Staff Report Item 10
Staff Report Item 10
To: Ava Community Energy Authority
From: Chair Betsy Andersen
Subject: Instituting a practice requiring a majority vote to consider any agenda item not yet addressed after 9:00 p.m. at a Board meeting.
Date: January 21, 2026
__________________________________________________________________ Summary/Recommendation
In order to promote efficient time management during Board meetings, this Staff Report proposes for Ava’s Board of Directors to implement a practice whereby agenda items not reached by 9:00 p.m. require a majority vote to be heard that evening and, absent such vote, are continued to a future meeting or otherwise addressed as directed by the Board.
Financial Impact
N/A
Analysis and Context
To help promote efficient use of time at meetings of Ava’s Board of Directors and to respect the demands on the time of the Directors, this Staff Report recommends that the Directors make and pass the following motion:
“Going forward, to institute a practice whereby, at any regular Board meeting, any agenda item not reached by 9:00 p.m. shall be continued to the next regular meeting unless the Board, by majority vote, elects to hear the item that evening. Staff shall note this practice in a conspicuous location on each Board packet, and the Board reserves the right to apply an alternate solution to continuing the item at its discretion, including but not limited to referring the item to a subcommittee and empowering that subcommittee to take such action as it determines appropriate.”
Staff Report Item 10
This proposed policy is similar to those of other California municipalities, including the City Council of Pleasanton and the City Council of San Leandro.1 It provides a default boundary for bringing new items in order to promote practical meeting lengths but includes the flexibility to proceed for longer periods of time provided that a majority of the Directors agree.
Because this action concerns internal meeting procedures, the proposed policy may be implemented upon a majority vote and does not require a resolution.
Attachments
None.
1 See, e.g., City of Pleasanton. (2022). City Council Rules of Procedure (p. 9). Retrieved from https://www.cityofpleasantonca.gov/assets/our-government/mayor-city-council/city-council-rules-of-procedure.pdf; City of San Leandro. (2025). City Council Member Handbook (p. 20). Retrieved from https://www.sanleandro.org/DocumentCenter/View/10783/Council-Member-Handbook-2025.