Whereas, if at some time an officer of the party is not acting in the best interests of the party, a procedure is needed to remove the officer,
Be it Resolved that the Green Party of Saskatchewan will amend Section 8 "Provincial Executive Officers" of the Provincial Bylaws with the addition of the following Bylaw;
Provincial Executive Officer Recall
8.15 An Officer of the Provincial Executive as described under 8.4 of the Provincial Bylaws may be recalled/removed from his/her position at the written request of at least 20% of the current membership who have signed a request for recall of an Officer. The request must include a rationale.
8.16 The recall request with the appropriate number of signatures shall be submitted to the Party President or the Party Vice-President, who shall be responsible for verifying the appropriate number of members’ signatures on the recall request. Any other member of the Executive may be present when the verification takes place.
8.17 Once the recall request has been accepted and verified the Party President or Party Vice-President will be responsible for sending a written notice, ballot, and small envelope to the entire membership with an explanation of the Provincial Executive Officer Recall process, the rationale of the signatories, and must include the question "Do you want __________(Name of Member) recalled from the Green Party of Saskatchewan Executive Officer position of __________ (title of Executive Officer position)?" Under the question, there will be a box to check beside “yes” and “no” on a ballot.
8.18 The ballot must be placed in the small envelope included with the notice, and mailed back to the Party President or Party Vice-President within 30 days of the date of the original written notice to the members.
8.19 Either the Party President or Party Vice-President and one other Executive Officer not subject to the recall process shall count the ballots. The Executive Officer subject to the recall process will be allowed no more than two scrutineers to be present during the tabulation of ballots.
8.20 A decision of either “yes” or “no” on the question of recall shall be determined by a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) of the cast ballots. A majority “yes” vote is needed to recall an Executive Officer. The result of the recall vote shall be sent to the entire membership by postmail not more than 30 days after the result is known.
8.21 In the event that 50% plus 1 of the members mark the box beside “yes”, that Executive Officer shall be deemed recalled/ removed from the position that he/she held, and the vacancy will result in Bylaws 8.12, 8.13, or 8.14, whichever applies, coming into effect to fill the vacancy in a position on the Provincial Executive.
I would really like to see a
I would really like to see a couple of gaps plugged before this is passed:
Also, it might be a good idea to specify what types of rationale are acceptable. Presumably gross misconduct or gross incompetence would be acceptable rationales. Anything else? Should we require any sort of evidence, or can the accuser say whatever he/she feels like and not be called to account? Should we give anyone (besides the general membership) the authority to accept or reject the rationale and the documentary evidence?
Overall, this bylaw seems awfully long and detailed. It adds 10% to the existing bylaws, by word count. How important is it, anyhow, given that all Executive terms are for one year only? By the time we do remove someone from office, there will probably only be a few months left of his/her term. I suppose we should have a guideline to deal with incidents of gross misconduct, but does it need to be this detailed?