(a) The presiding officer of the city council meetings shall be the mayor. In the absence of the mayor, the acting mayor shall act as the presiding officer at the city council meetings. The acting mayor may vote on all issues.
(b) (1) The city council shall elect a council chair and council vice chair to perform the duties of acting mayor pursuant to city charter § 2.03. The chair and vice chair shall serve a one-year term or until a successor is elected by the city council. Upon the vacancy of the chair position, the duly elected vice chair shall assume the role of chair for the remainder of the term created by the vacancy. In the event of an interim vacancy of vice chair or both chair and vice chair, a special election shall be held in accordance with § 30.008(b)(2) to fill the remainder of the term created by the vacancy. The regular election of the city council chair, vice chair, and audit committee chair shall occur each year on the third Tuesday in May, or at the city council meeting that follows the installation ceremony, whichever is later. For the purposes of this section, an INSTALLATION CEREMONY is defined as the swearing in of newly elected officials that follows a regular election. The chair or vice chair shall notify the newly elected city council members in a timely manner of the regular election date and time.
(2) The election of chair, vice chair, and audit committee chair shall be conducted as follows:
A. The mayor shall not participate in the election.
B. The presiding officer opens nominations.
C. Nominations shall be made from the floor and shall be seconded. The council members who made and seconded a nomination shall have the opportunity to speak on behalf of their nominee once the presiding officer reads their nomination aloud.
D. A nominee can withdraw his/her nomination from consideration at any time.
E. The presiding officer shall close nominations after all nominations are made known.
F. After nominations are closed, each nominee will have an opportunity to give an acceptance speech in the order of their nomination.
G. Once the nominees have spoken, each council member will have an opportunity to discuss the nominations.
H. Voting shall be by roll call vote, with each council member stating the name of their preferred nominee.
I. A majority of members present will determine the election outcome.
J. In case of a tie vote and the tie cannot be broken due to the mayor's absence or after three attempts, the tie will be broken by the flip of a coin cast by the city clerk upon the floor. One candidate shall be designated head and one candidate shall be designated tails by the presiding officer.
(3) If the vice chair is unable to serve as acting mayor, the council chair may designate a city council member to serve as acting mayor in his or her absence.
(c) The mayor, or acting mayor, shall preserve strict order and decorum at all regular and special meetings of the city council and confine members in debates to the question under discussion. The mayor, or acting mayor, shall announce the vote on all subjects voted on by the city council.
(d) The city clerk, or the clerk’s designee, shall state every question coming before the city council. The mayor, or acting mayor, shall decide all questions of order; subject, however, to an appeal to the city council, in which event a majority vote of the city council shall govern and conclusively determine a question of order.
(e) The mayor shall vote only in the case of a tie vote, with his or her name being called last.
(1992 Code, § 2-9) (Ord. 50-95, passed 3-20-1995; Ord. 31-96, passed 3-18-1996; Ord. 76-99, passed 7-19-1999; Ord. 52-11, passed 7-11-2011; Ord. 24-12, passed 4-2-2012; Ord. 45-19, passed 4-9-2019; Ord. 43-20, passed 4-21-2020; Ord. 33-23, passed 5-9-2023)