Mar Vista Community Council Standing Rules
Approved May 13, 2008
The following rules shall in no way supersede the MVCC Bylaws. The following rules shall supersede any procedural motion passed by the MVCC Board prior to May 13, 2008. Any amendment to or addition to these Standing Rules shall be made by majority vote of the MVCC Board of Directors.
I. The Board
1. All Mar Vista Community Council communications and web postings to the general public or the full MVCC Stakeholder list must be approved by at least three directors of the MVCC Board. All such communications shall be from the Board of Directors, and not any one individual. The only exceptions to this rule are the posting of agendas, minutes, and E-calendars.
2. The Chair of the MVCC Board of Directors shall be the official representative of the Council. No individual Board member or MVCC stakeholder has the authority to speak for the Board on any topic or position unless the substance of his/her statement has been approved by the Board.
3. All MVCC expenditures:
a. which exceed $1,000 shall be approved by the MVCC Board of Directors by a majority vote. These expenditures, if involving purchase of goods or services, shall be made only after consideration of alternate bids, or estimates. This requirement may be waived by action of the Board when specifics of an expenditure so dictate.
b. not exceeding $1,000 but more than $300 shall be approved by the MVCC Board of Directors by a majority vote.
c. under $300 shall be approved by the Treasurer or Chair insofar as the purpose of the expenditure falls under one of the types listed in 3.d. of these Standing Rules and is in accordance with the annually approved MVCC budget.
d. shall be one of the following three types of purchases. These are the only acceptable purchases the City will fund:
i. Administrative expenses of the Mar Vista Community Council and its committees to assist in carrying out its duties.
ii. Outreach expenses which increase community knowledge and/or involvement in the MVCC, City, or any City department.
iii. Community improvement projects. All community improvement projects require that a Community Benefit Statement be submitted to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.
e. must be fully compliant with all Department of Neighborhood Empowerment regulations.
4. The MVCC Board of Directors shall approve substantive changes to the MVCC Web site design, hosting, and choice of management (webmaster), by a majority vote. The Outreach Committee is charged with facilitating these changes, and will consider multiple options before presenting a proposal to the full Board for approval. The Outreach Committee shall make every effort to include all interested Board members in this process. The final proposal will be presented in appropriate detail to the full Board. The Board and public will review this proposal for 30 days, and at the next meeting of the Board the proposal will be submitted for approval.
5. Agendas for Board of Directors meetings will be posted according to MVCC By-laws and in the following places:
a. On the official MVCC website
b. Via email to the Board of Directors and the stakeholder email list
c. At the following two public locations:
Mar Vista Park and Recreation Center
Mar Vista Public Library
6. Board motions will be classified in one of the following three categories:
a. Funding motions
b. Policy motions
c. Administrative motions
7. Within seven days of the Board Meeting the Secretary shall forward draft minutes by e-mail to all Board members and committee chairs.
8. The Chair will ensure that notice of each board policy motion is sent by a designated Board member to all parties designated in the motion, or, at the discretion of the Chair, to appropriate interested parties. This shall be sent under the official MVCC letterhead, with the signature of the Board Chair, and should be done within ten days after the Board meeting.
9. Upon approval of the minutes by the Board at the next Board meeting the Secretary or designee shall
a. Post the minutes to an easily accessible page on the MVCC website.
b. Post each funding motion to an easily accessible page on the website labeled as "MVCC Funding Motions"
c. Post each policy motion to an easily accessible page on the website labeled as "MVCC Policy Motions"
d, Post each administrative motion to an easily accessible page on the website labeled as "MVCC Administrative Motions"
e. Record each motion in an ongoing log of MVCC motions that can be maintained either electronically, or by hard copy, or both.
II. Committees
1. All committees shall be formed in accordance with the MVCC By-laws Article VIII. Each committee shall have the involvement of at least one (1) Board member. All Board members are expected to serve on at least one committee. All committees shall operate under Robert's Rules of Order and the Brown Act.
2. The Chair of the MVCC Board will appoint a Chair, or alternatively, Co-Chairs, for each committee at the next Board meeting after each election of Officers of the Board, or thereafter as they are formed, and submit each appointment to the Board for its approval. The Board may remove any committee Chair or Co-Chair by majority vote. A committee may appoint any additional officers it deems necessary.
3. All committees will function as one of the following:
a. Executive and Budget Committee: Members are the Officers of the Board of Directors.
b. Standing Committee: A standing committee is formed to focus and deliberate on a specific area of Board interest. It meets on a regular basis, and continues in existence until disbanded by the Board.
c. Ad Hoc Committee: An ad hoc committee is formed to complete a specific task. Upon completion of the assigned task and reported to the Board, or by a Board assigned date, the ad hoc committee shall be disbanded.
