Executive Committee discuss poor trustee attendance, voting procedure at Trust Council

Some motions had as little as half of trustees voting Hope Lompe Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder Islands Trustees, including the Executive Committee have flagged inconsistent trustee attendance, leaving question marks over some...

Some motions had as little as half of trustees voting Hope Lompe Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder Islands Trustees, including the Executive Committee have flagged inconsistent trustee attendance, leaving question marks over some voting procedures during online Trust Council meetings. The issue was especially prevalent on the final of the three-day quarterly Trust Council meeting, when three votes on the Trust Policy Statement staff work plan all failed in tie votes, as reported in the June 24 Sounder . There are 26 elected trustees.

Those three motions had 18 votes and 20 and 20 votes respectively. One had to be recounted several times because of confusion over abstain votes – those where the person is in the online meeting (camera on or off) but they do not vote. Following the re-count it was revealed the trustee who was counted as abstained, was not in the meeting at the time of the count.

It was corrected to be not counted, and the motion failed with nine in favour and nine opposed. Trustees are expected to tell staff via a message if they are stepping away from their computer during an online trust council meeting. If they fail to do so and a vote takes place they will be counted as abstained.

“There were a few points in the meeting when we struggled a bit with attendance, also when it was not clear whether everybody who was logged into the meeting was actually actively participating,” said David Marlor, director of legislative and information services. Another motion which had two abstain, were legitimate abstentions says Chair Laura Patrick during the July 8 Executive Committee meeting, as these two had their cameras on. Although the voting on the policy statement motions is what brought up the issue, trustees voting, and presumed attendance, throughout the three-day meetings was low.

Islands Trust was not able to send the Sounder a copy of the meeting minutes ahead of publication, which shows when trustees came and went. The Sounder sat in for the three-day meeting and noted as little as half of the 26 trustees voting on some motions even on day one. “When you read the minutes it appears that 25 trustees are at the meeting, however not at any one time,” said Marlor to the Executive Committee.

“The most we had in the meeting at any one time was 20 trustees, and we’re averaging around 17 for the most part. We dropped down to 15 to above quorum [50 per cent of trustees] towards the end of the day.”

At the first Executive Committee meeting after the June Trust Council, committee members discussed options to ensure votes are being counted accurately during online meetings, which have been scheduled for some Trust Council meetings to keep tax requisition costs down. One solution could be to keep cameras on during voting, so those not in the meeting cannot be counted as abstaining (or in favour) should they fail to report they have left the meeting. For those lacking the internet bandwidth to have their camera on, trustees would need to verbally state their vote to be counted.

Although no system is guaranteed to be perfect, said Marlor. Trustees could also implement a roll-call vote for all online voting, that is a vote where each name is called and they say their vote outloud, although this would take more time. As for attendance, Chair Patrick suggested possibly a move away from quarterly three-day meetings, instead conducting more regular business meetings throughout the year.

Staff are planning to send a memo to trustees reiterating the expectation for their participation in meetings. “I’m really concerned that it’s a bad look, and it really is,” said vice-chair Timothy Peterson. “It erodes confidence in our decisions if we don’t have that explicit and obvious to all attending and participating.”

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