That LB Municipal Code section, enacted in 1981, specifies:

2.03.050 - Voting

...B. Except when a conflict of interest exists and abstention is required by State law, every member of the Council who is present when a roll is called shall vote for or against the question, unless excused by a majority of the members present, prior to the calling of the roll on such question.

LBREPORT.com isn't an expert in parliamentary procedure, but believes the Council meeting's chair (nearly always the Mayor or Vice Mayor) has the authority to enforce that provision. If the Mayor doesn't do so, then we believe any other Councilmember could call a point of order to enforce it, along with a majority of their Council colleagues. A Councilmember's elected duty (and paid duty) is to cast recorded votes, not to come up with reasons to let themselves avoid casting recorded votes.

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The Oct 23 Council item was first-reading approval for an ordinance, supported in September by five Councilmembers who directed the City Attorney to draft the measure, with provisions to protect hotel workers with "panic buttons" and the like at smaller hotels/motels. The proposed ordinance surfaced just weeks before LB voters vote in November on a petition-initiated measure with "panic buttons" for hotel-workers at larger hotels and additionally includes anti-retaliation and other workplace-related protections not included in the Council ordinance.

The petition-initiated ballot measure is backed by the UniteHere! union seeking to organize hotel workers. Their petition-initiated measure is opposed by corporate hotels/hospitality interests. Union-allied interests oppose the Council majority proposed ordinance (and at the Oct. 23 meeting alleged it amounts to City interference with the coming election on the petition-initiated ballot measure, a charge the City Attorney's office denies.)

The four Councilmembers who walked out returned after the Council vote, although presiding chair Andrews disappeared for the rest of the meeting, and Mayor Garcia was absent for the entire meeting.

The same four Councilmembers who walked out on Oct. 23 also walked out in September, at that time saying their vote was a "protest." Their action brought howls from supporters of hotel interests who called the Councilmembers joint exit "unprecedented."

But the record shows that other current and now-gone Councilmembers have individually vanished on votes, without the Mayor or their Council colleagues invoking the Council rule.

In February 2017, Councilmembers Stacy Mungo and Dee Andrews -- both of whom had been present earlier in the Council meeting -- were gone on a hot-button vote to put Long Beach on record as supporting then-advancing Sacramento legislation (SB 31 and SB 54) to create statewide immigration sanctuary policies. Councilwoman Mungo returned after the vote; Councilman Andrews did not. A month later in March 2017, Councilwoman Mungo remained and voted "no" along with Councilman Daryl Supernaw on the "Long Beach Values Act," (which extended the policies of SB 54 to LB city government departments.)

Other long-gone LB Councilmembers earned unflattering nicknames for vanishing on key votes. "Waffling Wally" Edgerton (2nd dist.) and "Run-Away Ray" Grabinski (7th dist.) were among the more notorious.

Edgerton's disappearance on a key vote to halt the issuance of "crackerbox" apartment permits enraged 2nd dist. residents. That led to an upstart election challenge to Edgerton by Alan Lowenthal, then a CSULB professor and a leader in LB's now-vanished leftish Long Beach Area Citizens Involved (LBACI). Lowenthal went on to defeat Edgerton's bid for re-election to the 2nd Council district seat, and built a political career that included the Assembly, state Senate and now U.S. House of Represenatives. Grabinski made an unsuccessful run for Mayor, dogged in part by his Council disappearances.

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