4. Membership on any standing or ad hoc committee is open to any Mar Vista Community Council stakeholder who wishes to attend a meeting of the Committee. Any recommendation that comes from a committee must have been approved by a majority of the Stakeholders present at the meeting. In addition, committee chairs must provide minority or opposing views from the committee when presenting a motion for the Board's approval.
5. All standing and ad hoc committees shall:
a. Create a mission statement (stating the committee's purpose and areas of responsibilities).
b. Create a properly posted agenda for each meeting at least 72 hours prior to the start of the meeting. The agenda shall be posted on the MVCC website, emailed to the MVCC Board of Directors, shall be accessible to all interested parties through the Email Notification System on the MVCC website, and posted in the public places required in Section I.5.c of these Standing Rules.
c. Have minutes taken, approved, and posted to the MVCC website, for each meeting.
d. Respond to stakeholder claims and requests in its area of responsibility
e. Provide recommendations to the Board
f. Be responsible for reasonable notification of stakeholders of any agenda item that is specific to an address in a stakeholder's immediate neighborhood. One such reasonable notification might be a distribution of flyers to the immediate neighborhood by the appropriate zone director (or agent for the zone director). In addition, for any agenda item deemed sufficiently controversial or of immediate interest to the general stakeholder population, it is the responsibility of the committee to provide reasonable notification---over and above the previously defined posting of agendas--- to MVCC stakeholders of the agenda item. One such reasonable method shall be to post a notice of the agenda item, along with the time and location of the meeting, to the general stakeholder email list.
g. Report findings and/or recommendations to the Board. Any motion from a committee will be considered and treated as a motion made before the Board.
6. A committee, or its members, shall not in any way represent itself to the public or to any public official as conveying or representing a policy or directive from that committee, or from the MVCC, unless that policy or directive has been fully approved by the Board in a public meeting.
7. In the event that a topic is deemed to be relevant to two or more committees, a joint committee meeting may be convened. The joint meeting will be convened and will operate under Robert's Rules of Order and the Brown Act to deal with, and only with, the stated topic. Any recommendations from the joint committee will be submitted to the next Board meeting for final resolution.
8. Email notification lists used by committee chairs to communicate to committee membership shall be maintained in the MVCC website's Early Notification System, in order to insure that when committee chairs are changed or replaced, the email list will be accessible to the new committee chair.
III. Grievance Panel
1. Grievances must be filed by a Stakeholder in writing, on a form available from the MVCC Board or Secretary. Such grievance must state in brief, concise terms the allegations and facts supporting the grievance.
2. The grievance must arise out of an action of the MVCC and/or an MVCC board member acting in its official capacity and must be filed by the person who is making the grievance. Grievances cannot be filed anonymously or filed on behalf of someone else.
3. The grievance must be filed within 45 days of the action taken by the MVCC.
4. The Grievance Procedure is as follows:
a. The Grievance Panel shall have 90 days to address and review grievance after it has been considered and referred by the Board at the upcoming General
Meeting.
b. Board Secretary shall have 14 days to select Panel (comprised of three (3) stakeholders who are randomly selected from a list of stakeholders who have previously expressed interest in serving on such a Panel) and refer grievance to Panel after the Board has heard grievance.
c. At the time Board Secretary advises grievant of the hearing date and time, the notice shall contain the following directions:
1. no contact by the Grievant(s) is to be made with members of the Grievance Panel in any mail, email, phone, etc.
2. the grievance hearing is to involve only the Procedural Matters pertaining to the Mar Vista Community Council's actions pertaining to the specific issue(s) raised.
d. Only the grievant or whoever signed the appeal can appear at hearing unless requested by Panel.
e. If an organization or large numbers of people are named as grievant(s), only one person will be designated to appear on behalf of the grievant(s).
f. Board Secretary shall coordinate a time and meeting location for the Panel to meet with person(s) submitting grievance. Panel shall meet prior to hearing from Grievant(s) in order to consider the issues raised by Grievant and then hold the hearing with Grievant to prepare and forward recommendations to the Mar Vista Community Council Board of Directors.
g. Person(s) who submitted grievance(s) at the discretion of the Grievance Panel shall have up to a Maximum of 30 minutes to address the Panel.
h. If grievant has supplemental documentation, it may/may not be considered by Grievance Panel.
i. It is the Panel's discretion to call upon witnesses and/or hear written statements from the other party (ies) involved.
j. Minutes, motions and any information needed by Panel shall be provided by the Board Secretary.
k. After Grievance Panel has discussed their findings, a member of the panel shall prepare a written report to be forwarded by the Secretary of the Board outlining the panel's collective recommendations for resolving the grievance(s) to the Board.
l. Grievance Panel shall not be responsible for maintaining records. All documents that are accepted by Panel at the Grievance hearing, if any, shall be forwarded to Board Secretary to maintain.