If the item goes to a vote, the voting period begins immediately and is five days. Those not online can call in Council Members not online may communicate their vote via either Co-Coordinator another Council Member, who will can email the vote to the GPLAC list-serve mailing list.
Quorum must be reached for the vote to be valid, and the same super-majority applies for approval as is required for votes at meetings as specified in the bylaws.
Online decisions require the same quorum and decision thresholds as those at in-person meetings.
Advance or proxy voting is not allowed. (WHY NOT ALLOW ADVANCE VOTING? PROXY VOTING TOO?)
(How about this?) Advance voting is permitted, but must be redone each time the proposal is amended.
SECTION 9: VOTING ON GPCA POLLING OF THE COUNTIES.
When responding to GPCA Polling of the Counties on candidate and ballot measure endorsements, and other such matters, the GPLAC shall cast its full allotment of votes in the following manner:
The County Council shall take a position on the question, and then shall cast its allotment of votes in the same proportions as taken by the County Council.