(A) Election of officers.
(1) The Commission/Board shall elect yearly, at the first regular meeting held after the fifteenth of February, a chair and vice chair from among those of its members who are not ex-officio, and the Commission/Board may create such other offices as it deems appropriate. The Director of Planning shall serve as secretary of the Commission/Board and may appoint a clerk to record meetings, to prepare proceedings, and to perform such other duties as may be prescribed by the Director of Planning.
(2) A Commission/Board member may nominate another voting member for the office of chair. A Commission/Board member who receives a majority of the votes of the Commission/Board members for that office shall be chair. The vice chair of the Commission/Board shall be elected in the same manner as the chair.
(B) Rules. Meetings of the Commission/Board shall be public except when an executive session is warranted. The Commission/Board shall adopt rules for the governance of the Commission/Board and the transaction of Commission/Board business. The rules of the Commission/Board, and any changes thereto, shall be adopted by resolution of the Commission/Board and submitted to the City Council for ordinance approval pursuant to the provisions of § 1.20.030.
(C) Membership.
(1) A member of the Commission/Board, other than an ex-officio member, shall submit any resignation from the Commission/Board in written form to the secretary. The resignation will be effective the date submitted.
(2) A member of the Commission/Board, other than an ex-officio member, shall submit to the City Clerk a report of financial and business interests as required by Alaska law.
(3) An excused absence shall be granted for members who cannot attend meetings due to death in the immediate family, or a personal or family medical emergency. Each member will also be allowed one excused absence for any reason per 12 month period beginning February 15 of each year. Any member of the Commission/Board, other than an ex-officio member, whose attendance record has five consecutive unexcused absences from regular meetings, including work sessions, or a total of six unexcused absences from regular meetings, including work sessions, in any 12 month period beginning February 15 of each year shall be deemed to have submitted his/her resignation from the Commission/Board. When a regular meeting and a work session are held the same day, they will be counted as one meeting.
(4) No employee of the City of Unalaska shall be appointed as a member to the City of Unalaska Planning Commission or Platting Board. Any member who accepts employment with the City of Unalaska shall be deemed to have submitted a resignation to the Commission/Board effective the date of employment.
(5) No member of the City Council may serve concurrently as a member to the City of Unalaska Planning Commission or Platting Board. Any council member who accepts appointment to the Commission/Board shall be deemed to have submitted their resignation of their elected office to the Unalaska City Council effective the earlier of participating as a seated member of the Commission/Board or upon the member signifying acceptance by taking the oath of office for service on the Commission/ Board.
(D) Telephonic participation.
(1) A Planning Commission member may participate via telephone in any meeting or work session up to three times per 12-month period beginning February 15 of each year. A Planning Commission meeting must have at least two non-ex-officio members physically present. Any member participating by telephone shall be considered present at the meeting or session for all purposes under this Chapter. In order to participate by telephone, the member must declare to the Director of Planning that out of town travel prevents physical attendance at the meeting. Such notice must be provided to the Commission Chair in advance of the meeting.
(2) Notice under this section is acceptable, if provided in writing or via electronic mail ten days prior to the scheduled meeting, and must include a short description of the circumstances which prevent the Commissioner’s physical attendance at the meeting.
(3) Telephone participation shall be refused by the Commission Chair if, at any time, it appears that technical capabilities or other interference does not allow all persons, whether physically present or not, to hear and engage in discussion. Where practicable, any written materials or other information presented during the meeting should be made available to persons participating via telephone.
(E) Meetings.
(1) Regular meetings of the Commission/Board shall be held on the third Thursday of each month at 6:00 p.m.
(2) The order of business for each meeting shall normally be as follows:
Call to Order
Roll Call
Additions to the Agenda
Appearance Requests
Minutes
Public Hearings
Regular Meetings
Old Business
New Business
Work Session
Public Input
Adjournment
“Additions to the Agenda” mean items to be brought to the floor, either at the request of a member of the Commission/Board or at the request of a member of the public. The Commission/Board shall decide if an addition to the agenda is to be approved for that meeting or if it should be approved for a future agenda. When at all possible, agenda items are to be submitted to the staff of the Commission/Board in advance of a meeting so that the items can be duly noted in the public notice.
“Appearance Requests” mean that any person not a member of the Commission/Board wishing to address the Commission/Board shall identify himself/herself when called to do so by the chair and shall state his/her name, his/her place of residence and the purpose for which he/she seeks to appear.
(3) Any public hearing required to be held by the Commission/Board may be conducted as an agenda item at a regular Commission/Board meeting. The Commission/Board shall provide at least 10 days notice of such a public hearing. Notice of the Public Hearing shall be given in the following manner:
(a) The Department of Planning will mail the notice of public hearing to all affected parties of record as defined by § 8.06.020(A)(3) and shown on the City of Unalaska Real Property Tax Roll.
(b) The Department of Planning will post at least two copies of this notice, printed or written, in a conspicuous place not less than 10 days prior to the date of the hearing.
