8-19-20 fdl council taking heat on social media for not seconding motion on pavilion project

The Fond du Lac city council has taken a ton of heat on social media over the past week after passing on a vote to delay renovation of the Lakeside Park pavilion.   The council did not second a motion to halt construction until after a feasibility study was completed sometime in October.    Council vice president Kay Miller says she was surprised that her motion did not  receive a second to give courtesy to the four thousand voices that wished to be heard that night.  Miller was referring to the people who signed petitions in opposition development on the lighthouse peninsula. “I’m disappointed in my fellow councilmen that they did not have that courage and decency to want to engage in  a civil conversation,”  Miller told WFDL news.    Councilmember Dan Degner claims he didn’t second the motion because he wasn’t in favor of it.  “Parliamentary procedures, especially Roberts Rules of Order,  a second implies that you’re going to vote in favor of it,”  Degner said.  “I didn’t plan on voting in favor of it so that’s why I didn’t second the motion.”   A person who seconds the motion has neither claim to the motion nor any obligation to agree with the motion.  According to Roberts Rules of Order a second only means the seconder agrees the motion should come before the meeting and not that he or she necessarily favors the motion.   Degner also says the motion had nothing to do with the petition that was about building on the lighthouse peninsula.   “To say that 4,000 signed for the lighthouse peninsula somehow says they also don’t support a different project in a different location, the logic just doesn’t add up,” Degner said.   Miller says Degner is missing the point.  “I understand that if that’s how Dan wants to politically spin this.  I think the 4,000 signatures had more to do with the voice of the citizens and less to do with the pavilion, but it’s more than that.”    Miller says there has been a lot of stalemate action going on between the two sides and predicts opponents to commercial development at the park will hold tight to that.