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CLEMMONS — When it comes to rules, everyone has an opinion. So when Al Benshoff, the village attorney, brought up the Clemmons Council’s Rules of Procedure in the last meeting, there was plenty of discussion.

Actually, the village council does not have rules of procedure, which Benshoff pointed out isn’t required in North Carolina, at least for elected boards at the municipal level. 

After the item was introduced, council member Randy Wooden asked “what was prompted to initiate this? Is there something we need to button up?”

Benshoff said that this started because he got a question to interpret the rules and procedure, and he couldn’t find them and then asked Lisa Shortt, town clerk. She couldn’t find them either.

“Then the determination was that there weren’t any and never have been,” Benshoff said. “So I’m doing my job to give you the information to make an informed decision if you wish to. There’s no crisis. There’s no big issue about it.”

Council member Michelle Barson asked if this was something he would recommend.

“The village council has apparently worked very well for decades without rules and procedure,” Benshoff said. “I don’t have a strong opinion about that for or against. It’s just an option for you to have.”

Council member Bradley Taylor then weighed in, saying it may be a good idea to have something that is like an instruction manual, like you’d have for a car, and this is perhaps something the council could consider at an upcoming retreat in September.

Mary Cameron, who has been on the council most of the years since the town was incorporated  in 1986, said she was in the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it school.”

Barson agreed, saying, “if it’s worked well so far, all we’re really doing is binding ourselves to a certain set of rules and inviting that procedural nitpicking that can undermine our votes and our consensus and the way we operate.”

Mayor Mike Rogers then chimed in, “And it could handicap us.”

Taylor then interjected, “I disagree that it would be a problem. I think it goes back to almost what council member (Mike) Combest suggested over a year and a half or two ago about how we define the rules of our mayor and how we charter the mayor to do certain things. I think it’s good to go back to some sort of foundational documents that outline what we’re called do.

And to me, these are not restrictive guidelines as councils change and elected offices change and staff changes that we’re all abiding by the same rules and regulations. I think it’s something that we should all be open-minded to considering.”

Cameron iterated her position, saying that in a lot of cases, having a set of rules is a good thing, “but if we haven’t need them in all this time with all of the different councils that we have had, I think having the freedom to operate as we, this council, chooses to operate is working for us. And I don’t see any reason to have the attorney spend a whole lot of time on something that we say, ‘Yes, this is nice,’ and then we put it away. I just don’t feel like it is necessary.”

Rogers asked Combest if he’d like to offer an opinion.

“Would it perhaps be useful considering a 90-day trial and try some procedures on it and see if it improves the quality of the decision we make and how efficiently we make it,” Combest said, “and then judge after trying it if we want to keep it or not.”

The mayor then asked the attorney if council consideration was needed.

“I don’t have any request for village council action,” Benshoff said. “I’m just presenting this to you for your consideration, if any.”

Cameron again said she was in favor of leaving things the way they are, and Wooden and Barson agreed with that general sentiment, with Barson adding that sometimes procedural changes have been made based on consensus among the council and staff.

Rogers then gave Taylor the final word.

“I think the attorney has done a great job just putting something together for consideration requesting no action,” Taylor said, “and I think the 12 pages that he provided that came from a template are worth people reading through and just understanding exactly what they are,  whether we adopt them or not.”

The mayor concluded that since the attorney was not requesting direction or instruction, he then asked if that concluded the conversation among the council unless anyone had any additional comments, and there were none.

As a point of comparison with two neighboring municipalities, Mayor Mike Brannon said that Bermuda Run has no rules of procedure, but Mayor Mike Horn of Lewisville said that his town adopted the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government’s Suggested Rules for a City Council many years ago.