(A) Ordinances, resolutions, and other matters or subjects requiring action by the Council, may be introduced and sponsored by any member of the Council and by no other person; provided, that the City Administrator or the City Attorney may present ordinances, resolutions, and other matters or subjects to the Council, and any Council member assume sponsorship thereof by introducing the same and moving its adoption; otherwise, the matters shall not be considered by the Council.
(B) Upon its introduction, each ordinance shall be put upon its first reading and, except for emergency ordinances, or upon motion sustained, up for consideration until the next session of the Council. If the motion for immediate consideration is adopted, the ordinance shall be thereupon open for discussion and amendment, moved to suspend the statutory rule requiring reading on three different days. Motion to suspend the rules must be adopted by three-fourths of the Council, except that the requirement shall not be suspended for any ordinance for the annexation of territory. Move for final passage on final reading.
(C) Any ordinance which shall have had its first reading shall be taken up by the Council at its next session and shall be read the second time, and thereupon shall be open for debate and amendment. On the close of debate or upon the expiration of any limit thereon, the presiding officer shall entertain a motion to place the ordinance on final passage. Irrespective of any limit on debate, any member, any time when there is no motion before the Council, may move to put the proposed ordinance on final passage. The motion for final passage shall not be debatable and shall take precedence over all other motions except one for adjournment. Upon being seconded, the presiding officer shall immediately put the motion to the Council. If the motion is adopted, no further debate or amendment shall be allowed, and the Clerk shall immediately call the roll for its final passage. If the motion is not adopted, the ordinance shall still be open for debate and amendment until the time as a motion for final passage is adopted.
(D) If any ordinance shall have been amended upon its second reading or on prior consideration thereof, it shall be referred to the City Attorney for approval as to form as amended before final passage, and if the amendment shall constitute a change in substance, the ordinance, as amended, shall be filed in the office of the City Clerk for at least one additional week, and opportunity afforded for a further public hearing, after which final action may be taken thereon.
(E) No ordinance, except those making appropriations and those codifying and rearranging existing ordinances, shall relate to more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in the title, and no ordinance or section thereof or section of the revised ordinances of the city shall be amended or repealed unless the amending or repealing ordinance refers to the ordinance, section thereof, or section of the revised ordinances by number sufficient to identify the items to be repealed or amended.
(F) Any resolution may be passed at the meeting at which it is introduced.
(G) All Council bills, whether they are ordinances or resolutions, shall be deemed to have died on the table when it shall have been tabled or referred to any committee of the Council or to the administration, and no action shall have been taken upon the ordinance or resolution prior to the next succeeding formal organizational meeting of the City Council. The City Clerk shall expunge from the records all Council bills not acted upon prior to the time of the organizational meeting of the new City Council.
(Prior Code, § 1-603)