City Council Meeting
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Consideration of Appointments to Boards, Commissions, and Advisory Committees
1:02:14Rachel McQuillenI have questions for you mr. left command can the city attorney confirm for the public that the city of Fairfax operates under government and that the appointments to boards and commissions are made by the City Council as a body?
Lubkemanstaffin the 20 years i've been city attorney well i'll turn it around by saying my experience has been that most appointments to boards and commissions tend to be close to unanimous by the body
The mayor can vote on procedural aspects related to the appointment. So, for example, deferring action on an appointment, those type of things are perfectly legitimate. I have always taken the position that the appointments to boards and commissions legally is the province of the city council. It is also true, and people throw the word tradition around. It is also not an incorrect statement how it was characterized previously as to previous actions by previous councils and mayors. But that is not a legal requirement. That is just simply an agreement among the parties. Okay,
Catherine Readactually, I give it back to Council Member McQuillan because I'm running this business meeting, so thank you. So let me clarify. Let me clarify by saying when I said vote, I don't mean vote from the dais. What I'm saying is when discussions were held in closed session about appointments to boards and commissions, there were seven people, if there were even seven people in the room, who gave input. This is not about my voting from the dais for this. This is about the body acting like a body. What a concept. And I am still running this meeting. So, Council Member McQuillan, would you like to make further comments?