The Resolution Condemning Xenophobia, Racism, and Violence Against The Asian Pacific Islander Desiamerican (APIDA) Community was on the agenda for the 04/21/2021 Common Council meeting.
There were some concerns about this item raised during the Safety and Licensing committee meeting and it only made it out with a majority positive vote when Alderperson Siebers changed his mind on abstaining from voting and instead voted “aye” on sending it on to the Common Council as a courtesy to Alderperson Thao.
12 people spoke on this resolution during the public comment portion of the meeting. Council rules set a 30 minute time frame for public comment and the alderpersons had to vote to suspend those rules in order to give everyone time to speak. [Sometime over the next few days I plan to post a recap of those public comments, since they really deserve a post of their own.]
The Council, however, did not end up voting on the resolution during the meeting.
Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) asked that it be referred back to the committee.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) objected to the refer back. His objection was seconded by Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6).
Council Rule 15 states that “A request by an Alderperson to refer an item back to committee shall be automatic, unless a member of Council objects to the referral, and the objection is seconded; if 2/3 of the members present vote to approve the objection the item remains on the agenda and is not referred. A subsequent request to refer back shall be by a motion and carried by a simple majority vote of the members of the Common Council present. The Alderperson using the automatic refer-back shall present his/her rationale for taking the action.The Alderperson shall appear at the next meeting of the committee of jurisdiction. If the Alderperson is unable to attend the committee meeting, he/she shall communicate his/her intent to the Committee Chair or the Committee contact person.”
The Council voted on whether to uphold the objection. Although 9 members of the Council objected to the refer back, they needed at least 10 alderpersons (2/3rds of the Council) to block the refer back, so the objection failed and the resolution was sent back to the Safety and Licensing committee meeting scheduled for 04/28/2021 for further discussion.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) asked for the reason for the referral back to committee.
Alderperson Siebers said, “The message of this resolution in my evaluation is extremely important. I, as one individual, support the intent of this resolution, but equally important is the vote that we’re going to be taking in the very near future on this resolution. I would love to see a unanimous vote on this resolution. I don’t think we’re there today. I think there’s some things that can probably be looked at and changed. I think the vote is extremely important. I’d love to see it leave, or be voted on and it be a unanimous vote. I think that then says a lot in regards to where this Council stands. So thank you.”
[As a side note of perhaps some interest, during the organizational meeting that happened prior to the Common Council meeting proper, Alderperson Joe Prohaska (District 14) had moved to amend Rule 15 to remove the option block a refer back. That motion did not pass. If it had, this would have been a moot issue.]
Toward the end of the meeting Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) made a motion to suspend Council rules in order to go into a Committee of the Whole.
[Although the reason for that motion was not stated, my assumption is that it was made in an effort to get the Council to vote on the resolution during that meeting instead of sending it back to committee.]
Mayor Woodford explained that it would require two votes. The first would be on the motion to suspend the rules of the Council. If that passed, the second vote would be to convene in a Committee of the Whole.
It was a procedural motion so it was not debatable.
Like the motion to block the referral back to committee, this also required a 2/3rd vote in order to pass and it also failed 9-6.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=853491&GUID=7683F31F-266E-4E28-ACA6-6B593992635A&Options=info|&Search=
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