Robert's Rules of Disorder

Richardson City Council meetings have never been a shining example of parliamentary procedure. Under Mayor Bob Dubey, things have only gotten worse. I've long thought that someone well-versed in Robert's Rules of Order would be able to bend the Council to his will through skillful use of these arcane rules of parliamentary procedure. The July 15, 2024, meeting was a case in point. But was it happening by cunning or more likely, merely by accident? Let's go to the transcript.

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Transcript (lightly edited for brevity and clarity):

Councilmember Ken Hutchenrider: Okay, if there's no other comments, I'd like to make a motion to approve Zoning File 24-08...

Mayor Bob Dubey: Okay, we have a motion on the table. Do we have a second?

Mayor Pro Tem Arefin: I second.

Dubey: We have a motion and a second. Please discuss.

Councilmember Dan Barrios: I would like to add that the shuttle not be required.

Hutchenrider: My motion is on the floor. You can't do that.

Councilmember Jennifer Justice: We could amend it.

Hutchenrider: You'd have to take a vote on that [my motion]. If the Council is against it, then you'd have to remake that motion.

Justice: You can amend it if you want, actually.

Hutchenrider: But I have to accept the amendment and I wouldn't accept that.

Pause during which no one seems to want to speak.

Dubey: Okay, we have a motion on the table. Do we have a second?

Arefin: I second.

Dubey: We have a second. All in favor. Show of hands, please. All right. Passes unanimously as stated.

Source: Richardson City Council.

Let me repeat that transcript, this time annotated with my comments about what's going on here (in bold).

Councilmember Ken Hutchenrider: Okay, if there's no other comments, I'd like to make a motion to approve Zoning File 24-08...

Hutchenrider made his motion without being recognized by the chair (Mayor Dubey). Hutchenrider seems to be in the habit of doing that, being first to make a motion. For a long time I didn't understand why. Was he just trying to assert himself, trying to establish his primacy in an invisible pecking order? Or was he just eager to raise his hand and show off like a teacher's pet? I never could tell. After how this instance played out, I now have to consider that maybe it's a deliberate tactic to take ownership of a motion, in a mistaken understanding of Robert's Rules of Order. It's mistaken, as we'll see, but I had to admit it worked out to Hutchenrider's advantage this time.

Mayor Bob Dubey: Okay, we have a motion on the table. Do we have a second?

Mayor Pro Tem Arefin: I second.

Dubey: We have a motion and a second. Please discuss.

Councilmember Dan Barrios: I would like to add that the shuttle not be required.

Barrios is within his right to do this. The proper way might have been to phrase it maybe like, "I move to amend the motion by removing the requirement to provide shuttle service." But in any case, he has the right to move to amend the motion on the floor.

Hutchenrider: My motion is on the floor. You can't do that.

Hutchenrider is mistaken. Perhaps he is confusing this with a so-called "friendly amendment" and is stating his objection to the amendment. The FAQ of Robert's Rules explains:

If it appears to the chair that an amendment (or any other motion) is uncontroversial, it is proper for the chair to ask if there is "any objection" to adopting the amendment. If no objection is made, the chair may declare the amendment adopted. If even one member objects, however, the amendment is subject to debate and vote like any other, regardless of whether its proposer calls it "friendly" and regardless of whether the maker of the original motion endorses its adoption. [RONR (12th ed.) 12:91.]

Source: Robert's Rules FAQ.

Councilmember Jennifer Justice: We could amend it.

Justice is right.

Hutchenrider: You'd have to take a vote on that [my motion]. If the Council is against it, then you'd have to remake that motion.

Hutchenrider is wrong. You don't have to vote down Hutchenrider's motion before amending it. Going Hutchenrider's route would accomplish the same thing, but it's cleaner (in my opinion) to just amend his original motion than to vote it down and make a new motion with amended language.

Justice: You can amend it if you want, actually.

Again, Justice is right.

Hutchenrider: But I have to accept the amendment and I wouldn't accept that.

Hutchenrider is wrong. Because Barrios's amendment is controversial (Hutchenrider's objection to it demonstrates that), it "is subject to debate and vote like any other" motion, in the words of Robert's Rules of Order. Hutchenrider doesn't get any special veto power because he made the original motion that Barrios seeks to amend.

Critically important here, neither Justice nor Barrios pressed her point, which is that Barrios has a right to move to amend Hutchenrider's motion. And so Barrios's amendment was never formally made.

Dubey: Okay, we have a motion on the table. Do we have a second?

Arefin: I second.

Dubey: We have a second. All in favor. Show of hands, please. All right. Passes unanimously as stated.

Dubey acted like he's oblivious to the implications of Robert's Rules of Order in this exchange (which he probably is). He resets to square one and asks for a second to Hutchenrider's original motion (which Arefin has already given, so a second second, so to speak, is unnecessary). Because Barrios never made a motion (at least not in so many words), Dubey didn't have the inconvenience of having to try to handle the case of a motion to amend a motion on the floor, especially in the face of objection on parliamentary rules grounds from Hutchenrider.

If the exchange went any further, heads might have exploded, which is why I started this by saying someone assertive with training in Robert's Rules would be able to bend the Council to his will. As it is, Hutchenrider got his way (his motion passed with no amendments) and Barrios got rolled (his amendment never was considered and certainly wasn't voted on) and Justice, who came closest to knowing how things OUGHT to have been run, caved and didn't press the point, perhaps because it was Barrios's amendment getting run over, not hers. Hutchenrider, the one person most in the wrong here, bulled his way to victory.

Normally, City Manager Don Magner might have been expected to step in and help out, but in this instance he was strangely silent himself. I'm not certain it's his role, but in a vacuum, he could act as parliamentarian. For everyone, a refresher course in Robert's Rules of Order is called for.

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"Accidental win,
Or cunning strategy's play?
Procedure adrift."
—h/t ChatGPT