§ 2-205. Membership; qualifications; terms.

This Board shall consist of twenty-six (26) voting members in accordance with the provisions of Section 2-11.38 of the Code of Miami-Dade County as may be amended. The membership of the Board shall be broadly representative of the various social, racial, religious, linguistic, cultural, economic, national origin and geographic groups comprising the population of this County. Each member shall be a resident of Miami-Dade County with an outstanding reputation for community pride, interest, integrity, responsibility, and business or professional ability and a documented commitment to intergroup relations.

Each Commissioner shall appoint a member to the Community Relations Board who is duly qualified under this ordinance. The other thirteen (13) members shall be nominated by a nominating committee. The nominating committee shall be comprised of existing members of the board as selected by majority vote of the board, which shall develop procedures for the creation of the nominating committee in its bylaws. The nominating committee shall recommend potential members for appointment by the Community Relations Board, subject to compliance with the requirements of Section 2-11.38.1(b) of the Code of Miami-Dade County, as may be amended, including the requirement relating to criminal history background checks on potential advisory board members performed by the Office of the Inspector General and compliance with the requirements of Resolution No. R-636-14, as may be amended, pertaining to background research on potential advisory board members performed by the Office of the Commission Auditor. The board shall work with the Office of Community Advocacy or successor department to advertise vacancies occurring on the Community Relations Board in publications of general circulation and maintain an online application to generate a pool of potential members for the nominating committee's consideration. The chairpersons of the Miami-Dade County Commission for Women, Miami-Dade County Asian-American Advisory Board, Miami-Dade County Black Affairs Advisory Board, and Miami-Dade County Hispanic Affairs Advisory Board shall serve as ex-officio, non-voting members of the Community Relations Board.

All appointments shall be made for a term of four (4) years. No member may serve more than eight (8) consecutive years in accordance with Section 2-11.38.2 of the Code of Miami-Dade County as may be amended. This section shall apply to all board members, except that current board members shall be allowed to complete their current terms.

Notwithstanding any other provision of the Code of Miami-Dade County, a board member shall be automatically removed if, in a given County fiscal year: the member is absent from two (2) consecutive meetings without an acceptable excuse or the member is absent from three (3) of the board's meetings without an acceptable excuse. An 'acceptable excuse' is defined as an absence for medical reasons, business reasons, personal reasons, or any other reason which the board, by a two-thirds ( 2/3 ) vote of its membership, deems appropriate. If a member is absent with an acceptable excuse from three (3) or more meetings, the board may vote to remove the member from the board.

A member shall be considered absent from a meeting if the member is not physically present for at least seventy-five (75) percent of the meeting's duration. A member shall also be considered absent from a meeting if the member refrains from voting on any matter for which voting is conducted at the meeting, unless the member is prevented from voting by a conflict of interest. The provisions of the Miami-Dade County Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Ordinance, as may be amended, are applicable to this board.

Members shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for necessary expenses incurred in official duties, in accordance with applicable law.

(Ord. No. 63-22, §§ 2, 3, 6-11-63; Ord. No. 67-38, § 1, 5-16-67; Ord. No. 69-44, § 1, 7-16-69; Ord. No. 73-20, § 1, 3-8-73; Ord. No. 73-71, § 1, 7-31-73; Ord. No. 77-30, § 1, 5-17-77; Ord. No. 00-115, § 1, 9-19-00; Ord. No. 02-30, § 1, 2-26-02; Ord. No. 03-86, § 1, 4-10-03; Ord. No. 14-108, § 1, 11-5-14)