The Henry County Board of Supervisors will talk bylaws at its first meeting of 2025, scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday in the administration building’s fourth-floor conference room.
The meeting is known as an organizational meeting and is held annually near the beginning of the year. The organizational meeting allows commissioners the chance to set the meeting schedule and go over new and existing bylaws governing the board’s operation.
Bylaws are a living document with additions suggested and approved around this time each year. Supervisors discussed the bylaw change during their Dec. 17 regular session and will enact it at the upcoming organizational meeting.
On Monday, supervisors will consider recently suggested bylaws on meeting attendance via telecommunication applications like Zoom. The new bylaw is under section 2.3, which deals with attendance.
“A Board member may participate in a meeting of the board through electronic methods,” reads part of the bylaw. “When electronic participation is requested, the Board member must notify the Chairperson and identify with specificity the nature of the request and the remote location from which the member shall participate.”
The bylaw goes on to specify that while a member may attend and cast votes electronically, their participation in the meeting is not counted toward the quorum.
“A quorum must be physically present for any action to take place,” the bylaw reads.
A quorum is the minimum number of supervisors needed for a board to cast votes and make decisions. With six members representing different county districts, Henry County requires the gathering of four supervisors to substantiate its quorum requirement.
The bylaw further stipulates that each supervisor may only attend a meeting electronically three times per year.
Supervisors will also decide on a proposed budget calendar. Currently, the calendar calls for a Feb. 25 joint meeting with the school board. The proposed budget calendar also schedules Feb. 7 for the budget requests. Appropriation of the total county budget is tentatively scheduled for May 27.
