The following rules for the government of the deliberations of the President and Board of Trustees are hereby adopted.
(A) The order of business at all regular meetings of the President and Board of Trustees shall be as follows:
(1) First: reading of the minutes of proceedings of regular and special meetings;
(2) Second: reports of standing committees;
(3) Third: reports of special committees;
(4) Fourth: reports of officers;
(5) Fifth: petitions and communications to the President and Board of Trustees;
(6) Sixth: presentation of claims and accounts; and
(7) Seventh: unfinished business;
(B) The President shall preserve order and decorum, and shall decide all questions or order, subject to an appeal to the Board of Trustees. Appeals to the President and Board of Trustees shall be decided without debate.
(C) No member of the Board shall speak more than twice upon any question, nor more than ten minutes at one time except by permission of the Board of Trustees.
(D) Any member called to order shall immediately take his or her seat until point of order is decided.
(E) While any member is speaking, no member shall engage in conversation with other persons, nor pass between the speaker and the President.
(F) Any member indulging in personalities or reflections injurious to the feelings of any other member, or the harmony of the President and Board of Trustees, shall be called to order by the President.
(G) All petitions and other communications to the President and Board of Trustees shall be in writing, signed by the petitioner or communicant.
(H) When a question is stated, every Trustee present shall vote unless excused by the President and Board of Trustees, or unless he or she is directly interested in the question, in which case he or she shall not vote.
(I) No motion shall be entertained unless seconded; when seconded, it shall be stated by the President and, if any member requires, it shall be reduced to writing.
(J) When a motion or resolution has been slated by the President, it shall be deemed to be in possession of the President and Board of Trustees but may be withdrawn at any time before a decision or amendment by consent of the President and Board of Trustees.
(K) If a question under consideration contains more than one distinct proposition, it may be divided on the request of any member.
(L) When a blank is to be filled and different sums or times proposed, the question shall first be put upon the largest sum or the longest time.
(M) When a question is under debate, no motion shall be received, unless for the previous questions, to refer, to postpone indefinitely, to adjourn to a certain day, to lay on the table, to amend or to adjourn.
(N) A motion for the “previous question” to lay the question on the table, or to commit it until decided, shall preclude all amendments or debate of the main question; and a motion to postpone a question indefinitely or to adjourn to a certain day shall, until it is decided, preclude all amendments to the main question.
(O) The “previous question” shall be put as follows: “Shall the main question be now put?”
(P) A motion to adjourn shall always be in order.
(Q) In all cases, the name of a member offering a resolution or motion shall be entered with it upon the journal.
(R) The yeas and nays shall be taken on the passage of every ordinance, and on all propositions to create any liability against said village, or for the expenditure or appropriation of its money, and be entered upon the journal, and if any member requires it upon any question before the President and Board of Trustees, but shall not be taken unless called for previous to the taking of the vote.
(S) No ordinance shall be repealed, or passed, or contract, or appropriation made unless by a vote of the majority of the President and Board of Trustees.
(T) Committees to whom any subject may be referred shall report in writing, addressed to the President and Board of Trustees of the village, be signed by the committee, and the reports shall be filed away and preserved by the Clerk.
(U) Any report of a committee of the President and Board of Trustees shall be deferred for final action thereon, to the next regular meeting of the same, after such report is made, upon request of any two Trustees present.
(V) The Clerk shall forward all papers to the appropriate committees and officers as early as the next day after the reference shall be made by the Village Marshal, who shall deliver them.
(W) No petition for the remission of a fine under any ordinance of the village shall be granted without a vote of two-thirds of the President and Board of Trustees, or without said petition is signed by the Police Magistrate, Justice of the Peace or jury who tried the case and imposed the fine, or the Village Attorney.
(X) Every proposition involving the expenditure of money shall be referred to an appropriate standing committee, and a report thereon made to the President and Board of Trustees by such committee, before the President and Board of Trustees vote upon the expenditure.
(Y) On all points of order not herein specially provided for, “Robert’s Rules of Order” is adopted and made the law governing the deliberations of said President and Board of Trustees.
(Z) The foregoing rules, or any of them, shall not be required or annulled, amended, abridged, modified, or suspended except by vote of a majority of the President and Board of Trustees of said village.
(Prior Code, § 24-1)