CIRM Quorum Solution Stalled

Today's attempt to deal with the perennial problem of attendance at meetings of directors of the $3 billion California stem cell agency was postponed Sunday on short notice.

A special teleconference meeting had been scheduled for today on the issue, but late Sunday the agency said the session had been postponed. No reason was given for the delay. No date was set for a future meeting.

The cancellation notice followed a closed-door meeting of the directors' Governance Subcommittee on Sunday afternoon. It was the Governance panel that had come up with a proposal to to help solve the attendance issues, which have made it difficult to maintain the supermajority quorum needed to do business legally. The plan would allow, on a limited basis, participation of directors via telephone.

However, the only item on the Governance agenda Sunday afternoon dealt with personnel matters. It was not clear whether the cancellation of today's directors meeting, which also included a personnel session, had anything to do with the meeting of the Governance committee Sunday afternoon. The agency released no announcement of actions by the Governance panel.