There was a community consensus at the time, and there was a community vote to give the initial council a mandate: http://maemo.org/vote/results.php?election_id=1

I don't remember people giving much input on the rules at the time; but this is massively off-topic now. You're on the Council, and you have to live by the rules of the body you volunteered to serve on. If you wanted to change it, you should've held a referendum ;-p