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| From: CCL |
By Gretchen Garrity
At last Tuesday’s Christian County Library Board of Trustees meeting, two financial items were pulled from the consent agenda for discussion. Consent agendas are a way to quickly dispose of routine items that can be grouped together for a single vote. This saves meeting time.
According to Robert’s Rules of Order, it is permissable not only to remove items from the consent calendar (agenda), but to be able to make motions and vote upon any issues that pertain to the removed items.
Removing an item from the consent agenda basically moves it to the regular agenda for discussion and a possible vote. In fact, a motion is not usually required to request that an item be removed from the consent agenda. A board member making the request is usually all that is needed for an item to pulled.
A board will usually then approve the consent agenda minus the item that has been moved to the regular agenda. Discussion commences on the item pulled from the consent agenda and votes may be taken, etc. A nice cheat sheet for parliamentary procedure can be found HERE.
However, at the May 27, 2025 meeting, the board allowed itself to be derailed from voting on a motion put forth by the treasurer. The interim executive director maintained it was not “appropriate” to make a motion on an item pulled from the consent agenda. In fact, it was stated that “the only action that can be taken as a part of the consent agenda is either to approve or not approve the report.”
She maintained that “...this is not a time to bring up another action.” Later in the meeting, the interim director suggested making a motion at the next month’s regular meeting. She stated, “How about we put it as an agenda item so that you can properly make a motion for action. What you’re asking is not allowed...the consent agenda is about approving the estimated and the actual bills.”
The interim director then asserted that the motion put forth was incompatible with the items pulled from the consent agenda.
Watch below to see the exchange. It begins around the four-minute mark and continues for several minutes.
The Christian County Library agenda includes Financial Reports each month on the consent agenda. According to Jim Slaughter, an attorney and parliamentarian, financial reports should not be on consent agendas. He writes:
“Should Financial Reports Be on the Consent Calendar?
Standard or monthly financial reports are sometimes included on the Consent Calendar, but they almost certainly shouldn’t be. That’s because the Consent Calendar ADOPTS the items on the Consent Calendar. If financial reports are on there, they are being adopted as well.
Typical monthly financial reports should not be adopted (but consult your legal counsel). Here’s the language from Robert’s Rules of Order Fast Track:
A standard financial report is the best example of a report that should not be automatically adopted. Associations everywhere hear the treasurer give a financial report and then move to Adopt the treasurer’s report. Robert’s says you shouldn’t do that. After all, we don’t have the slightest idea if any of the bank amounts are accurate. Or even truthful. For all we know, our vote is the equivalent of “Yes, you’re robbing us blind, but why don’t we go ahead and approve whatever you just said.” Robert’s goes so far as to provide: “No action of acceptance by the assembly is required-or proper-on a financial report of the treasurer unless it is of sufficient importance, as an annual report, to be referred to auditors.” The auditors’ report is what should later be adopted by the body.”
There is nothing in the Library's policy manual that addresses this issue. The Library Board may want to further investigate the wisdom of having financial reports included in the consent agenda.