can the chair remove a motion made and seconded without a vote

[Guest Dale Arnold]

With a motion made and seconded can the chair remove it from the floor on his/her own and not allow the motion to be voted on.

[David A Foulkes]

With a motion made and seconded can the chair remove it from the floor on his/her own and not allow the motion to be voted on.

Not unless your rules give him/her that authority. Once a motion is made and seconded, the chair has two options: 1) state the question and place it before the assembly, or 2) rule the motion out of order, for which he should have a solid parliamentary reason.

[Guest]

This is very helpful.  I am in a situation where the city follows Roberts Rules but they also have a set of their own City Council Rules that take precedent where there is a conflict between city rules and Roberts Rules. City Council's Rules say that the Agenda is subject to approval by the Chair (Mayor).  However, I believe it has been commonly understood that this authority is for prior to a meeting, and once the meeting begins, the agenda is controlled by the Council.  The Mayor is not a voting member of the body, just chairs the meeting.

In this case, if a member of the Council is in the middle of discussing a Motion made and seconded, the Chair is now claiming authority to remove items from the agenda prior to vote.  I believe the reason the chair (mayor) gives is the special rule of the city that subjects the agenda to the Mayor's approval.  However, this creates a situation where the Council may never vote on items if the Mayor thinks they will not vote the way the Mayor wants.  Therefore, the Council would need to Appeal the Decision of the chair, and over-rule any action by the Chair to remove an item on the floor.  Even if the chair gives a "solid parliamentary reason", the majority of the Council can over-rule by Appealing the decision of the chair.

I welcome thoughts and comments.

Any other way the Chair can remove a motion already made and seconded from the floor?  Any way that an Appeal of the Decision of the Chair supported by the majority might fail in this situation?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Please post as a new topic.