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Menlo Park council adopts 2026 roll-call voting order
Summary
The City Council approved a 2026 roll-call voting procedure to govern votes when members appear remotely; Councilmember Combs’ tweak—allowing a remote member to vote first—was adopted. The motion passed with Councilmember Taylor absent.
The Menlo Park City Council on a unanimous vote approved a roll-call voting procedure for calendar year 2026 to be used when a council member participates remotely.
City Clerk Judy Herron introduced the proposal and explained the city’s existing practice of calling votes in alphabetical order by legal first name, with the mayor voting last. Councilmember Combs suggested a minor tweak: if a council member is participating remotely, that member should vote first and the council would then proceed in the usual alphabetical order. "Since it's a council member joining the meeting remotely that triggers this roll call, why not have that person, by default, vote first?" Councilmember Combs said.
Mayor Nash seconded the motion to adopt the procedure with that change. There was no further discussion and the council proceeded to vote. The motion passed; City Councilmember Taylor was absent.
The change is administrative: the procedure governs the order in which individual council votes are recorded and does not alter any substantive voting rules or local law. City Clerk Herron told the council the order used for minutes and recordkeeping is discretionary and can be adjusted by council direction.
The council moved on to other agenda items after the vote.
