(a) The agenda of the Common Council shall be prepared by the City Clerk. Council members, the Mayor and/or the Clerk may add items to the Council agenda, but all agenda items must be received in the office of the Clerk via electronic transmission, by 12:00 noon local time, ten (10) calendar days prior to the day of the Council meeting. Each agenda item submitted must also include an executive summary describing the purpose of the item, not to exceed one hundred and fifty (150) words. The Clerk shall mail or cause to be delivered the Council agenda and all supporting materials to each Council member by 5:00 p.m. six (6) calendar days prior to the Council meeting to which the agenda pertains. (Ord. D-1953-09, As Amended, 12- 7-09; Ord. D-2043-11, As Amended, 9-19-11; Ord. D-2241-15, As Amended, 1-4-16)
(b) Any additional items to be added to the agenda requiring action by the Council which are not included in the prepared agenda must be typed or written in memorandum form with a brief rationale for inclusion on the agenda and distributed to each Council member, the Mayor, Clerk, members of the press, with additional copies for the public prior to the start of the Council meeting. When the Council has concluded its New Business, the Presiding Officer shall ask if any other business is to come before the Council, whereupon any Council member wishing to add an additional item to the agenda and who has first submitted the title and rationale for the item to the agenda prior to the start of the meeting, shall move to add said item to the agenda. Following a second by one other Council member, the Presiding Officer shall immediately call for a vote on the question of adding such item to the agenda, without first allowing any discussion and/or debate on the content of the proposed agenda item. A two- thirds vote of Council members must be received in order to add the item to the agenda. No other items may be added to the agenda without the Common Council suspending the rules which shall require a unanimous vote of all those present. (Ord. D-749, § 1, 2-5-92; Ord. D-1499-00, 1-8-01)
(c) At the end of the regular agenda the presiding officer shall afford the opportunity to any member of the Common Council to make announcements and/or provide verbal and/or written information to the other members of the Common Council so long as such items do not require immediate action or discussion by the Council. The Mayor and Clerk shall be afforded such privilege, also. (Ord. D-362, § III G II C, 3-22-83)
(d) Any citizen or other interested party who wishes to address the Common Council shall be given an opportunity to do so during any regularly scheduled meeting of the Common Council. In order to be recognized by the presiding officer, any person wishing to make an address must complete a Request to Address Council Card (“Request”) and submit same to the Clerk, or his deputy, prior to the beginning of the meeting at which the citizen wishes to speak. The Request shall include the person’s name, address, city, state, zip code, telephone number and the name of the organization, if any, that the person is representing. The Request shall also include the topic about which the person wishes to speak. At the beginning of the meeting, the Clerk, or their deputy, shall present all Requests to the presiding officer. At the appropriate time in the Common Council’s Order of Business, each such person may address the Common Council on the topic designated in their Request, except that persons may not so address the Common Council on topics in which a Public Hearing has been or will be held as a separate agenda item at that meeting of the Common Council. Each speaker shall be limited to three (3) minutes. No speaker shall be permitted to cede their three (3) minute allotment to another speaker. Each speaker shall speak from the podium and shall state his or her name for the record. At the request of a Council Member or the Mayor, the Council may suspend the three minute time limit for an entire meeting, or, in the alternative, grant an individual speaker an additional three (3) minutes of speaking time by a simple majority vote. If more than one Request is made, the presiding officer may call the Requests in any order, but should give preference to Requests in the following order:
(1) A resident of the City.
(2) A resident of Clay Township, Indiana who resides outside the corporate limits of the City.
(3) A representative of any organization or business entity located in Clay Township, Indiana.
(4) Any other person.
(`91 Code, § 3-19) (Ord. D-748, § 2, 1-6-92; Ord. D-1368-98, 6-15-98; Ord. D-2279-16, As Amended, 2-1-16; Ord. D-2505-19, 12-16-19; Ord. D-2631-22, § 4, 7-18-22)