Council has, for a number of years, agreed to a particular voting system that closely resembled the
proportional representation that we use for federal, state and local government elections when selecting each other for positions on Council or outside agencies. Before this we used a dodgy system of crosses for the number of people that we needed to elect (one cross for one position, two crosses if two needed to be elected). The latter method was easily rorted by collusion between councillors and resulted in the change to a fairer system. On Monday afternoon a member of staff sent an email to all councillors telling us that the method would change for that night's selection of members for the Centennial Park Board. I challenged the Mayor on a point of order as there had been no agreement by Councillors to change the way we voted. He denied this and went ahead with his new method. We were to vote in two separate rounds, first for position 1 and then for position 2. Regardless of method there was no mandate to change and the the mayor cannot change the way we vote on a whim.
proportional representation that we use for federal, state and local government elections when selecting each other for positions on Council or outside agencies. Before this we used a dodgy system of crosses for the number of people that we needed to elect (one cross for one position, two crosses if two needed to be elected). The latter method was easily rorted by collusion between councillors and resulted in the change to a fairer system. On Monday afternoon a member of staff sent an email to all councillors telling us that the method would change for that night's selection of members for the Centennial Park Board. I challenged the Mayor on a point of order as there had been no agreement by Councillors to change the way we voted. He denied this and went ahead with his new method. We were to vote in two separate rounds, first for position 1 and then for position 2. Regardless of method there was no mandate to change and the the mayor cannot change the way we vote on a whim.
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