Pinal County Supervisor Pete Rios
On Jan. 9, 2019 the Pinal County Board of Supervisors discussed and approved an amendment to their General Board Meeting Rules which were originally adopted in June of 2010.
One of the proposed rules sparked a discussion led by Vice Chairman Pete Rios. The change would allow Board members to “Abstain.” from voting at anytime.
Vice Chairman Rios questioned the rule change, saying, “I don’t think board members should be allowed to abstain from voting unless they have a conflict of interest that has been declared and filed with the Clerk of the Board. Otherwise we can abstain on anything for any reason.”
According to records, never in Pinal County history had a board member been able to abstain from voting without abiding by Conflict of Interest protocol.
“My concern is with the public that we represent. We all represent approximately 100,000 people, we are almost to 500,000 in population in Pinal County and I don’t suspect that they wanted us to represent them up here by saying I don’t want to vote on that one, I am going to abstain. They want us to either vote to the affirmative or the negative,” Rios explained.
The board discussed the reformation of the rules and unanimously voted in favor of Rios’ proposed language, which is as follows.
All board members present at the time the question is called for are required to cast an AYE or NAY vote, unless they have previously declared a conflict of interest and submitted such in writing to the Clerk of the Board.
Chairman Todd House shared his thoughts, saying, “I appreciate your effort on this … I am in total agreement with going forward on the guidelines that you’ve set forth.”
Those new Pinal County General Board Meeting Rules are complete and in effect immediately.