Absentee voting

4 Comments

1. 

   George C

    /  January 26, 2012

   Nancy,
   I don’t know what the official rules are for Council but I do know what they are for Town advisory boards. On the advisory boards if a members leaves without requesting to be excused (and the board subsequently voting to excuse the requester) any subsequent motions are considered to be an affirmative vote by the missing member. It sounds like Council uses the same rule which would explain why Laurin’s votes were being added to the affirmative totals.

2. 

   Fred Black

    /  January 26, 2012

   From the Council Procedure Manual:
   E.
   4. Abstention. By State statute, no member of the governing body may be excused from voting on any matter before the Council except in matters involving the consideration of his or her own financial interest or official conduct. In most other cases, the failure to vote by a member who is physically present or has withdrawn without being excused (preferably by a majority vote of the remaining members present) shall be recorded as an affirmative vote. This rule does not apply where the matter being voted upon is not a motion but rather offers the Council more affirmative choices than just approval or disapproval of a specific ordinance or resolution. For example, if the Council is voting on appointments to an advisory board a Council member may elect to turn in a signed, unmarked ballot. Certain other circumstances may make abstention from voting appropriate in cases involving quasi-judicial proceedings. These are reviewed during Council orientation by the Town Attorney.

3. 

   Ed Harrison

    /  January 26, 2012

   “Matt Czajkowski moved that the council send forth the preference for C2; Ed Harrison put forth a substitute motion to indicate no preference. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt called for a vote. With Easthom’s absence, council was down to eight members, creating the possibility of a tie vote. Kleinschmidt asked all those in favor of Harrison’s substitute motion to raise their right hand. He counted three.”

   There are three errors in this paragraph. One, as George and Fred point out, is your projection of vote count. Anyone familiar with parliamentary procedure knows that a board member who departs “unexcused” in effect votes “yes” on all remaining motions. The other two errors are the uses of my name. It was the former Mayor Pro Tem, not the current one, who made the motion for “no preference.” (And that wasn’t the exact motion). I’m sure that Jim does not want to be confused with me, nor I with him.

   WCHL ‘s piece on this discussion helpfully supplied a link to the video — It’s clear who made the motions.

   The second time I spoke, I did so for Matt’s motion, which was an amendment to the original resolution. I clearly stated that I did not support the substitute motion.

4. 

   Nancy Oates

    /  January 26, 2012

   Thanks for explaining the procedure. And my apologies, Ed. I went to the tape, and it was Jim Ward who made the substitute motion. I’m still getting used to the new seating arrangement.