The following are hereby adopted and enacted as the Rules of Order of the Council of the city:
Rule 1. Meetings. Council shall hold its regularly scheduled meetings on the first and third Mondays of each month at 7:00 p.m. All regular meetings of Council shall be held at a location to be determined by the Council no less than 72 hours prior to the meeting. Notice of the time and place of all regularly scheduled meetings of Council shall be provided to the news media that have requested notification. Further, any person, upon request and payment of a reasonable fee, may obtain advance notification of all meetings at which any specific type of public business is to be discussed.
Rule 2. Holidays. When any regular meeting of Council falls upon a legal holiday, the Council shall meet in regular session on the day following, and at the place and hour fixed by the rule governing the same.
Rule 3. Opening of proceedings. The President of Council shall take the chair at the time appointed for the Council to meet and shall immediately call the members to order. In the absence of the President of Council, the Vice- President of Council shall perform such duties as are imposed upon the President. In the absence of both the President and Vice-President of Council, the Council shall appoint one of its members to act as Vice-President pro tempore.
Rule 4. Presiding officer. The presiding officer shall preserve order and decorum and confine members in debate to the question.
(1) The presiding officer shall order all people who become disorderly, other than Council members, to leave the Council Chambers.
(2) No person shall be allowed to address Council without receiving permission from the presiding officer. The presiding officer may recognize any nonmember for the purpose of addressing Council on any question pending or on any matter on which Council action is desired. In such cases, the person recognized shall address the presiding officer and state his or her name and address and the subject matter he or she desires to discuss. His or her remarks must be confined to the merits of the subject at issue. Speakers must be courteous and avoid discussion of personalities. No person who has had the floor shall again be recognized until all others have been given an opportunity to do so. This rule shall not apply to any person specifically invited by Council to a meeting as an advisor or consultant. Persons permitted to address Council shall not be allowed to use disrespectful, profane, threatening, or discourteous language; to do so shall be considered an act of disorder. Council shall have the authority to close discussions debated and instruct the presiding officer to proceed to the next order of business.
(3) Except for a bona fide religious or medical reason, no person shall wear a hat or other headgear during meetings of Council. No person shall bring an animal, except a service or law enforcement animal, into the Council Chambers. No person shall use a cellular telephone or other telecommunication device during meetings of Council; exceptions shall be made for police officers, firefighters, and other like personnel. The presiding officer shall order any person who violates the provisions of this division to leave Council Chambers.
(4) At the regular meeting of Council prior to Independence Day, the presiding officer shall read or cause to be read aloud the Declaration of Independence.
Rule 4A. Clerk and Assistant Clerks of Council, Pursuant to § 10 of the Charter, the Director of Finance and Public Record shall serve as Clerk of Council. Furthermore, the Assistant Director of Finance and Public Record and the Secretary to the Mayor and Finance Director shall serve as Assistant Clerks of Council. The Clerk and Assistant Clerks shall keep the records of the Council and perform such other duties as may be required by ordinance or resolution by motion of Council.
Rule 5. Committees.
(1) The presiding officer shall appoint committees as deemed necessary for the efficient handling of Council business:
A. Finance and Personnel;
B. Community and Economic Development;
C. Utilities and Streets;
D. Safety;
E. Public Works and General Operations.
(2) The Council, by a majority vote, may at any time remove any member or members of any committee appointed by the presiding officer, and a new member or members shall be appointed by the presiding officer.
(3) The Council may, from time to time, appoint special or select committees as deemed necessary for the efficient handling of Council business.
Rule 6. Order of business. The business of regular meetings of the Council shall be transacted in the following order:
(1) Call to order and Pledge of Allegiance;
(2) Roll call;
(3) Receipt of the certification of the President and Clerk regarding the journal of the proceedings of Council;
(4) Public comment;
(5) Reports from standing and special committees;
(6) Reports and communications from the Mayor, directors of departments and other city officers;
(7) Unfinished business;
(8) New business;
(9) Reading of ordinances and resolutions;
(10) Miscellaneous business; and
(11) Adjournment.
Rule 6A. Ordinances and Resolutions.
(1) An Ordinance ordinarily provides a rule of conduct and is a law binding upon a community. It is a declaration of a rule of conduct for the enforcement of a right or the creation of a duty.
(2) A Resolution ordinarily is a declaration of Council, evincing some purpose or intent to do some act, not the doing of the act itself. Ordinarily it is the intention to enter upon some enterprise of public moment, something authorized by law that it may do.
(3) Resolutions shall be read on one occasion, and Ordinances shall be read on three separate days unless dispensed with by an emergency declaration or by law.
