Special Menomonie School Board Censure Meeting

Meeting to consider censure of board member Jim Swanson

[jakeroseberry]

Chris Freeman nailed it! The right way to run the meeting...opening remarks by President stating the purpose of the meeting...statement by accused, questions and answers by board member ..closed session in which you draft the motion, reconvene into open session and vote. This was poorly done.

[danielcunningham]

First, the man with the ball cap worn backwards is a smart, level headed person. He's Menomonie's future leader. Second, if a censure is permitted under Roberts Rules of Order and is like an employee discipline, then that should invoke due process, such as an investigation and/or the Board holding a quasi-hearing. Bringing up an alleged past history of a board member without notifying the board of such and context beforehand is inappropriate.

[danielcunningham]

The board member on the right side in the white was absolutely right. She offered some input to the President about deceivingly possibly jumping in too quickly and harshly on Monday. Yet the President's response wasn't to self-reflect and consider the input, he just excused and dismissed it. Not good.

[danielcunningham]

A censure articulating future consequences establishes past practice and could be yielded in such a way to deliberately and inappropriately negate the public's vote. A board comprised of politically partisan members, could for example use the consequences attached to this censure to weed out board members of different ideologies in the future.  The censure should have documented the action and why it was taken, not a document defining precise violations trying the hands of boards in the future. It establishes precedent. This was a bad board decision.