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Board agrees to firmer attendance standard, grace-period outreach for volunteer advisory members
Summary
The Board reached consensus to change advisory-board removal policy to a 25% absence threshold measured across 12 meetings held (excluding canceled meetings), replace "may remove" with "will remove," and formalize staff outreach and a grace period before removal.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners at its Jan. 16 retreat agreed to tighten advisory-board attendance rules and to formalize staff outreach for members at risk of removal.
Tara May, Deputy Clerk to the Board, proposed modifying the current policy to count absences over 12 meetings actually held (rather than over 12 months) so boards that meet less frequently are evaluated fairly. May also recommended staff engagement with members who approach the absence threshold.
After discussion, the Board reached consensus to change the policy language from "may remove" to "will remove" for members who miss 25% of meetings over 12 meetings held (excluding canceled meetings). The Board instructed staff to establish a formal grace period during which staff would contact members at risk and offer solutions such as virtual attendance or transportation assistance before a removal action.
Commissioners rejected reinstating an "excused vs. unexcused" distinction as too subjective; instead they identified attendance and voting as objective measures for removal and reappointment considerations.
Next steps: staff will draft revised rule language reflecting the 12-meeting metric, the automatic-removal threshold, and a documented staff-engagement and grace-period protocol for Board review.
