"NO" Vote Update

After last week's story on the rarity of a "NO" vote, at a Lenoir City council meeting for the last couple of years, I got to wondering just how many times over the years a Lenoir City council member actually bucked the system and voted "NO" on anything. Here's what I found from the meeting minutes from 2014 to 2019.

In the five plus years of minutes, 2014-2019, available on the city website, there have only been three "NO" votes all together and two of those came this past January when Bobby Johnson Sr. and James Brandon voted "NO" on the elimination of the parks and rec director position. To find another "NO" vote, you have to go back to June of 2015 when Bobby Johnson Sr. voted "NO" on a change to the beer sales regulations. That's it. No other "NO" votes.

That's 1,052 votes the council has taken since January 2014 with only 3 "NO" votes. Couple that with the fact they very rarely hold workshops prior to their meetings to discuss what items will be on the agendas, and it makes it even more dumbfounding how there could be so few dissenting votes. There have been three or four "abstain" votes but most of those were when a council member was voting on something involving a family member. It goes without saying, that with only three "NO" votes in five years, no agenda item has ever, ever been voted down. 

It's against the law for elected officials to ever discuss privately, among themselves ahead of time, any issues that will be coming up for a vote. The Sunshine Law requires that all discussions, debates and votes of anything must be in an open and public meeting. I'm not saying the mayor and council have been violating the Sunshine Law, I'm just not sure how they all know how they will vote given that there's been no public discussion before or many times at a meeting. I guess they could claim issues are discussed in various committee meetings but not all council members serve on all committees. 

To go so long with so few "NO" votes is something else. I doubt there has been very many county commission meetings where there weren't any "NO" votes and many times, issues get voted down. Maybe county officials need to learn the secret of the city's success for getting everything passed. But I'm afraid their secret wouldn't work in county government.

2014-217 votes, 0 "NO"

2015-236 votes, 1 "NO"

2016-233 votes, 0 "NO"

2017-187 votes, 0 "NO"

2018-158 votes, 0 "NO"

2019-21 votes, 2 "NO"

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3/4/19