Rule 7. Voting. Every member present shall vote on any question on the call of the yeas and nays, unless excused by the consent of the Council, and any member not being excused, who refuses to vote on any question when the yeas and nays are being taken, shall be deemed guilty of contempt of the Council, and may for such contempt be censured by a majority vote of the Council. The roll call shall be rotated from meeting to meeting; provided, however, that when the Vice President of Council is presiding, he or she will be called last.
Rule 8. Reports of Committee and officers. The report of any committee of the Council or any municipal officer, upon matters referred to by the Council, shall be in writing and shall be accompanied by the original papers upon which the report is based, unless otherwise ordered by the Council.
Rule 9. Motions; when debatable; withdrawal. When a motion is made and seconded, it shall be stated by the presiding officer before any debate is in order. Any such motion, and any amendment thereto, may be withdrawn by the movers thereof at any time before a decision, if a majority then present shall agree thereto.
Rule 10. Division of Question. Any member may call for a division of the question, and the same shall be divided if it comprehends questions so distinct that, one being taken away, the other will stand as an entire question for decision.
Rule 11. Referral to committee; precedence. When there is a question of referring a given subject to a standing committee or to a select committee, the question of reference to a standing committee shall be put first.
Rule 12. Motions to adjourn. The motion to adjourn shall always be in order, unless the Council is engaged in voting, and the motion to adjourn, to lay on the table, or for the previous question shall be decided without debate.
Rule 13. Acceptable motions; order of precedence.
(1) When a question or proposition is before the Council, or under debate, no motion shall be received except the following:
A. To adjourn;
B. To lay on the table;
C. For the previous question;
D. To postpone to a certain day;
E. To commit;
F. To amend; or
G. To postpone indefinitely.
(2) The above motions shall have precedence in the order in which they are herein arranged.
Rule 14. Introduction of legislation. No legislation shall be placed upon the Council agenda unless it first contains the name of the member of the Council who sponsors the legislation. No ordinance or resolution shall be acted upon by the Council at any regular or special meeting unless it designates a sponsor thereof and contains a brief summary of the legislation within the title thereof. In the event that legislation makes reference to federal, state or local law, the specific title, chapter, section and/or subsection associated with said federal, state or local law shall be set forth wherever said reference appears in said proposed legislation.
Rule 15. Referral of business to committee.
(1) Any report, resolution, ordinance or matter before the Council for consideration, before its final passage, may be referred either to a standing committee to which the matter is most closely related or to a special committee appointed by the Council. Any such committee shall consider the matter thus referred to it and report thereon to the Council without unnecessary delay.
(2) Any matter referred to a committee may, by a two-thirds vote of Council at any time prior to the report of the committee, be taken from the hands of the committee for consideration.
Rule 16. Limitation on debate or discussion. No member of the Council, while Council is in session, shall engage in debate or discussion with any person, save another member of the Council, the presiding officer or a person who has either been granted by the Council the privilege to address the Council or is present at a Council meeting on invitation of the Council.
Rule 17. Resignations. The resignation of a member of the Council shall be filed with the Clerk of Council, who shall, at the next regular meeting, inform the Council of the resignation, pursuant to § 4 of the Charter, the Council shall fill the vacancy for the unexpired term.
Rule 18. Confirmations. Prior to any confirmation vote required by the Charter, the Mayor shall submit to the Council a summary of the nominee's qualifications.
Rule 19. Parliamentary authority. The rules contained in the current edition of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern meetings of the Council and its committees in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these Rules, the Charter, the Codified Ordinances and/or the Ohio Revised Code.
Rule 20. Amendments. These Rules may be amended or altered, or new rules adopted, by ordinance, pursuant to § 8 of the Charter.
Rule 21. Suspension of the rules. These Rules, or any of them, may be temporarily suspended at any meeting of the Council by a concurrent vote of the majority of all members elected, except when a greater number is required by law or by these Rules. The vote on such suspension shall be taken by the yeas and nays and entered on the journal. In case any rule herein shall not have been adhered to by the Council, the same shall be regarded as having been suspended.
(Ord. 5-98, passed 2-16-1998; Ord. 54-2000, passed 11-6-2000; Ord. 8-2001, passed 3-5-2001; Ord. 39-2002, passed 8-19-2002; Ord. 31-2007, passed 9-4-2007; Ord. 3-2008, passed 3-17-2008; Ord. 33-2008, passed 10-20-2008; Ord. 11-2011, passed 6-6-2011; Ord. 1-2012, passed 1-2-2012; Ord. 17-2013, passed 4-15-2013; Ord. 1-2014, passed 5-5-2014; Ord. 18-2023, passed 7-3-2023)