School boards who want to use teleconferencing to let absent members participate in meetings could do so under a bill passed in the state House Thursday.
The bill would let members of most school boards take part in meetings by way of teleconferencing, Skype, or a phone with a built-in camera. Absent members would have to provide good cause for not being present.
Several opponents argued that school board members ought to have to meet face to face, and vote in the presence of audience members.
But Bolivar Democrat Johnny Shaw pointed out that the House doesn’t require its own members to actually be in the chamber in order to vote.
“I don’t see anything at all wrong with it, based on what we’re trying to do, because I’m guilty, of not being under the rule, and walking out of this chamber occasionally, saying ‘Would you vote me?”
Under the rule is like an airline seatbelt sign. Every member must be in place and push his own voting button. If the sign is off, a representative who has stepped outside can have his vote cast by proxy, by another member.
It happens frequently on Thursdays, the last legislative day of the week. The proxy voters insist the absent member is still in the building.
Davidson County lawmakers balked at the new idea and had Metro Nashville exempted from the new phone-in technique. Other counties are free to adopt the new system or to choose not to.
The House tied on an amendment allowing the absent school board member to check in and participate by telephone – if the phone has a camera, so the member can be visually identified. So the bill goes back to the upper chamber for Senators’ OK of the change
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