Referrals and Referral Dates

Background and Explanation

Every file that follows the normal legislative process - introduction in one meeting and final action in a separate meeting - includes referrals. At a minimum, a file following the standard legislative process will be referred to the Council to be adopted in a future meeting. Most ordinances and resolutions also include referrals to Boards, Commissions, and Committees (BCCs). These additional referrals allow the Council to consider the recommendations from these bodies before making their final decision.

Referrals are added to files in the History tab. The following two pictures show the CC Note field where the information has been added, and how the same information appears on the Council agenda.

Entering Referral Dates

When you create a file that will go to the Common Council, how the referral dates are entered determines whether the file will follow the correct referral path or not, as well as affecting subsequent actions.

Add the committees the file should be referred to along with meeting dates in the CC Note field of the History tab in Legistar. Always list the lead referral first, followed by the secondary referrals; the lead referral is the committee whose recommendation carries the most weight.

Instructions

1. In the History tab, select an Acting Body.
2. Select Referred for Introduction for Action Taken.
3. Select Save in the lower left corner. Legistar adds the "Referred for Introduction" line into the history.
4. Enter the referrals into the CC Note following the guidelines listed below.

• ORDER: List lead referral first (regardless of date), secondary referrals after the lead referral, and always list the Common Council return date last
• PUNCTUATION:  Separate referrals with a comma, and place referral dates in parentheses
• DATE FORMAT: Use date format of 1-2 digits for month/day/year, with no leading zeroes; for example, August 5, 2025 should be shown in referrals as 8/5/25
• COMMITTEE NAME:  List the full committee name, e.g. Finance Committee, Board of Health Madison and Dane County; to ensure accessibility, abbreviations and acronyms should not be used
• FONT: Always use Arial 8 pt font in the CC Note field; click the magnifying glass next to the text box to review and modify the font

Example (correct)

In the above example, the lead referral is Finance Committee, which appears first in the list. Each committee is spelled out, including group designation type, and uses the correct punctuation and date format. There is one secondary referral which is the Madison Arts Commission; this referral appears after the lead referral in the list but meets before the lead referral. The Common Council is listed last and meets after all referrals have met.

Common errors to avoid in referrals

The following is a list of errors commonly seen in referrals. Avoid doing the following:

• Using 4 digit year
• Separating referrals with a semicolon instead of a comma
• Listing the Common Council introduction date
• Listing the referrals in chronological order instead of listing the lead committee first
• Abbreviating the name of a committee or leaving out the group designation type (Board, Committee, Commission)

Example (incorrect)

The list of referrals below has been entered incorrectly. (In this example, Finance Committee is the lead referral.)

• Common Council (5/20/25), BPW (05/21/25); Finance (5/27/25), Common Council  6/3/2025

The list of referrals above includes the following errors:

• Common Council introduction date has been included
• Board of Public Works has been abbreviated to BPW, the referral date includes a leading zero, and the referral date is followed by a semicolon instead of a comma
• The lead referral (Finance Committee) has been placed in order chronologically after a secondary referral instead of being listed first; additionally the lead referral has been truncated to just Finance (instead of Finance Committee)
• Common Council return date is missing parenthesis, and lists the year using 4 digits instead of 2.

Additional identification of lead referral

When the list of referrals includes two or more committees (not including Common Council return date), it is especially important to identify the lead referral on the Details tab. Refer to Lead Referral for more information.

Email Committees to Prevent Missed Referrals

Committees, even those which meet the most frequently, regularly experience the problem of missed referrals. The problem of missed referrals is most likely to occur due to one or more of the following reasons:

• The committee meets infrequently
• The file is being introduced from the floor
• The committee meets soon after the Common Council meeting

To help ensure that referrals aren't missed, email the file number and referral information to committee staff. Best practice when sending referral emails is to email the committee general mailbox instead of a specific staff member, as this avoids the problem of missed emails due to staff member absence.

Instructions

Files for regular introduction

When you are entering referrals for any file, learn to identify the following types of referrals so you can send notification emails to committee staff.

• Referral to a committee which meets less frequently
• Referral to committee which meets shortly after the Council meeting

Files for introduction from the floor

When preparing a file for introduction from the floor, get in the habit of emailing each of the committees to which the file is referred to ensure the referrals aren't missed, as new files which do not appear on the agenda are more likely to have missed referrals.