Motions Which Fail
When a committee considers a file that has been referred by Council, the committee determines the recommendation to make back to Council or the lead referral. If a committee motion doesn’t pass, this creates some logistical challenges for final action at Council.
When a motion at a committee meeting doesn't pass, there are additional steps to take to ensure the legislative history is transparent on the Council agenda, and - whenever possible - to make the recommendation actionable at Council.
There are two required steps to take when a motion fails.
- AT THE MEETING: Make one or more follow-up motions until a motion passes (whenever possible), so that the committee provides an actionable recommendation to Council
- WHEN RECORDING MINUTES: Add information to the CC Note field which states that the motion failed
During the committee meeting
A motion needs to pass in order to result in an actionable recommendation, and this is what happens most of the time. However, when a motion fails during a committee meeting, the committee does not have an action to recommend without taking additional steps.
When a motion fails, in many cases it is appropriate to make a follow-up motion, such as Place on file or Place on file without prejudice (refer to Place on File for more information on these two motions). If the follow-up motion passes, the file can be sent back to Council with an actionable recommendation.
When recording minutes
The legislative history for files is printed on the Council agenda and always includes the recommendation from the committee.
If a motion fails, this information must be manually added to the CC Note field when entering minutes so that it appears on the Council agenda.
Refer to the Motion Text field for motion details, including vote outcome. While the contents of this field appear in committee minutes, they do not appear on the Council agenda.
If no follow-up motion passes
If there is no follow-up motion or the follow-up motion doesn’t pass, then additional steps are required. Check with the lead sponsor for their recommendation. Any recommendation provided by the lead sponsor should be shared with the Council Office (councilagenda@cityofmadison.com). If the Council President agrees with the recommendation, the recommendation can be included on the Council agenda. If the President and the lead sponsor disagree, then the file will not have a recommendation and the file must be excluded from the consent agenda for discussion.
Example
File 86251 appeared on the 12/10/24 Council agenda and illustrates the problem of motions that fail at the committee.
- Early drafts of the agenda were missing the CC note (added in later drafts, and circled in the agenda image above and in the Legistar file image below), and so the recommendation appeared on the agenda as though it has passed. Several reviewers caught the problem, and the file was updated so that it includes information about the motion failing.
- Additionally, because there was not a follow-up motion or a recommendation provided by the lead sponsor, Council and Clerk staff made sure to include the lack of recommendation in an agenda note (which is necessary since the recommendation shown in the history did not pass) as shown in the agenda image.
Finally, it is also helpful to understand that the file was excluded from the consent agenda, because a file that does not have an actionable recommendation must be acted on separately during the Council meeting.