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(a) Any person desiring to address Council shall first secure the permission of the presiding officer to do so; provided, that under the following headings of business, unless the presiding officer rules otherwise, any qualified person may address Council without securing such prior permission.
(1) Interested parties or their authorized representatives may address Council by written communications in regard to matters then under discussion.
(2) Taxpayers or residents of the City, or their authorized legal representatives, may address Council by oral communications on any matter concerning the City’s business, or any matter over which Council has control; provided, that preference shall be given to those persons who may have notified the City Clerk in advance of their desire to speak in order that the same may appear on the agenda of Council.
(3) Interested persons or their authorized representatives may address Council by reading of protest, petitions or communications relating to zoning, sewer and street proceedings, hearings on protests, appeals and petitions, or similar matters in regard to matters then under consideration.
(b) After a motion is made by Council, no person shall address Council without first securing the permission of Council to do so.
(c) Each person addressing Council shall step up before the Council table, within the rail, shall give his name and address in an audible tone of voice for the records, and unless further time is granted by Council, shall limit his address to five minutes. All remarks shall be addressed to Council as a body and not to any member thereof. No person, other than Council and the person having the floor, shall be permitted to enter into any discussion, either directly or through a member of Council, without the permission of the presiding officer. No question shall be asked a Councilman except through the presiding officer.
(1978 Code Sec. 2-12.)
(a) While Council is in session, the members must preserve order and decorum, and a member shall neither, by conversation or otherwise, delay or interrupt the proceedings or the peace of Council nor disturb any member while speaking or refuse to obey the orders of Council or its presiding officer, except as otherwise herein provided.
(b) Any person making personal, impertinent or slanderous remarks or who shall become boisterous while addressing Council shall be forthwith, by the presiding officer, barred from further audience before Council, unless permission to continue be granted by a majority vote of Council. (1978 Code Sec. 2-14.)
The Chief of Police, or such member or members of the Police Department as he may designate, shall be sergeant-at-arms of Council meetings. He, or they, shall carry out all orders and instructions given by the presiding officer for the purpose of maintaining order and decorum at Council meeting. Upon instructions of the presiding officer, it shall be the duty of the sergeant- at-arms, or any of them present, to place any person who violates the order and decorum of the meeting under arrest, and cause him to be prosecuted under the provisions of the Codified Ordinances, the complaint to be signed by the presiding officer.
(1978 Code Sec. 2-15.)
(a) All special committees shall be appointed by the presiding officer.
(b) Council shall have the right to appoint such standing committees of its own body as it may deem proper, and may give such committees power and authority to perform any duties and make any reports to Council concerning the duties of Council and the consideration of any matter, franchise or ordinance, and may postpone the announcement of any vote to an adjourned meeting or to a future meeting.
(1978 Code Sec. 2-17.)
(a) No account or other demand against the City shall be allowed until the same has been considered and reported upon by the Council sitting as the Committee of the Whole.
(b) No action shall be maintained against the City for damages for a personal injury alleged to have been sustained by reason of the negligence of the City or of any officer, agent or employee thereof, unless a written verified statement of the nature of the claim and of the time and place at which such injury is alleged to have been received shall have been filed with the City Clerk within thirty days after the cause of action shall have accrued. The cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued at the date of the sustaining of the injury; except, that where death results therefrom the time for the personal representatives to give notice shall run from the date of death. An action for damages for personal injuries or death shall not be commenced until the expiration of thirty days after filing of the notice provided in this section.
(1978 Code Sec. 2-19.)
(a) All ordinance bills shall be prepared by the City Attorney. No ordinance bill shall be prepared for presentation to Council unless ordered by a majority vote of Council, or requested in writing by the Mayor, or prepared by the City Attorney on his own initiative.
(b) All ordinances, resolutions and contract documents shall, before presentation to Council, have been approved as to the form and legality by the City Attorney or his authorized representative, and shall have been examined and approved for administration by the Mayor or his authorized representative, where there are substantive matters of administration involved. All such instruments shall have first been referred to the head of the department under whose jurisdiction the administration of the subject matter of the ordinance, resolution or contract document would devolve and be approved by such department head; provided, that if approval is not given, then the same shall be returned to the Mayor with a written memorandum of the reasons why such approval is withheld. In the event the questioned instrument is not redrafted to meet a department head objection, or objection is not withdrawn and approval in writing given, then the Mayor shall so advise Council and give the reasons advanced by the department for withholding approval.
(c) Ordinances, resolutions and other matters or subjects requiring action by Council must be introduced and sponsored by a member of Council; except, that the Mayor or City Attorney may present ordinances, resolutions and other matters or subjects to Council and any Councilman may assume sponsorship thereof by moving that such ordinances, resolutions, matters or subjects be adopted; otherwise, they shall not be considered.
(d) No ordinance shall be put on its final passage on the same day on which it was introduced.
(e) An ordinance shall not be materially amended at the same meeting at which finally passed. If materially amended after publication the ordinance shall be republished and considered as though publication had not taken place.
(1978 Code Sec. 2-20.)
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