Gov't
Council Vote Out of Order
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By Dave Freneaux
At Tuesday’s Council meeting City Council Members Messina, LoBue and Washington voted 3-2 to deny something…but what? It seems that they believed it was to stop a developer from replacing the partially condemned building at Hooper and Sullivan with a new, smaller commercial building. (Both pictured above.) In reality, they voted on nothing, because there was no motion or second before the Council on which to vote. The matter was discussed and then immediately a vote was taken, and it was 3-2 against…but against what?
In all prior zoning cases in Central a Council Member has made a motion to approve or to deny a rezoning request. If the motion was to deny the request, the 3-2 against has meant the rezoning was approved, but if the motion was to approve the request, the 3-2 against has meant the rezoning was denied. In this case, it is unclear WHAT they voted to do.
It might be easy to assign the responsibility for this improper Council action to the City Clerk, who is the parliamentarian for the meeting responsible for ensuring that proper procedures are followed. However, Central’s five Council Members certainly should have questioned what exactly they were voting on, and the Mayor should not have allowed a vote without a clear motion. The only immediately evident and fair solution is to put the item back on the agenda for the October 25th Council meeting, make a proper motion, and take a vote. If Central’s Council Members are certain they voted correctly the first time, the result should be the same.
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