The newly elected Council shall convene at 7:00 p.m. at the place of meeting in the city on the first Tuesday in December of each year in which a municipal election is held immediately after the prior Council adjourns and proceed to organize itself for the ensuing year. The Mayor elected for the new municipal year shall call the meeting to order. The Council shall then proceed to examine the credentials of its members and other elective officers of the city to see that each has been duly and properly elected, and to see that such oaths and bonds have been given as are required. After ascertaining that all members are duly qualified, the Council shall then elect one of its own body who shall be styled as “President of the Council”. The Mayor shall then nominate his or her candidates for appointive offices of the city and such appointments shall be confirmed by a three-fourths vote of the City Council. He or she shall then proceed with the regular order of business. It is hereby made the duty of each and every member of the Council, or his or her successor in office, and of each officer elected to any office, to qualify prior to the first Tuesday in December following his or her election, and at 8:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday in December following his or her election, each officer elected at the annual municipal election shall take possession of his or her office. All appointive officers shall qualify within two weeks following their appointments. Qualification for each officer who is not required to give bond shall consist in his subscribing and taking an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the state, the laws of the municipality and to perform faithfully and impartially the duties of his or her office, said oath to be filed in the office of the Municipal Clerk. Each officer who is required to give a bond shall file the required bond in the office of the Municipal Clerk with sufficient sureties, conditioned on the faithful discharge of the duties of his or her office, with the oath endorsed thereon.
(2005 Code, § 1-613)