How your council votes
Every recorded vote since the current five members took office, in plain language. Tap a name to see one member's votes. Pick a topic to narrow it down.
Outvoted means the council disagreed on an item and this member was on the losing side. Absent means not present for the vote. Abstained means present but chose not to vote yes or no. Recused means they sat out because of a conflict of interest, such as living next to a project or having a financial tie to it.
Routine votes are hidden. These are consent calendars (batches of routine items approved in one vote), approval of past minutes, and the twice-monthly list of city bills to pay. Turn on "Show routine votes" to include them.
Where this comes from
Votes are taken from the City Council's approved meeting minutes posted on the city's public meeting archive. Each vote links to the minutes it came from, so you can check it yourself. Consent calendars (routine items approved in one motion) are shown as one vote. Items pulled out for a separate vote are shown on their own.
Votes marked provisional come from meeting recordings or transcripts because the city has not yet posted approved minutes for that meeting. A few 2023 meetings have broken or missing minutes links on the city's site and are not included.
Mayor and Vice Mayor rotate each December. Member names are used instead of titles so the record stays comparable across years.
Source: City of South Gate meeting archive.
How the vote explanations were written
To keep the "what a yes vote meant" and "what a no vote meant" text as neutral and fair as possible, the first drafts were written by an AI tool working from the minutes, under the rules below. The same rules apply to every vote, no matter who it favors. If you think an explanation breaks one of these rules, tell us and we will fix it.
Read the rules we gave the AI
- Describe the action, not the merit. Say what would happen if the motion passed or failed. Never say whether that outcome is good, bad, wise, wasteful, responsible, or overdue.
- Use only what is in the agenda item, the staff report, or the minutes. If the minutes do not say why a member voted a certain way, do not supply a reason. Do not describe anyone's motives, intentions, or feelings.
- Treat yes and no with the same care. Each description should be about the same length and level of detail. If one side gets a dollar figure, a date, or a consequence, the other side gets the equivalent.
- Use neutral verbs: approve, adopt, award, continue, deny, reject, table, amend. Avoid loaded words such as slash, gut, rubber-stamp, giveaway, bloated, overdue, common-sense, reckless, responsible.
- State the concrete thing at stake: the amount, the contract, the ordinance, the location, the deadline, or the position.
- When the item is procedural (a continuance, a tabling, approving minutes, a consent calendar), say so plainly and say what it delays or finalizes. Do not imply a procedural vote was a vote on the underlying issue.
- For a no vote, describe what would have happened if the no side had prevailed, using the same facts. Do not guess what the no voter wanted instead unless they said so on the record.
- If staff recommended an outcome, you may say so because it is a fact in the record. Do not characterize the recommendation.
- Never mention a council member's name inside a yes or no description. The descriptions are about the item, not the people.
- If the record is unclear, say so in one sentence rather than filling the gap.
- Before finishing, ask: could a supporter and an opponent of this item both read these descriptions and agree they are accurate? If not, rewrite until both would.