Conn. Agencies Regs. § 7-323k-4

Current through December 4, 2024

Section 7-323k-4 - Rules of procedure

Rules of Procedure shall be the "Guidelines for Procedures" of the Commission which follow:

A.Meetings.

1. Meetings of the Commission shall be prescribed by statutory provision and by such rules as the Commission may pass so long as they do not conflict with statutory provisions.

2. It shall be the duty of the Chairman, with the concurrence of the Commission, to name the date, time, and location of all meetings of the Commission and to notify all interested parties at least ten days prior to such meetings. Special meetings may be called by the Chairman on his own initiative or at the request of four members upon 48-hour notice to all members.

3. A meeting of the Commission is a meeting which, though it may last for several days, shall be considered one meeting. The intermediate adjournments from day to day, or recesses taken during the day, do not destroy the continuity of the meetings, which in reality constitute one session.

4. A meeting of the Commission shall be closed by moving "to adjourn."

B.Quorum.

1. A quorum of the Commission is such a number as must be present in order that business can be legally transacted. Eight members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum.

2. The quorum refers to the number present, not to the number voting.

3. In the event there is not a quorum present, the Chairman of the Commission may only conduct business concerning: Obtaining a quorum, fixing the adjournment time, adjournment, or take a recess.

4. Unanimous consent cannot be given when a quorum is not present and a notice given then is not valid.

C.Order of business.

1. The Commission shall conduct business in the following order:

a. Reading the minutes of the previous meeting (and their approval).

b. Reports of any standing committees.

c. Reports of any special committees.

d. Special orders.

e. Unfinished business and general orders.

f. New business.

2. The minutes of the Commission are read only once a day at the beginning of the day's business. The fifth item in the order of business includes:

a. The business pending and undisposed of at the previous adjournment.

b. The general orders that were on the calendar for the previous meeting which were not disposed of.

c. Matters postponed to this meeting that have not been disposed of.

3. At every meeting of the Commission the Chairman shall have an agenda of the order of business for the use of the Commission. The agenda shall be sent to all members with the notice for the meeting. The Chairman, as soon as a matter is disposed of, should announce the next order of business. When reports are in order, the Chairman should call for such reports in their order and when unfinished business is in order, he should announce the various questions in their proper order as stated above. If it is desired to transact business out of its normal order, it is necessary to suspend the rules, which can be done by a two-thirds vote.

D.Motions before the commission.

1. Before any subject is open to debate it is necessary that a motion be made by a member of the Commission who has been recognized, and that it be stated by the Chair.

2. The procedures for the conduct of Commission meetings is generally that recognized in "Roberts Rules of Order."

3. When a motion has been made and seconded, it is the duty of the Chairman, unless he rules it out of order, immediately to state the question-that is, state the exact question that is before the Commission for its consideration and action.

4. After a question has been stated by the Chairman, it is before the Commission for consideration and action. All resolutions, reports of committees, communications to the Commission, and all amendments proposed to the Commission, and all other motions may be debated before final action is taken on them, unless by a two-thirds vote the Commission decides to dispose of them without debate. By a two-thirds vote is meant two-thirds of the votes cast, a quorum being present. In debate each member of the Commission has the right to speak twice on the same question on the same day, but cannot make a second speech on the same question as long as any member who has not spoken on that question desires to speak. No one can speak longer than ten minutes at a time without permission of the Commission.

5. Debate must be limited to the merits of the immediately pending question- that is, the last motion stated by the Chairman that is still pending.

6. When the debate appears to have closed, the Chairman asks again, "Are you ready for the question?" If no one claims the floor he proceeds to take the vote on the motion, first calling for the affirmative and then for the negative vote. In putting the question, the Chairman should make perfectly clear what the motion is that the Commission is to decide. If the question is on the adoption of a resolution, unless it has been read very recently, it should be read again, the question being put in a manner similar to this: "This motion is on the adoption of the resolution" (which the Chair reads).

E.Procedures.

1. During the meetings of the Commission there are occasions when members wish to obtain information, to do, or to have done, things that necessitate their making a request. Among these are the following, which will be treated separately:

a. To answer any questions on parliamentary law, pertinent to the pending business, that may be necessary to enable the member to make a suitable motion or to raise a point of order. The Chairman is expected to be familiar with parliamentary law, while many members of the Commission are not.

b. Request for Information. A request for information relating to the pending business is treated just as a parliamentary inquiry, and has the same privileges.

c. Leave to Withdraw or Modify a Motion. A request for leave to withdraw a motion, or a motion to grant such leave, may he made at any time before voting on the question has commenced, even though the motion has been amended. It requires no second.

d. To be Excused from a Duty. If a member of the Commission is elected to office, appointed to a committee, or has any other duty placed on him and he is unable or unwilling to perform the duty, if present, he should decline it immediately and if absent, he should, upon learning of the fact, at once notify the Chairman orally or in writing that he cannot accept the duty.

