Council Vice President Ballot Starts Procedural Debate

City Council voted to replace Councilman Gordon Mowrer as its vice president with David Di Giacinto, following a lengthy discussion about whether council follows the proper procedures in picking its leadership.

Before the vote, Councilwoman Karen Dolan, who also sought the vice president’s seat, said that after careful study of Robert’s Rules of Order, she believes council’s standard procedures for picking president and vice president are improper and should be changed.

Dolan took issue with the practice of voting on nominations individually, yea or nay, as opposed to a single vote in which each council member would be permitted to vote in favor of any contender they choose.

“It is the right of every council person to vote for the eligible person of their choice,” Dolan said. A single ballot in which four council members vote in favor of the first person nominated takes away that right, she argued.

In City Council’s case, the voting almost never gets beyond a single ballot in which the first – usually the only – nominee is voted into the seat in question. Dolan argued that opening up the vote, as she said Robert’s Rules calls for, would lessen the chance of staging a “predetermined” decision in front of the public.

Council solicitor Christopher Spadoni held firm to his opinion that council’s standard voting procedures are proper. Even if a single ballot with four affirmative votes expresses “the will of council,” Spadoni said. Council proceeded as it always has.

Dolan was nominated for the seat first by Councilman J. William Reynolds, who touted her six years of experience with council. But he was Dolan’s only supporter.

Councilwoman Jean Belinski nominated Di Giacinto. Councilman Eric Evans said he favored Di Giacinto because the city’s most pressing problem is its finances and Di Giacinto has the most experience and knowledge around those issues.

Neither Di Giacinto nor Council President Robert Donchez expressed an opinion, but both voted against Dolan’s candidacy and for Di Giacinto.

Though he had no conflict of interest around the issue, Mowrer declined to cast a vote for or against either Dolan or Di Giacinto, abstaining in both votes. “It was not my intention to stir up the group,” Mowrer said in advance of the votes.

After the vote on Dolan’s nomination failed by a 2-4 vote, Dolan voted in favor of Di Giacinto in a 5-1 decision to make him vice president. Reynolds voted against.

After the meeting, Dolan made her feelings clear. “The glass ceiling is alive and well,” she said.

The vice president’s chair is mostly a position in title only. The only official duty the vice president has is to assume the chairmanship of council meetings should the president be unable to. Donchez has very rarely missed a meeting in his time on council.

Mowrer,, has missed the last two council meetings because of increasing health problems. He submitted a letter to council on March 21 expressing his desire to step aside as vice president, but remain a member of council through the end of his term in December.

Before temporarily taking over as chair of the meeting for the decision as to who would replace Mowrer, Spadoni described the former mayor thusly: “He is an absolute credit to his family, his faith and this body.”