A special meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board was held Monday, Nov. 12 to complete updates to the board’s by-laws.
The board is required by the city’s Planning Department to submit any changed by-laws to the city’s community planning board by-laws template, according to Geoff Page, PCPB chair.
The board is behind schedule and may have to use the old by-laws for next year’s elections if they do not finish their work. A target date to submit the changes remains unclear.
The board intended to submit the completed by-laws this month in time for the city to approve them before next year’s PCPB elections in March, he said.
“The consequence is that we have to hold the elections with same messy rules as the last time,” Page said.
He added that the board could risk decertification by the city Planning Department if it doesn’t make significant progress toward completion.
Decertification of the board is unlikely, however, if the board does show significant progress, according to Deputy City Attorney Alex Sachs.
City Planning Department officials could not be reached for comment by press time.
At the meeting, the board decided on several key issues during deliberations, including qualifications for becoming a board member, subcommittee chair election rules and additional voting powers for the board chair.
The board voted 5-3 to require that board candidates attend at least two regularly scheduled PCPB board meetings prior to the election to be eligible.
After debate over the minimum meeting requirements, former board member Jarvis Ross said that meeting attendance is the responsibility of anybody interested in running for the board.
“There could be public perception that somebody comes on at the last minute without really being familiar with what the board is all about,” he said.
The board also amended the by-laws to allow each board committee to elect a respective chair so long as the entire board approves the choice by a vote, Page said.
The board also allotted a new voting power to the chair. Under current rules, the board chair cannot vote on an action item except to break a tie.
According to the changes approved in that 5-4 vote, the planning board chair can now vote just like any other member.
The board also addressed a host of possible amendments concerning mostly parliamentary issues, including whether or not to allow open the PCPB website for public comment, a possibility that may happen regardless of what the by-laws say, Page said.
For more information visit www.pcpb.net.