re-vote

[Guest Mary]

Our Borough council (town government) voted last month on if they should hire 2 employees.  The vote was 3 negative to 2 positive.  The board is made of 7 members. Thus 2 were absent.  The president was one that was absent.  She said she would have voted yes and has now put it back on the agenda for this month.  Is this legal?  ethically? 

[Edgar Guest]

The defeated motion can be made again ("renewed") by any member as if it had never been made.

 

For agendas, see FAQ #14.

[Chris Harrison]

Even if the President had been there and voted in favor of the motion the vote would have been 3-3 which still wouldn't suffice in order to adopt the motion.

[Timothy]

Even if the President had been there and voted in favor of the motion the vote would have been 3-3 which still wouldn't suffice in order to adopt the motion.

 

True, but there is a chance that the other absentee will vote in the affirmative also, so putting it back on the agenda isn't pointless.

[Gary Novosielski]

But let's be clear that the reason it can be put back on the agenda (unless you have rules to the contrary) is that it was defeated.  It was defeated in a perfectly normal way.  All the drama about who was absent and how they would have voted if they had voted is not relevant in the least.

 

Any defeated motion can be made again (renewed) at a future meeting.