voting on a topic that one member has the info and not shared with other council members

[Guest tmoseley]

we have a council of 9, one of the council members is trying to stop a referendum vote for strong mayor.

this council brought up a email conversation he had with the city attorney and read it to the council. No one

else knew of the email nor did he give out copies. He then asked to make a motion and wait one year to put

the strong mayor into effect. He slanted what the attorney had replied in order to get the majority votes. Three

members would not vote because they did not have a copy of what was said in the email. 

Would that vote count, was that legal?

[Chris Harrison]

As far as RONR is concerned nothing about the vote was improper.  If the other members had a problem with working off an email that none of them had heard of or seen they could have flat out rejected the motion or referred it to a committee who would be instructed to contact the City Attorney for clarification.  In other words they were not obligated to take this member's word for it and that they chose to go along with it can be viewed as a hard lesson that would (hopefully) obtain a different result if it happens again.

[jstackpo]

Sounds like nice rough and tumble politics to me.

 

But regardless of the accuracy (or lack) of the information, three people abstaining from the final vote/decision does not make the decision improper  --  whether there is a question of legality will be one for your lawyers to deal with.

[Edgar Guest]

Three members would not vote because they did not have a copy of what was said in the email. 

 

By not voting they let this allegedly duplicitous member prevail.

 

By the way, if no one saw this e-mail, how do you know its contents were "slanted" by the member in question?

[George Mervosh]

we have a council of 9, one of the council members is trying to stop a referendum vote for strong mayor.

this council brought up a email conversation he had with the city attorney and read it to the council. No one

else knew of the email nor did he give out copies. He then asked to make a motion and wait one year to put

the strong mayor into effect. He slanted what the attorney had replied in order to get the majority votes. Three

members would not vote because they did not have a copy of what was said in the email. 

Would that vote count, was that legal?

 

Unless council rules say otherwise, there's a rule in RONR about this:   "If any member objects, a member has no right to read from—or to have the secretary read from—any paper or book as a part of his speech without permission of the assembly. This rule is a protection against the use of reading as a means of prolonging debate and delaying business. It is customary, however, to permit members to read short, pertinent, printed extracts in debate so long as they do not abuse the privilege."  RONR (11th ed.), p. 298