(4) In computing any period of time prescribed by this title, the day of the act or default from which the designated period of time begins to run is not to be included. The last day of the period is to be included, unless it is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, in which event the period runs until the end of the next day which is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday. When the period of time prescribed is less than seven days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays shall be excluded in the computation. A half holiday shall be considered as other days and not as a holiday.
When by these rules or by a notice given thereunder an act is required to be allowed to be done at or within a specified time, the responsible authority, for cause shown, may at any time in its discretion (1) with or without motion, order the period enlarged if request therefore is made before the expiration of the period originally prescribed or as extended by a previous order; or (2) upon motion made after the expiration of the specified period, permit the act to be done where the failure to act was the result of excusable neglect.
Whenever a party has the right or is required to do some act or take some proceedings within a prescribed period after the service of notice or other paper upon him and the notice or paper is served upon him by mail, three days shall be added to the prescribed time.
(5) The secretary shall post at least two copies of the proposed agenda for each regular meeting of the Commission/Board in a conspicuous place.
(6) The Director of Planning will attempt to make packets for each regular meeting of the Commission/Board available to each member of the Commission/Board no less than forty-eight hours prior to the meeting.
(7) The meeting’s minutes, in written form, will be presented to the Commission/ Board for review and approval. All meetings shall be audibly recorded. Such recordings shall be kept for a period of one year. Where audible recordings and written form are disputed, signed and approved written minutes shall take precedence over audible recordings.
(8) A majority of the voting members of the Commission/Board shall be a quorum for the transaction of business.
(9) Special meetings of the Commission/Board, including public hearings or work sessions where public notification provisions have been met, may be held at the call of the chair or secretary upon twenty-four hours’ advance notice given to fellow Commission/Board members. Only those items of business set forth in the notice of the special meeting shall be in order.
(10) All meetings of the Commission/Board shall be adjourned no later than 10:00 p.m., except that the Commission/ Board may by vote extend a meeting to 11:00 p.m. There shall be no business or action taken after 11:00 p.m., but the Commission/Board may continue a meeting to another day.
(11) The Commission/Board may, after convening as a public meeting, upon a majority vote of the body, determine to meet in an executive session. The motion calling for the executive session must clearly and with specificity describe the subject of the proposed executive session without defeating the purpose of addressing the subject in private, and no other matters may be considered at the executive session. No official action may be taken at an executive session.
(F) Voting.
(1) Each member of the Commission/Board shall vote on each substantive question except as provided herein.
(2) A member of the Commission/Board may request upon the opening of a public hearing that he/she or any other member of the Commission/Board be excused or disqualified from voting. Upon such request, the chair shall ask for objections to the request, or if necessary, the members shall vote upon the excusal or disqualification.
(3) A member of the Commission/Board shall not vote on any question on which he/she has a conflict of interest pursuant to §§ 2.60.110 and 2.64.020(C) UCO. If a member is disqualified or excused from voting on a matter before the Commission/Board, the member may represent his/her own interests before the Commission/Board. If a member is disqualified or excused from voting on a matter before the Commission/Board, the member shall physically move from his/her seat as a Commission/Board member into the area where the public is seated.
(4) No member of the Commission/Board shall represent another person before the Commission/Board. This subsection does not prevent an ex-officio member of the Commission/Board from representing the city before the Commission/Board. A member may represent his/her employer after declaring a conflict exists and stepping down.
(G) Parliamentary authority. The rules contained in the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern the Commission/Board in all situations in which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these Planning Commission/Platting Board standards noted elsewhere in this section.
(H) Reconsideration.
(1) A motion for reconsideration allows a member to bring back for a quorum’s further consideration a motion which has already been voted on. The purpose of reconsidering a vote is to permit correction of a hastily, ill-advised, or erroneous action, or to take into account added information, or a changed situation that has developed since the taking of the vote. The reasons to reconsider must be stated in the motion of reconsideration and must be seconded.
(2) A motion for reconsideration may be made only by a member who voted on the prevailing side. When a member who cannot move for reconsideration believes there are valid reasons for reconsideration, he/she should, time and opportunity permitting, try to persuade a member who voted on the prevailing side to make such a motion. A second for reconsideration may be made by any member of the Commission/Board.
(3) The making of a motion for reconsideration and its second is subject to the time limit of 24 hours from the adjournment of the meeting at which the motion was originally considered.
(4) A motion and a second for reconsideration made after adjournment of the meeting at which the original motion was made must be in writing to the secretary of the Commission/Board and must list the reasons for such a motion.
(5) A motion for reconsideration must be heard no later than the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Commission/Board.
(I) Ratification. These rules, and any subsequent amendments thereto, shall become effective after they are adopted by resolution of the Commission/Board and approved by the City Council.
(Ord. No. 2001-04, passed 5-8-01; Am. Ord. 2005-09, passed 4-26-05; Am. Ord. 2012-07, passed 9-11-12; Am. Ord. 2015-07, passed 5-12-15; Am. Ord. 2016-08, passed 4-26-16)