(A) No motion shall be put or debated unless it is seconded and no petition or resolution shall be considered unless it is submitted in writing. When a motion is seconded, it shall be stated by the Chair before debate and every motion shall be reduced to writing if required by any member of the Council.
(B) After a motion or resolution is stated by the Chair, it shall be in the possession of the City Council, but it may be withdrawn by the mover and seconded at any time before decision or amendment.
(C) In all cases where a resolution or motion is entered on the minutes of the City Council, the name of the member moving the same shall be entered also.
(D) In all cases of the adoption of an ordinance and upon every proposition to create any liability against the city, or for the expenditure or appropriation of its money, the ayes and nays shall be taken and entered upon the record. In all other cases, if any member requires it, and his or her motion is seconded, the ayes and nays on any question shall be taken and entered upon the minutes; but the ayes and nays shall not be taken unless called for previously to any vote on the question. All ordinances shall be read and referred to the proper committee for report and action at the next meeting unless two-thirds of all the Aldermen elected by vote, after the reading, consent to consider the ordinance at the same meeting at which it is introduced.
(E) (1) When a question is under debate, the only motion in order shall be:
(a) To adjourn;
(b) The previous question;
(c) To lay on the table;
(d) To postpone indefinitely;
(e) To adjourn to a certain day;
(f) To refer; and
(g) To amend.
(2) The motions shall have precedence in the order herein arranged, the first three to be decided without debate.
(F) (1) A motion to adjourn the City Council shall always be in order, except:
(a) When any member is in possession of the floor;
(b) While the ayes and nays are being called;
(c) While the members are voting;
(d) When adjournment was the last preceding motion; or
(e) When it has been decided that the previous question shall be taken.
(2) A motion to adjourn simply cannot be amended, but a motion to adjourn to a given time, may be and is open to debate.
(G) When the previous question is moved and put, it shall be in this form: “Shall the main question be now put?” If this is carried, all proposed amendments and all further motions and debates shall be excluded, and the question put without delay.
(H) A motion to lay on the table, simply, is not debatable, but a motion to lay on the table and publish, or any other condition, is subject to amendment and debate.
(I) When a motion is postponed indefinitely, it shall not be taken up again during the same meeting.
(J) A motion to refer to a standing committee shall take precedence to a similar motion to refer to a special committee.
(K) (1) A motion to amend an amendment shall be in order, but to amend an amendment to an amendment shall not be entertained. A substitute motion, germane to the subject matter being considered, may be entertained.
(2) An amendment modifying the intention of a motion shall be in order, but an amendment relating to a different subject shall not be in order.
(3) On a motion to “strike out and insert,” the paragraph to be amended shall first be read as it stands, the words proposed to be struck out, and those to be inserted, and finally, the paragraph as it would stand, if so amended.
(L) (1) A motion may be reconsidered at any time during the same meeting, or at the first meeting hold, thereafter. A motion for a reconsideration, being once made and decided in the negative, shall not be renewed before the next meeting.
(2) A motion to reconsider must be made and seconded by members who voted in the affirmative.
(3) No question shall be reconsidered more than once, nor shall a vote to reconsider be reconsidered.
(Ord. 549, passed 6-16-1942; Am. Ord. 1323, passed - -; Am. Ord. 1385, passed 11-18-1997)