Temple Terrace council amends Oct. 21 minutes after member raises procedural concerns

Council member Kravitz asked the Temple Terrace City Council on Nov. 4 to correct the Oct. 21 meeting minutes, saying two items were recorded incorrectly: a motion he said he made to ask leisure-services staff to consider a downtown event, and the consent-agenda vote tally. Kravitz told the council he consulted the meeting video and said the minutes did not reflect a properly made motion and that his own vote on the consent agenda was not cast.

Kravitz said the video showed he had made a motion while he still had the floor and that the chair did not follow the expected process to acknowledge and seek a second. He also told the council the minutes recorded the consent agenda as a 5-0 vote even though he did not verbally cast a vote, and he requested the minutes be corrected to show a 4-0 result.

The debate that followed focused on whether a silent or absent response should be treated as an inaudible affirmative under the councils rules. Mayor Ross and other members defended their handling of the meeting, saying they had planned to return to a speaker who had indicated a wish to speak. Kravitz argued the procedural steps that permit public comment and the method for taking a viva voce vote were not followed.

After discussion and attempts to reconcile competing interpretations of the rules, Kravitz offered a motion to approve the Oct. 21 minutes with two adjustments: record the consent-agenda vote as 4-0 (not 5-0) and note that a motion to ask leisure-services staff about a downtown event "was not taken up and asked for a second." The council approved the amended minutes by voice vote.

Council members said the action corrects the factual record of the prior meeting. Kravitz said he would press for consistent application of meeting rules going forward and asked staff and the chair to be attentive to public-comment and voting procedures.

The amendment leaves a formal note in the record that the consent agenda passed without Kravitzs recorded vote and that the downtown-event motion was not consummated by a second. No additional sanctions or disciplinary steps were taken.