Orange County NC Website
5 6 <br /> Rules of Procedure for the <br /> Board of County Commissioners <br /> Introduction <br /> These rules of procedure were designed for use by a North Caro- <br /> lina board of county commissioners. Essentially, the rules are <br /> a modified version of Robert's Rules of Order, Revised. Robert's <br /> Rules is intended to guide the deliberations of a large legisla- <br /> tive body; consequently, it is not always appropriate for a small <br /> governing board, which can afford to proceed with much less <br /> formality. Another valuable resource consulted for this revi- <br /> sion of the rules was Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure. <br /> Mason's Manual is intended primarily for state legislatures, <br /> but its extensive discussion of the basic principles of parlia- <br /> mentary law and procedure is valuable for local governing <br /> boards as well. <br /> These rules apply to all meetings of the Orange County Board <br /> of Commissioners at which the Board is empowered to exer- <br /> cise any of the executive, administrative or legislative powers <br /> conferred on it by law. <br /> The North Carolina law (G.S. 153A-41) permits a board of county <br /> commissioners to adopt its own rules of procedure if these con- <br /> form to "generally accepted principles of parliamentary proce- <br /> dure" and do not conflict with applicable law. Mason's Manual <br /> suggests that parliamentary law affecting the work of a board of <br /> county commissioners can be summarized in ten basic principles: <br /> 1. The board can take only those actions that it has authority or <br /> jurisdiction to take. A corollary of this principle is that the <br /> board's action, to be valid, must not violate any applicable <br /> law or constitutional provision. This is simply another mani- <br /> festation of the familiar legal doctrine that a unit of local <br /> government has only those powers conferred on it by law or <br /> necessarily implied from some specific grant of power. <br /> 2. The board must meet in order to act. Under North Carolina <br /> law, the powers conferred on the county governing board are <br /> exercised by the county board of commissioners as a group, <br /> not its individual members. Therefore, the group must meet <br /> in order to act. <br />