Debate. Before or after any initial motion on any item by any member of the Board, the members of the Board may debate the item, make comments relevant to the item, respond to any questions related to the item and ask questions of staff related to the item.
Debate. When a board member desires to speak, the member shall respectfully address himself or herself to the mayor and, upon recognition, he or she may address the board. No board member can proceed until recognized by the mayor, and the board member must confine himself or herself to the question on the floor. A five-minute time limit will be established for each board member to speak on each agenda item. However, such time limit will not include responses to questions posed by other board members and citizens.
Debate. After question and answer, the body will move into closed debate. During this time, only members of SACGB can speak. This is the time when board members can suggest possible routes of action, or speak to how they will vote on the issue. When you would like to vote on a specific course of action, raise your placard, wait for the Chair to call on you, and say “Motion to ______”. For example, you could say “Motion to require Group X to submit a letter of apology to the SACGB.” Again, this motion will require a second. After this, we’ll move into debate on this motion. At this point, you can raise your placard to speak on the motion (only the motion – not the hearing as a whole) and how you would vote on the motion. In addition, you can choose to amend the motion. To do this, you would raise your placard and say “Motion to amend the motion to ….”. For example, you could say “Motion to amend the motion to require Group X to submit a letter of apology to the SACGB and provide a plan of how the incident will not happen again.” Amendments are usually best used if you agree with most of the motion, but do not agree with part of it. If you disagree with most of the motion, it’s better to just vote against it and propose a new motion. After the amendment is seconded, we will be in debate on the amendment. After this time, we will vote on the amendment. After the vote on the amendment, we will be back in debate on the original motion. To vote on a motion, raise your placard and say “Motion to end debate” or “Motion to call to question”. At this point, we will vote on the motion. If it doesn’t pass, a new motion can be proposed, and we will repeat this process.
Debate
