A. Quorum and Rules
A majority of Council shall constitute a quorum to conduct business, but a lesser number may adjourn from time to time and compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as may be prescribed by resolution or ordinance.
Council shall adopt, and publish in written form, its own rules, regulations, or by-laws and shall keep a journal of all its proceedings. The rules, regulations, by-laws and journal shall be open for public inspection at all reasonable times in the office of the Clerk of Council. The voting upon any ordinance, resolution or other measure shall be by roll call and the vote of each Council member shall be entered upon the Journal.
B. Resolutions and Ordinances
All legislative action of Council shall be by resolution or ordinance introduced in written or printed form. Each proposed resolution or ordinance shall contain no more than one subject, which subject shall be clearly expressed in its title. This rule shall not apply to appropriation measures that contain the various subjects and accounts for which moneys are to be appropriated or to codification or re-codification of ordinances and resolutions.
No resolution or ordinance shall be revised or amended unless the resolution or ordinance superseding it contains the entire resolution or ordinance as revised or amended, or the section or sections so revised or amended. The original resolution or ordinance, or section or sections thereof, shall be considered to be repealed.
The affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the Council shall be required for the enactment of any ordinance or resolution, unless a larger number is required by any provision of this Charter. Except as provided in this section, every ordinance or resolution shall be read at three (3) different regular Council meetings. An ordinance or resolution shall be deemed to have been read if a written or printed copy of the same shall have been furnished to each member of Council prior to its introduction and the title thereof is fully read, provided that such ordinance or resolution shall be read in full if so directed by motion approved by the affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the Council.
Except with respect to ordinances and resolutions of the character described in the immediately succeeding paragraph, at the time of the first or second reading of an ordinance or resolution, a motion may be made for the immediate enactment of the measure without further readings or committee consideration. If the Council by a three-fourths (3/4) vote of its members approves the motion, the ordinance or resolution is adopted. If the motion fails for lack of a three-fourths (3/4) vote, the ordinance or resolution shall remain on the Council agenda for further consideration.
The Council shall not enact any ordinance or resolution providing for the surrender or joint exercise of any of the powers of the City, the granting of any franchise, the enactment, amendment or repeal of any zoning or building regulations, any change of any ward boundaries, any change of the boundaries of the City, or approval of the adoption, amendment or repeal of any Civil Service rules and regulations, until three readings and a public hearing on said action shall have occurred.
Each ordinance or resolution providing for the appropriation of money, an improvement petitioned for by a majority of the owners of property to be benefitted and specially assessed therefor, or any ordinance or resolution, except an ordinance or resolution of the character described in the immediately preceding paragraph, as to which the Council provides, by the affirmative vote of three-fourths (3/4) of its members, for reasons stated in a separate section or preamble thereof, for the immediate effectiveness thereof, shall take effect, unless a later date be specified therein, upon its passage or adoption and approval by the Mayor, or upon the expiration of the time within which it may be disapproved by the Mayor, or upon its passage or approval notwithstanding the disapproval by the Mayor, as the case may be, as provided in Section 3.03 of this Charter, and no such ordinance or resolution shall be subject to a referendum.
No other ordinance or resolution shall become effective until thirty (30) days after its passage or adoption and approval by the Mayor, or upon the expiration of the time within which it may be disapproved by the Mayor, or upon its passage or adoption notwithstanding the disapproval by the Mayor, as the case may be, as provided in Section 3.03 of this Charter.
Any resolution of a ceremonial, and not of a general or permanent nature and not involving the expenditure of money of the City may be adopted by a majority vote of the members of the Council following a single reading by title only and such resolution shall become effective immediately upon its adoption and shall not be required to be published.
C. Open Meetings
All meetings of the Council and of other public bodies of the City shall be open to the public as provided by general law, except for executive sessions for those purposes authorized by general law.
No action alleging a violation of this section shall be brought more than two (2) years after the date on which such formal action is taken.