Knowing the Rules
Mr. Camarella, a onetime union organizer, has spent decades leading meetings. He claims the City Council strayed from acceptable procedure when City Atty. Carol Schwab approved of a plan by Mr. Corlin to call for a new vote on a delegate when Mr. Silbiger believed he had been elected last year to a four-year term.
In a withering, pedantic scolding, Mr. Camarella told the five Council members they should pack their bags, leave town and go on a three-day “immersion retreat” to “absorb” the ninety-one-year-old concept known as Robert’s Rules of Order. “They should go on a retreat,” he said, “because they had voted to use Robert’s Rules of Order. If they go to the trouble of denoting what they are going to use as their rules, they should understand those rules and use them. They don’t understand the finer points by far. I have attended Council meetings for the last several years, and this topic has come up numerous times. They have been central to whatever the issue was at the time. Therefore, we really need to know Robert’s Rules. If they don’t want an immersion retreat, they should have an expert at the City Council meetings so they have immediate access to him or her. Or they should have someone they can call and get an immediate ruling.”
