The public will soon have a quick way to find out how Butte-Silver Bow commissioners voted on key measures and any discussion and debate that took place immediately before the votes were cast.
Months after the council voted against a proposal by Commissioner Bill Andersen to list council roll-call votes on ordinances or resolutions a single page on the county’s website with a link to corresponding meeting minutes, it sailed through on a 9-0 vote late Wednesday night.
Chief Executive Matt Vincent said Thursday he favored the move and Justin Ringsak, the county’s online and public information administrator, said he hopes to have the new Web page set up within two weeks.
The council voted 7-4 against the proposal in April, with the majority saying a summarized table on how they voted on certain measures would leave out the context and debate that occurred before the votes were cast.
Those votes and the context could be found in meeting minutes, they said, which already are available online.
But Andersen said people should have easy-and-quick access to council votes and should not have to scroll through pages of minutes do see how each commissioner voted.
Under his initial proposal and the one approved Wednesday, people could click to minutes if they wanted more context, he said.
He said he brought the issue back up this week because the council recently killed a proposal by Commissioner Brendan McDonough that had languished on the agenda for months without any action taken.