At 2:06 p.m., the public advocate, Letitia James, who presides over the Council’s sessions, banged a gavel and directed the chamber to rise and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll call was taken: 45 of the Council’s 51 members were present. The Rev. James Lee of the Korean Church of Queens read the invocation.

“As they continue to labor diligently,” Mr. Lee said of the men and women of the Council, he asked God to “bless the work of their hands so that the City of New York will continue to flourish and prosper.”

The Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, set a summery tone in a sleeveless blue dress with a pink and red floral pattern and cherry red patent leather open-toe sandals with heels.

Assorted council members were invited to speak about bills they had sponsored that were coming up for passage: They included legislation aimed at improving conditions for home health care workers and for people recently released from jail, and to better provide consumer protection services to women and seniors.

At around 2:45 p.m., the Council began to vote. With typical efficiency, members approved all the bills under consideration in one swoop, most of them saying simply, “Aye on all.”

One note of discord, however, did infringe upon the Council’s August idyll.

The Council voted to reject the application of a private developer to build an apartment tower in Inwood, which, in exchange for increasing the height of the tower, would have included dozens of units to be rented at below market rates. The rejection was made at the behest of Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, a Democrat for the area, who felt pressure from local opponents of the project.

It was among the first applications by a private developer to come before the Council under newly passed zoning rules meant to spur the construction of affordable housing, and its failure suggested that local resistance could spell trouble for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s push to build thousands of new below-market rate rental units.