Councilors Should Know The Rules

Councilors should know the rules

Cambridge Chronicle
Tue May 01, 2007, 09:41 AM EDT
[Published May 1, 2007 Cambridge Chronicle online,
in print edition May 3, 2007]
Cambridge -

After years and months of complaints about the council violating its own rules and Roberts’ Rules of Order, there is still no will to correct its unlawful ways (“Clerks grapple to keep councilors in the room,” Cambridge Chronicle, April 25).

It is not enough for the City Clerk to know the rules. All councilors must know them. That is the idea behind a point of order. Any councilor can raise that point which must be recognized immediately.

If only the clerk or even if the chairman knows the rules, the rest of the council remains in a coma if there are any violations. For too many years this council ran its meetings without any rules. It is one certain indication of the lawlessness of this one-party city.

The vigor with which officials retaliate against citizens who criticize their lawlessness makes other citizens fearful of participating in the governmental process. The councilors continue to be clueless about why young people refuse to cooperate with the police. Clueless is as clueless does.

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ROY BERCAW, Editor
ENOUGH ROOM
Cambridge MA USA