Great question - and one your TA staff have explored with OIDD staff on different occasions. In general, a Governor appointed DD Council member (citizen member) can not proxy their appointment to anyone else (this would be viewed as someone other than the Governor making an appointment to the Council - even on a one-time basis). This point of view is rooted in the membership requirements considerations for each member - taking into account the category of membership (self-advocate, family member or guardian, race, ethnicity, geographic representation, age, gender, etc.) - membership appointments are made and must follow statutory requirements.

In the case of State Agency representatives having the ability to name a proxy - please check with the Governor's appointments office - some Councils have found that the Governor's office has the expectation that the agency person named to serve on the Council will be the representative and prohibits them from naming others to take their place. Other Councils have reported their Governor's appointments offices require the agency head name their representative in the appointment letter.

Council policies that support a member's ability to appoint someone else to the Council in the event the member cannot attend should be reviewed for consistency with the DD Act.

Let us know if we can help you guys!

Sheryl

Sheryl R. Matney, EdD

Director, Technical Assistance

Information & Technical Assistance Center for Councils on DD

202-506-5813 ext. 148

334-268-0245 (direct)

itacchelp.org

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From: xxxxxx@nacdd.simplelists.com <xxxxxx@nacdd.simplelists.com> on behalf of Whyte, Alison (EOM) <xxxxxx@dc.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2020 11:51 AM
To: xxxxxx@nacdd.simplelists.com <xxxxxx@nacdd.simplelists.com>
Subject: DD Councils Proxy voting - what does your Council allow?

Hi everyone,

We are revising our Bylaws in DC and noticed that we had clear language in there about organizational representatives being allowed to designate a proxy to attend meetings and vote on their behalf, but we didn’t take a stance on whether or not the 60% of community members could designate a proxy. Have other Councils dealt with this issue? What did you decide to do?

Alison

---

Alison Whyte

Executive Director

DC Developmental Disabilities Council

441 4^th Street NW, Suite 729N

Washington, DC 20001

202-727-8005 (office)

202-340-8563 (cell)

202-727-9484 (fax)

xxxxxx@dc.gov

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