Rubber stamp consensus - Elk Grove city council displays little dissention
Most council votes unanimous on most matters In our previous post, we examined the attendance and punctuality records of the current members...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2008/06/part-i-rubber-stamp-concensus-elk-grove.html

Most council votes unanimous on most matters
In our previous post, we examined the attendance and punctuality records of the current members of the Elk Grove City Council. With one exception, our city leaders have less-than-perfect records, with council member Jim Cooper having the worst overall attendance record.
During the attendance analysis, we also noted another trend - the council votes in near-perfect lockstep on most issues.
In an analysis of agenda items between June 13 of last year and this May, out of 126 agenda items (not including the consent calendar), the city council voted unanimously yes on 118 occasions. In other words, the city council was in agreement on 93 percent of the issues before them.
Just what implications, if any, does this have?
consensus
4 comments
Your discussion of voting patters got me thinking about my past ruminations on the patterns I've noticed in votes by councils, boards and commissions. that prompted me to do some research, which is not done yet, but I thought I'd pass along this interesting note from wiki: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RedCardMeetings
I like the red card notion well enough. Would shorten meetings, at least. And I found the whole concept of voting methods and what they mean fascinating. Town hall shows of hands to determine majorities of the populace rather than a majority of an elected few to be the best means availale. More on this later, I hope.
PS: Consensus is the correct spelling of that word in your headline.
Corrected. My bad. Thanks for bring it to my attention.
...bringing, that is!
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