Repeating defeated motions

[Guest Charles]

Our village mayor after losing a motion will bring the same motion back at the next regular meeting.  The same question may be considered over and over again. Is there any procedures to prevent this re-occurrence?

CB

[Chris Harrison]

A couple of options:

1) Adopt a Special Rule of Order prohibitting the reintroduction of defeated motions (setting the details such as how many times the motion needs to be defeated before the rule goes into effect and at what point after the rule is in effect can the motion be reintroduced).  Adoption of a Special Rule requires a 2/3 vote with previous notice or a majority of the entire membership if notice wasn't given.

2) A member can object to the consideration of the motion (RONR pp. 267-270).  Note it takes a 2/3 vote to prevent its consideration and there are certain types of motion whose consideration cannot be objected to.

3) If the motion's consideration cannot be objected to then as soon as the Mayor has had the opportunity to debate the motion (which as the motion maker he has a right to the floor above almost all else) a member can move the Previous Question (RONR pp. 197-209) which with a few exceptions would force the motion to an immediate vote.  This would require a 2/3 vote.

 

It being 11:30 PM here I may be missing a few options so stay tuned for other thoughts.