(A) Presiding officer.
(1) Presiding officer pro tempore. In the absence of the Mayor, the Common Council shall choose a presiding officer pro tempore from among its members.
(2) Presiding officer. The Mayor shall preside at all meetings of the Common Council.
(B) Calling meeting to order. The Mayor shall take the chair precisely at the hour fixed for the meeting and shall call the Common Council to order if a legal quorum is present.
(C) Order of business.
(1) The business of the Common Council shall be taken up in the following order:
(a) Roll call.
(b) Reading of minutes of last meeting.
(c) Citizens' opportunity to speak.
(d) General committee reports.
(e) New business.
(f) Unfinished business.
(g) Bills and claims.
(h) Adjournment.
(2) This order may be suspended by a two-thirds vote of the Council.
(D) Priority of items.
(1) Debate on priority of business. All questions as to the priority of business before the Common Council to be acted upon shall be decided without debate.
(2) Debate on certain question of order. All questions of order in the Common Council which may arise pending a question which is not debatable shall be decided without debate.
(3) Priority of certain items. All appeals, question of order, objections to the consideration of a question, and suspension of the rules in the Common Council are questions which shall take precedence over, and be decided before, the questions giving rise to them.
(E) Mayor's duties and rights.
(1) Duty of Mayor to preserve order and decorum. The Mayor shall preserve order and decorum in all meetings of the Common Council.
(2) Right of Mayor to speak on points of order. The Mayor shall have the right to speak on points of order in preference to members of the Common Council.
(3) Mayor to decide questions of order. The Mayor shall decide all questions of order arising in meeting of the Common Council according to the rules adopted by the Council.
(4) Appeal from Mayor's ruling. If any member of the Common Council should desire to take an appeal to the Council from a ruling of the Mayor on a question of order, then said question on appeal shall be phrased thus: "Shall the decision of the chair stand as the decision of the Council?" An appeal from the decision of the Mayor on a question of order shall be had by, and upon the request of, any two members of the Council.
(5) Mayor to conduct voting. The Mayor shall ask for the yeas and nays on any question before the Common Council when a vote on it is necessary.
(6) Voting by Mayor. The Mayor shall not be entitled to vote at any meeting of the Common Council except in case of a tie.
(F) Rules on addressing Council.
(1) Recognition of members. No member of the Common Council shall be recognized unless in his or her seat or permitted to speak until recognized by the chair.
(2) Addressing Council. When any member of the Common Council is about to speak or deliver any matter to the Common Council, he or she shall ask the presiding officer for recognition and upon being recognized shall confine him or herself to the question before the Council, avoiding personalities.
(3) Restriction on speaking. No member of the Common Council shall speak more than twice on the same question; provided, however, that the mover of a proposition shall in any case be entitled to close the debate.
(4) Determination of speaker when more than one arise at same time. When two or more members of the Common Council ask to speak at once, the presiding officer shall decide in what order each is entitled to speak.
(5) Restriction on movement of members. While the presiding officer is putting the question to or addressing the Common Council, no member shall walk out of or across the hall, and when a member is speaking, no member shall walk between him or her and the presiding officer.
(6) Division of question. A question shall be divided on the demand of any member of the Common Council, if it includes two or more distinct propositions.
(G) Motions.
(1) Acceptance of resolutions and reports. When a resolution is offered or a report or other matter presented to the Common Council, the presiding officer may take the reception thereof; but if an objection is made, then formal motion shall be required.
(2) Motion to be stated. When a motion has been made by a member to the Common Council, the presiding officer shall state it, or if written, cause it to be read by the Clerk-Treasurer before being debated.
(3) Withdrawal of motions. After a motion made by a member to the Common Council has been stated by the presiding officer, or read by the Clerk-Treasurer, it shall be considered to be in the possession of the Council, and may be withdrawn from the Council only if there has been no decision on, or amendment to, said motion.
(4) Propriety and sequence of motions. When a question is under debate before the Common Council no motion shall be received, except motions to adjourn, to lay on the table, for the previous question (which motions shall be decided without a debate), to postpone to a day certain, to refer to or amend, or to postpone indefinitely. Except as otherwise provided, motions shall have precedence in the order in which they are herein arranged.
