Who enforces the local rules under which a municipality conducts its meetings?
Governing bodies must have procedures in place and follow them for their meetings. Some of these procedures are in Title 29 and other statutes. Others are in the local ordinances, which are usually more specific and detailed than Title 29, or in rules of procedure adopted by the governing body. Essentially, the presiding officer enforces the rules by following them when conducting a meeting and, when there is a question of procedure, the clerk, acting as parliamentary advisor, researches the question and proposes an answer, which the presiding officer then rules on. Members of the public also enforce the rules by questioning whenever something occurs that doesn’t seem to follow the rules. The last resort for enforcement is a lawsuit.