2. To amend takes precedence over the motion to postpone indefinitely and yields to all other motions. It can be applied to all motions. It can be amended itself, but this "amendment of an amendment" cannot be amended. An amendment is debatable in all cases except where the motion to be amended is undebatable. An amendment of a pending question requires only a simple majority vote for adoption, even though the question to be amended requires a two-thirds vote. An amendment of a rule of order or order of business previously adopted requires a two-thirds vote, but an amendment of the amendment requires majority vote. An amendment may be in any of the following forms:

a. To insert or add (that is, place at the end).

b. To strike out.

c. To strike out and insert or substitute, as it is called, when the entire paragraph or resolution is struck out and another is inserted.

d. To amend by substitution.

3. If the question is undebatable or debate has been closed by order of the Commission, the Chairman, immediately after stating the question, puts it to a vote. If the question is debatable and no one claims the floor, after the question is stated by the Chairman, he should inquire, "Are you ready for the question?" After a moment's pause, if no one claims the floor, he should put the question to a vote. If the question is debated or motions are made, the Chairman should wait until the debate has apparently ceased, when he should again inquire, "Are you ready for the question?" Having given ample time for any one to claim the floor, and no one having done so, he should put the question to vote and announce the result.

4. Only members of the Commission prescribed by law may cast their vote on any question before the Commission. There shall be no vote by proxy.

F.Chairman.

1. His duties are generally as follows: To open the session at the time at which the Commission is to meet, by taking the chair and calling the members to order; to announce the business before the Commission in the order in which it is to be acted upon; to recognize members entitled to the floor; to state and to put to vote all questions which are regularly moved, or necessarily arise in the course of the proceedings, and to announcc the result of the vote; to appoint subcommittees as these may be authorized by vote of the Commission; to protect the Commission from annoyance from evidently frivolous or dilatory motions by refusing to recognize them; to assist in the expediting of business in every way compatible with the rights of the members of the Commission by allowing brief remarks when undebatable motions are pending, if he thinks it advisable; to restrain the members when engaged in debate, within the rules of order; to enforce on all occasions the observance of order and decorum among the members of the Commission deciding all questions of order (subject to an appeal to the Commission by any two members) unless when in doubt he prefers to submit the question for decision of the Commission; to inform the Commission, when necessary, or when referred to for the purpose, on a point of order or practice pertinent to pending business; and to authenticate, by his signature, when necessary, all the acts, orders, and proceedings of the Commission declaring its will.

2. During debate he should be seated and pay attention to the speaker, who is required to address his remarks to the Chairman. When a member has the floor, the Chairman cannot interrupt him so long as he does not transgress any of the rules of the Commission.

3. The Chairman cannot close debate unless by order of the Commission which requires a two-thirds vote; nor can he prevent the making of legitimate motions by hurrying through the proceedings. If members of the Commission are reasonably prompt in exercising their right to speak or make motions, the Chairman cannot prevent their doing so. If he has hurriedly taken and announced a vote while a member is addressing the chair preparatory to speaking, the vote is null and void, and the member must be recognized. On the other hand the Chairman should not permit the object of a meeting to be defeated by a few factious persons using parliamentary forms with the evident object of obstructing business.

4. The Vice-Chairman shall act in the absence of the Chairman and, when so acting, shall have the same duties as the Chairman.

G.Secretary.

1. The secretary is the recording officer of the Commission and the custodian of its records except such as are specifically assigned to others. These records are open, however, to inspection by any member of the Commission at reasonable times, and when a subcommittee needs any records for the proper performance of its duties, they should be turned over to its chairman.

2. In addition to the above duties, when there is only one secretary, it is his duty to send out proper notices of all called meetings, and of other meetings when necessary, and to conduct the correspondence of the Commission, except as otherwise provided.

3. Prior to each meeting, the Secretary should make out an order of business for the use of the Chairman which lists in exact order matters that must come before the Commission. He should keep a record of the proceedings stating what was done and not what was said unless it is to be published. He should never make criticisms, favorable or otherwise, on anything said or done.

H.The minutes.

1. The record of the proceedings of a deliberative Commission meeting is called the minutes. The essentials of the record are as follows:

a. The kind of meeting, "regular" (or stated) or "special" or "adjourned regular" or "adjourned special."

b. Date of meeting and place, when it is not always the same.

c. The fact of the presence of the Chairman and secretary or, in their absence, the names of their substitutes, and the names of the members present.

d. Whether the minutes of the previous meeting were approved or their reading dispensed with.

e. The dates of the meetings being given when it is customary to occasionally transact business at other than the regular business meeting.

f. All the main motions (except those which were withdrawn), points of order and appeals, whether sustained or lost, and all other motions that were not lost or withdrawn. A record shall be kept of each vote of individual members of the Commission.

g. Usually the hours of meeting and adjournment, when the meeting is solely for business. Generally the name is recorded of the member who introduced a main motion.

Conn. Agencies Regs. § 7-323k-4

Effective June 14, 1977