City Council Scorecard: Keeping a quorum, term limits and city primaries
With budget hearings underway, these can be lean days for the agenda at City Council meetings.
Combine that fact with renewed pandemic measures that have moved council committee sessions to the larger downstairs council chambers — with several members attending those sessions by conference call — and the twice-a-month council sessions start to look like a ghost town.
That makes it easier to keep an eye on how many council members are present, although the council has not gone back to a mask requirement or limiting in-person attendance by the public at committee sessions.
Nevertheless, while council members can join discussions in committee sessions remotely, they are barred by state law from voting remotely on matters at meetings of the full body.
The council, at its May 10 meeting, advanced a pair of ballot questions closer to final votes with just the seven members required for a quorum to conduct business.
The seven-member quorum can be dangerous since that’s also the majority required to approve the vast majority of items that are not procedural motions.
In this case, council members seemed to have an agreement to let the two referendum ordinances advance instead on one side of the two volatile issues taking advantage of the absence of six members.
Here are bios of the 13 council members.
A referendum ordinance that, if approved by voters, would amend the city charter to allow partisan primary elections for all 13 City Council seats and for Memphis mayor.
The ordinance was approved on the first of three readings on a 7-0 vote.
Voting “yes” as part of consent agenda: Ford Canale, Chase Carlisle, Frank Colvett, Cheyenne Johnson, Rhonda Logan, Patrice Robinson, Chairwoman Jamita Swearengen
Absent: Michalyn Easter-Thomas, Edmund Ford Sr., Martavius Jones, Worth Morgan, JB Smiley Jr., Jeff Warren
Observations: This was the first reading that backers of city partisan primaries wanted to have at the April 19 council session. But that effort was blocked on a 6-6 vote with the council divided on the proposal as well as the method for passing it.
The first reading three weeks later found three “yes” votes from the procedural vote present and three “no” votes from the same vote present along with Logan, who abstained, making the tie vote possible.
The question remained on the consent agenda for first reading with no attempt to seek a vote on the individual item.
Under council rules, anything less than seven votes if it was pulled off consent would have killed the item with no advancing to second or third reading.
A referendum ordinance that, if approved by voters, would amend the city charter to extend term limits for council members to three consecutive terms instead of the current two consecutive terms.
This was also approved on the same vote on the consent agenda on the second of three readings.
Observations: As noted in the previous scorecard, the council seems to be less divided on the general idea of extending term limits. But that may be a mix of council members who want to see term limits extended and council members who are convinced voters will crush it like they did in 2018, allowing the latter group to take the stand that they want the people to decide.
Morgan, who was absent, had intended to propose amendments on second reading that he said could include making current council members ineligible for a third term if it gets on the ballot in August and if the voters approve it.
If Morgan follows through with amendments made and approved at the May 23 council meeting, the substantive change would require another final vote at the first council meeting in June.
That action would have the effect of both of these questions getting final approval at the same council session and the council will be looking at its calendar closely to see if there is enough time from passage to go on the August ballot.
If not, Jones, who is the sponsor of both items, has said he would likely amend it to go on the November ballot.
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City Council Scorecard council term limits city partisan primariesBill Dries on demand
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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