(5) Motions concerning adjournment. A motion to adjourn, and a motion to fix a time to which the Common Council shall adjourn, shall always be in order, with the latter motion taking precedence over the former.
(6) Motion to table amendments. A motion to table an amendment before the Common Council shall not affect the subject which it proposes to amend.
(7) Effect of motion calling for previous question. A motion before the Common Council calling for the previous question shall have the effect of calling for a vote by the Council on the matter then under discussion.
(8) Amendment of motion to postpone to day certain. A motion to postpone a matter before the Common Council to a day certain can be amended only as to the time contained therein.
(9) Amendment of motion to commit. A motion to commit may be amended only by altering the committee of the Common Council mentioned therein or by giving instructions to said committee.
(10) Motions to amend. A motion to amend an item before the Common Council and a motion to amend that amendment shall always be in order; it shall also be in order to offer a further amendment by way of a substitute, to which only one amendment may be offered.
(11) Consideration of matter postponed indefinitely. A motion or proposition postponed indefinitely shall be taken up again only when demanded by a majority of the Common Council; provided, however, that no motion or proposition so postponed may be taken up at the same or next succeeding meeting of the Common Council at which it was so postponed.
(12) Limitation on amendments. No motion or proposition on a subject different from that under consideration by the Common Council shall be made under the color of an amendment.
(13) Reconsideration of motions generally. When a motion has been made and carried or lost before the Common Council, any member of the majority voting thereon either at the same or at the succeeding meeting may move for the reconsideration thereof; such motion shall take precedence over all other motions except a motion to adjourn, and debate thereon shall be in order where the main question is debatable, but not otherwise.
(14) Effect of passing motion to reconsider. Where a motion to reconsider a matter previously considered by the Common Council has been passed, the question immediately recurs upon the question reconsidered.
(15) Tabling of motion to reconsider. A motion to reconsider a vote of the Common Council may be tabled, but a motion to reconsider a vote tabling a motion to reconsider shall not be allowed.
(H) Ordinances.
(1) Numbering of ordinances. All ordinances shall be numbered in the order that they are introduced to the Common Council.
(2) Publication of ordinance; passage of ordinance on day of introduction.
(a) A two-thirds (2/3) vote of all the elected members, after unanimous consent of the members present to consider the ordinance, is required to pass an ordinance of a legislative body on the same day or at the same meeting at which it is introduced.
(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to a zoning ordinance or amendment to a zoning ordinance that is adopted under I.C. 36-7.
(c) Proposed ordinances shall be posted for the public prior to the meeting at which they are presented.
(d) An explanation of the ordinance shall be given at the public meeting by the City Attorney, and an opportunity for discussion by the Common Council afforded before a vote is taken.
(3) Majority vote required to pass ordinances. It shall require a majority of all the members-elect of the Common Council to pass an ordinance.
(4) When ordinances and the like become law. No ordinance, order or resolution of the Common Council shall become a law or operative until it has been signed by the presiding officer and approved in writing by the Mayor or passed over the Mayor’s veto and promulgated according to law.
(5) Approval and disapproval of ordinances and the like. Every ordinance, order or resolution of the Common Council shall immediately upon its passage, enrollment, attestation and signature by the presiding officer and the Clerk-Treasurer be presented by said Clerk-Treasurer to the Mayor and a record of the time of such presentation made by the Clerk-Treasurer. If the Mayor approves such ordinance, order or resolution he or she shall enter his or her approval thereon and sign the same and file it in the office of the Clerk-Treasurer, if he or she does not approve the ordinance, he or she shall disapprove it and return it to the Clerk-Treasurer with his or her objection in writing within ten days after receiving it, and the Clerk-Treasurer shall present it to the Common Council at its next regular meeting. If the Mayor should fail to discharge his or her duty by approving or disapproving the ordinance within the time, the failure shall be deemed a disapproval.
(6) Overriding veto. If the Mayor should disapprove any ordinance, order or resolution passed by the Common Council, the Council may override such veto by passing it again by a two-thirds vote of all the members-elect at the next regular or special Council meeting following the Mayor’s veto.
(7) Recording ordinances. All ordinances shall, within a reasonable time after their becoming law, be recorded in a book kept for that purpose by the Clerk-Treasurer.
(`94 Code, § 30.39) (Am. Ord. 3-2018, passed 2-5-18)