WAPELLA— Wapella village board president Sherry Mears introduced a proposal on Tuesday to have the board adopt rules of decorum, but members expressed little enthusiasm for the plan.

With help from the village attorney, Mears proposed the board adopt Roberts’ Rules of Order to govern trustee’s conduct during meetings.  Roberts’ Rules of Order are commonly used by elected and appointed boards as a formal procedure for conducting meetings.  The ordinance to establish Wapella’s rules was modeled after one used in Champaign.

The DeWitt County Board and Clinton City Council practice Roberts’ Rules in most of their functions.  Essentially, the rules, in general, would require trustees to be recognized by the board president before speaking.  

Rules also are intended to eliminate private discussions between board members during meetings.

Rules also prohibit the use of denigrating remarks or vulgar language during board discussion or debate.

But, Mears’ plan failed to garner a motion from any trustee in order to move the issue toward the discussion and voting stages.

“I’d rather see us come up with our own instead of this one,” trustee Tracy Mann told the board.

The board can write its own or modify an already existing ordinance establishing rules of conduct.

“I understand that completely,” Mears said.  “But, the reason I even asked for this is because of the last two meetings.  If you read the paper, they were embarrassing.”

Mears said the trustees were supposed to work in the best interest of the village.

“If we can’t get along, that doesn’t set a very good standard for the village,” she said.

Mann said he didn’t disagree with the need for decorum but preferred the board developing its own rules ordinance.

Mann volunteered, along with trustee Nancy Falk to be two members of a committee to review and develop a rules of decorum ordinance.

But, when Mears asked for two more volunteers to serve on the committee from among the residents at the meeting, she got no takers.

Mears said she would try to find two residents who would volunteer.

In additional actions,  Bryan Atwood and Holly Hamm tendered their official resignations from the board.  The were elected in April.