Can we look at voting procedures in Fall River council meetings?

Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, commonly referred to as Robert’s Rules of Order, RONR, or simply Robert’s Rules, is the most widely used manual of parliamentary procedure in the United States.

Robert's Rules of Order is based on each member of a group having equal weight as expressed by vote. That is true democracy. That was not the case as we witnessed with our City Council special meeting on the Mayor Jasiel Correia issue, as one councilor was able stop the entire council from voting by his singular objection. Robert’s Rules solves this concern by requiring a vote by the council on an objection, and a two-thirds vote (six) of the council needs to vote in the affirmative to sustain the motion to object.

It is my opinion that our city needs to review and revisit the use of “Objection” in further city council meetings. In a gathering of elected officials, no one person should be able to stop debate and voting of all other duly elected officials, and Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised gives us the national standard for preventing that from happening.

Daryl Gonyon

Fall River Board of Elections Commissioners