Board of Aldermen Page 13
March 8, 2016
use the rules to serve that purpose which is what they are there for and that is my whole concern with the
way this piece of legislation was handled. As | understand it, it is a pass through grant at NRPC. | don’t
know for sure that | think it’s valuable but | tend to defer on grants to the wisdom of the Human Affairs
Committee because that’s the purpose of that committee. What concerns me are the rules and frankly |
agree absolutely with Alderman Siegel. | spoke with Alderman Clemons and in fact urged him not to make
the motion prior to this meeting just because of the way it would turn out. | think we need to go back to
using the rules to work together and not to see how we can nefariously get our way around the majority of
the Board, if that’s what is happening. I’m not saying that anyone has done anything nefarious, | am saying
that it would have been a good idea at the previous meeting to defer it to the motion to table and take the
vote when 15 people are here and can state their positions on it and have their votes count. What | would
ask the Board to do at this point is to, given the discussion that we have had, is to reconsider it and send it
back to the Human Affairs Committee. Let’s get some real information on it. It may turn out that we don’t
want it but there are still some unanswered questions as near as | could tell and we ought to have those
answers before we do anything with it. | would ask that the Board reconsider it and return it to the Human
Affairs Committee for further study.
Alderman Deane
| would like to know what the prepared motions were for this piece of legislation that Alderman Clemons
has in front of him.
President McCarthy
| am not sure | know what you mean.
Alderman Deane
The motions are prepared for him prior to the meeting.
President McCarthy
Correct.
Alderman Deane
I’d like to know if there is a motion there to re-refer it to the Human Affairs Committee or not.
President McCarthy
No, there is not. That’s my opinion and my opinion only. Alderman Clemons had said that he wanted to
make a motion to reconsider it. | told him and | told the legislation assistant that the proper motions were a
motion to allow reconsideration by a party not on the prevailing side and if that passed then a motion to
reconsider. Does that answer your question, Alderman Deane?
Alderman Deane
Thank you.
Alderman Clemons
| also did send out a communication via e-mail to the entire Board telling everyone that | intended to do this
at this meeting.
