It’s called a casting vote. Given it’s a decisive vote, I’d hardly call it benign.
Casting votes are not always available to a Chairman it depends on the constitution of the entity.
I have not seen our clubs constitution so I don't know if he in fact has a casting vote as he may in fact only have deliberative vote.
In the case of a casting vote as I said normal convention is for that vote to maintain the "status quo" as that allows for the issue to be debated again and voted on at a subsequent meeting.
If that convention is followed then IMO it becomes benign as everyone will know the outcome before the casting vote is actually cast.
Extract from an article by David Julian Price
Here are the important issues.
1. The casting vote can only be used if the person presiding has already cast their deliberative vote. So if the chair puts the issue to the vote, but does not vote him or herself and there is a tie, then the casting vote does not apply because they have not yet exercised their deliberative vote.
(The deliberative vote should be used at the same time as everyone else votes – see the post on deliberative voting)
If, after they have exercise their deliberative vote there is a tie, then the casting vote can be exercised.
2. This is the really tricky bit for some people. A wise chair will
nearly always exercise their casting vote to “
preserve the status quo“. That means they will vote so the situation does NOT change. In most circumstances, that means that they will vote against the proposal although some proposals are worded so that a vote in favour preserves the status quo.
I can almost hear some people saying WHY????
The answer is that by preserving the status quo, the issue is free to be raised again at a later meeting when there is more support. But the reason wise people vote this way is that if the casting vote is used to change something, then the decision has in reality been made by one person – the person in the chair. As many people are in favour as are against and it is not a sound decision.
I have read research that shows that decisions that are made upon a casting vote nearly always get reversed at a following meeting and the people who regularly use their casting votes to make changes, are often challenged for their position when they come up for election.
Now there will be times when the chair will use their casting vote to make a change. These are things where there has been considerable debate over many meetings and a decision simply has to be made. These situations are rare but they do occur.
Bottom line is – use casting votes with great care.