Resolution on voting procedures to Feb 7 council meeting

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Leslie Pool
Posts: 231
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 3:22 pm

Resolution on voting procedures to Feb 7 council meeting

Post by Leslie Pool »

Colleagues,

I am bringing forward a resolution for February 7 that calls for the City Manager and the City Clerk to explore best practices regarding municipal bodies’ voting procedures.

My thanks to Mayor Adler and Council Member Kitchen for joining me in this effort and I welcome anyone else who would like to sign on.

At our last Council work session of 2018, we discussed options from staff regarding potential new procedures for Council meetings, including electronic voting – a recommendation of the Community Engagement Task Force that Council created in 2015.

Over the holiday break, I heard informally from folks that electronic voting, or another type of voting procedure, would provide a reliable, real-time mechanism for conveying vote results to the public. As well, the Clerk would have the information readily available for record-keeping purposes.

As I began drafting the IFC, my staff viewed council meeting videos from a handful of Texas cities, and found electronic voting used in the cities of San Antonio, Fort Worth, El Paso, and Plano. The Dallas City Council largely relies on voice votes but turns to electronic voting as needed – such as when a split vote is anticipated.

I am especially impressed with the public-facing vote results that electronic voting provides.

A quick look at voting procedures in a couple of cities outside of Texas showed those entities relying on roll call votes.

Of course, this was not a lengthy and scientific study, but it was enough to convince me that we should ask staff to explore options and best practices for our voting procedures.

http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 112415.pdf

Thanks,

Leslie
Leslie Pool
Mayor Pro Tem
Council Member, District 7
Marti Bier
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:43 am

Re: Resolution on voting procedures to Feb 7 council meeting

Post by Marti Bier »

On behalf of Council Member Flannigan:

Council Member Pool, thank you for working on this resolution based on our discussion from the last Government that Works session. If possible, I'd like to join as a co-sponsor and help your office work on the resolution. Please let my office know how we can help.

-Jimmy
Chief of Staff
Office of Council Member Flannigan, District 6
Leslie Pool
Posts: 231
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 3:22 pm

Re: Resolution on voting procedures to Feb 7 council meeting

Post by Leslie Pool »

Thanks so much, CM Flannigan, for signing on. We have one more spot for a co-sponsor if anyone else would like to join, please note here or let me or Amy Smith know.

Appreciate everyone's support on this item!

Best,

Leslie
Leslie Pool
Mayor Pro Tem
Council Member, District 7
Steve Adler
Posts: 533
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 2:12 pm

Re: Resolution on voting procedures to Feb 7 council meeting

Post by Steve Adler »

Thank you, Council Member Pool, for leading on the resolution asking our staff to look at options for electronic voting records. I think it would be really good for us to be able to record votes and voting records in an electronically searchable ways that allow us to convey results to the public.

I also really like that the actual votes themselves happen with raised hands on the dais so that, as we vote, we can see how others are voting. I hope this resolution will enable the staff to tell us, among other options they may consider, how staff might be able to record electronically the votes as they are occurring. If I would need to announce vote results differently than currently done in order to support this, we could certainly modify our practice in that regard as well.

-s
Mayor
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