(a) (1) The Executive Committee, which shall consist of all five members of Council with the President and Vice President of Council being the chairperson and vice-chairperson thereof, and the following standing legislative policy committees are hereby established:
A. Finance Committee to consist of three Council members including one Council member designated as the chairperson thereof, all to be appointed by the President of Council;
B. Contracts and Property Committee to consist of three Council members including one Council member designated as the chairperson thereof, all to be appointed by the President of Council;
C. Personnel and Appointments Committee to consist of three Council members including one Council member designated as the chairperson thereof, all to be appointed by the President of Council;
D. General Services and Admin- istration Committee to consist of three Council members including one Council member designated as the chairperson thereof, all to be appointed by the President of Council; and
E. Health and Safety Services Committee to consist of three Council members including one Council member designated as chairperson thereof, all to be appointed by the President of Council.
(2) The President of Council shall appoint each Council member, including himself or herself, as chairperson of one of the five aforementioned standing legislative policy committees.
(b) (1) All ordinances and resolutions, to the extent practicable, shall be prepared and submitted in writing to the Council office as sponsored by the chairperson of the Executive Committee or the standing committee as appears most closely to have jurisdiction over the subject of the ordinance or resolution. Any ordinance or resolution so submitted may be assigned to the Executive or any of the standing committees for further study when deemed appropriate as determined either in writing by the Council President or by motion adopted by Council. Referral to committees need not be a requirement for passage of an ordinance and any ordinance may be removed from committee upon appropriate motion adopted by a majority.
(2) Upon assignment of an ordinance, resolution or other legislative matter to one of the standing legislative policy committees or the Executive Committee, it shall be the duty of the chairperson of such committee to consider the referred matter at its next meeting and it shall be the duty of Council members on such committee to assemble at such meeting at the date, time and place specified to deliberate on the referred matter and report on the recommendations of the committee before or during the next regular Council meeting, to the extent practicable. The chairperson of any standing legislative policy committee or the Executive Committee shall be responsible for preparation and issuance of meeting notices through the Clerk of Council for all meetings of their respective committees.
(c) The Council, collectively or individually, has the right to request duplication of public records for authorized city business, but if that request equals or exceeds 50 pages, then the following conditions shall apply.
(1) The Council, collectively or individually, shall submit its request in writing to the Mayor and describe the information being requested.
(2) If an individual member of Council is requesting the information, then the member of Council shall notify the remaining members of Council in writing regarding the nature of the information being requested.
(3) Any and all records for authorized city business use by the Council, collectively or individually, shall be promptly made available to the remaining members of Council, to avoid unnecessary duplication, multiple requests and further time expended by a municipal department in gathering the records.
(4) No records gathered by Council, collectively or individually, at public expense be made available to, or given to any person not an employee or officer of the city or otherwise, for use by any person or property interested in any contract with the city which is the subject matter of the records, nor to any party engaged in litigation, or threat of litigation, against, or involving the city.
(5) Whenever the Council, collectively or individually, makes a request from the custodian of city records of massive aggregates of public records at public expense, in all cases where such records are the subject of litigation, pending or immediately threatened, either the chairperson of the Council committee, Clerk of Council or custodian of the records requested, copied or given shall timely notify the Director of Law of such request in writing.
(6) Nothing herein shall be construed by the custodian of city public records to prevent free access and copying of public records at personal expense by a Council committee member where this rule is not followed, and in which event, there shall be no reimbursement made to such Council committee member who elects to demand copying and amassing voluminous records where this rule is violated.
(7) Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent an individual Council member from obtaining at any reasonable time, at least one free official copy with certification thereof, of any resolution, ordinance, minutes of actions of Council and of any and all Council-related correspondence, any and all necessary papers for court and trial preparation, litigation or defense, whenever there is litigation or threat of litigation involving a Council member, and/or whenever litigation is occasioned by the fact that a Council member is a Council member or by any acts of that Council member which resulted in court action, copies of bid specs, contracts and other official papers and documents of record, including a copy of records of travel and such other documents as shall be reasonably deemed to be necessary and essential to a Council member in the performance of official duties except that in this latter instance, this rule shall apply as set forth in divisions (c)(1) through (c)(6) above when massive records or voluminous data are sought.
(8) Except where the copying of more than 49 pages for the kinds of data enumerated in division (c)(7) above is permitted,
MASSIVE RECORDS
or
VOLUMINOUS DATA
as used hereinabove shall mean all public records except those permitted to be had in division (c)(7) above where the number of pages exceed 49 pages; involve a research of one prior year’s records; or where two free copies of the separate documents of records as contained in division (c)(7) above are requested to be made for a Council member by the custodian of records.
(Ord. 6779, passed 11-28-1975; Ord. 51-07, passed 6-28-2007; Ord. 17-08, passed 4-1-2008)