While some argued that the council had essentially already approved the bills in May, others pointed to differences: the proposed bill does not call for an AIDS benefit concert; the money will now be granted instead of loaned; and the HCC did not list the potential artists in order of preference as they did in the spring.

Haan said that he intentionally did not list the artists in order of bid preference as part of a larger plan for the HCC to gain more autonomy from the council.

“The concert commission sees and agrees with the necessity for council oversight, but at this point we are at a stage in the process where things are very inflexible,” Haan said.

“Before we start bidding on an artist it is very hard to know what is going to come out of it, so it is very hard to prioritize them.”

The council will meet this Friday to discuss and vote on the two authorization bills, and will continue to debate the relationship between the HCC and the council as well as the prospects for e-mail voting in the future, Mahan wrote in an e-mail.

—Staff writer Evan M. Vittor can be reached at evittor@fas.harvard.edu.