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5 20 Rules of Procedure for the Board of County Commissioners Introduction These rules of procedure were designed for use by a North Caro- lina board of county commissioners. Essentially, the rules are a modified version of RobertÔs Rules of Order, Revised. RobertÔs Rules is intended to guide the deliberations of a large legisla- tive body; consequently, it is not always appropriate for a smal governing board, which can afford to proceed with much less formality. Another valuable resource consulted for this revi- sion of the rules was MasonÔs Manual of Legislative Procedure. MasonÔs Manual is intended primarily for state legislatures, but its extensive discussion of the basic principles of parlia- mentary law and procedure is valuable for local governing boards as well. These rules apply to all meetings of the Orange County Board of Commissioners at which the Board is empowered to exer- cise any of the executive, administrative or legislative powers conferred on it by law. The North Carolina law (G.S. 153A-41) permits a board of county commissioners to adopt its own rules of procedure if these con- form to Ñgenerally accepted principles of parliamentary proce- dureÒ and do not conflict with applicable law. MasonÔs Manual suggests that parliamentary law affecting the work of a board of county commissioners can be summarized in ten basic principles: 1.The board can take only those actions that it has authority or jurisdiction to take. A corollary of this principle is that the boardÔs action, to be valid, must not violate any applicable law or constitutional provision. This is simply another mani- festation of the familiar legal doctrine that a unit of local government has only those powers conferred on it by law or necessarily implied from some specific grant of power. 2.The board must meet in order to act. Under North Carolina law, the powers conferred on the county governing board are exercised by the county board of commissioners as a group, not its individual members. Therefore, the group must meet in order to act.