(a) Seating Arrangement. Seats in the Council chamber shall be arranged in numerical order and all members shall occupy such seats after drawing the same by lot at the beginning of the term. If arrangement is not satisfactory, the members shall have private conferences with the Mayor and work out satisfactory arrangements acceptable to all members.
(b) Addressing the Chair.A member, when about to speak to a question or make a motion, shall address the Chair as "Mr. Mayor" or "Mr. President" or "Madam Mayor" or "Madam President" who shall pronounce the name of the member entitled to the floor. All discussion shall be confined to the question under debate and avoid personalities.
(c) Limitation of Debate. No member shall be allowed to speak more than one time upon any subject until every member choosing to speak has had an opportunity to be heard, nor more than twice upon any subject, nor for a time longer than five minutes, without leave of Council, upon a majority vote. This rule applies equally to any member of the public. Any resident desiring to address Council shall be recognized by the Chair, shall state his or her name and address in an audible tone for the record and shall limit his or her remarks to the question under discussion.
(d) Attendance. No member shall be excused from attendance at a Council meeting except by a vote of a majority of the members present. Excuses will be placed on the agenda as suggested in Section 220.05 under roll call.
(e) Excusal from Chambers During Meeting. No member shall be excused while Council is in session except upon permission of the Chair.
(Res. 3-72. Passed 2-22-72.)
(f) Filling Vacancies. If a vacancy occurs in the office of a Council member, any qualified elector may apply for appointment to the unexpired term. The most appropriate news publication serving the area shall announce the vacancy within fifteen days of its occurrence. Council shall not appoint any person to a vacancy until at least fifteen days after announcement of the vacancy has been published.
Council shall be the sole judge of the qualification of applicants.
The business of appointing a person to fill the unexpired term shall be placed on a Council meeting agenda. Recorded roll call votes, cast in alphabetical order of the last names of members, shall be taken to determine which candidate is favored by a majority of the remaining Council members. If more than one vote is necessary to select the favored candidate, those applicants with the lowest numbers of votes, or with no votes, shall be eliminated from further consideration after each vote, provided, however, that the top two vote recipients and those candidates tied in any vote shall not be eliminated from consideration in further votes.
After a candidate obtains a majority vote of the remaining members of Council, a motion appointing that candidate favored by a majority of Council members remaining shall be in order. A recorded roll call vote shall be conducted on the motion.
(Ord. 73-21. Passed 6-12-73. )