(A) Meetings.
(1) Council shall meet in regular session at the Council Chambers, Village Hall, on the third Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. Should any holiday fall upon the date for a regular meeting, Council shall reschedule the meeting as it deems fit. Upon Council’s failure to reschedule the meeting, the Mayor may reschedule it.
(2) The Mayor or any three members of Council may call special meetings of Council upon at least 12 hours of notice to each member, served personally or left at the member’s usual place of residence. This notice provision shall also apply to any meeting the Mayor reschedules under division (A)(1) of this section.
(B) Rules.
(1) Agenda. The Mayor, after consultation with Council members, may prepare an agenda to be brought before Council. The agenda should be available for the members of Council and the Solicitor by 12:00 noon of the day of the meeting.
(2) Call to order. The Mayor or, in his or her absence, the President of Council, shall take the chair at the hour appointed for the meeting and shall immediately call Council to order. In the event of the absence of the Mayor and President, a majority of Council members in attendance shall elect a President Pro Tem, who shall chair such meeting.
(3) Invocation and/or pledge of allegiance. Invocation and/or pledge of allegiance.
(4) Roll call. The Fiscal Officer shall call the roll of the members, and the names of those present shall be entered in the minutes.
(5) Quorum. A majority of the members of Council shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business at any meeting of Council.
(6) Order of business. All meetings of Council shall be open to the public. Promptly at the hour set by law on the day of each regular meeting, the members of Council, the Mayor, the Fiscal Officer and the Solicitor, when necessary, shall take their regular stations in the Council chambers, and the business of Council may be taken up for consideration and disposition in the following order (the Mayor’s agenda does not have to follow this order, i.e. this format is suggestive but not directive):
(a) Approval of minutes of previous meeting, provided, however, that unless a reading of the minutes of a Council meeting is requested by a member of Council, such minutes may be approved without reading if the Fiscal Officer has previously furnished each member with a copy thereof;
(b) Approval of bills to be paid;
(c) Recognition of guests:
1. Each person shall be allowed ten minutes to place his or her grievance or petition before Council;
2. No person may address Council more than once during the meeting of Council, but any person may, at the discretion of the Mayor, be given extra time for discussion, and may be required to answer such questions as may be directed to him or her by members of Council or the Mayor; and
3. All remarks shall be addressed to Council as a body and not to any one member thereof. No person, other than Council and the person having the floor, shall be permitted to enter into any discussion, either directly or through a member of Council, without the permission of the presiding officer. No question shall be asked a Councilperson except through the presiding officer.
(d) The Fiscal Officer’s and Mayor’s correspondence and remarks;
(e) Introduction of resolutions and ordinances and second and third readings;
(f) Committee reports;
(g) Old business;
(h) New business; and
(i) Adjournment.
(C) Committees.
(1) The following committees of Council shall consist of two Council members, one Chairperson and one Co-Chairperson, and shall be appointed by the Mayor, subject to Council’s approval.
(a) Budget and Finance;
(b) Sidewalks, Curbs, and Gutters;
(c) Streets, Alleys, and Storm Sewers;
(d) Safety (Fire and Police);
(e) Health and Sanitation;
(f) Public Buildings and Grounds; and
(g) Legislative (the President Pro Tem is Chairperson and has direction to select assistance from other Council members).
(2) The Mayor or Council may increase the committee members on any given committee to three. Committees shall have no binding power on the Council, but shall act as a recommending body in their given area of expertise.
(D) Speaking.
(1) No member of Council shall be allowed to speak except from his or her own seat.
(2) Every member desiring to speak shall address the chair, and upon recognition by the presiding officer shall confine himself or herself to the question under debate, avoiding all personalities and indecorous language.
(3) A member, once recognized, shall not be interrupted when speaking unless it is to call him or her to order, or as herein otherwise provided. If a member, while speaking, is called to order, he or she shall cease speaking until the question of order is determined and, if he or she is in order, he or she shall be permitted to proceed.
(4) The Fiscal Officer shall enter into the minutes a synopsis of the discussion on any question coming regularly before Council, unless a complete abstract of any statement is requested by a Councilperson and such request is consented to by a majority of those present. Any Councilperson requesting an abstract shall provide the Fiscal Officer with a written abstract.
(E) Motions. When a motion is made, it shall be stated by the presiding officer before any debate is in order. Every such motion and all amendments thereto, if any, may be withdrawn by the mover thereof at any time before decision by the consent of a majority of the members or Council present.
(1) Seconds. A second shall be required for any motion,
(2) Order of precedence of motions. When a question or proposition is before Council or under debate, no motion shall be received except the following, which several motions shall have precedence in the following order:
(a) To enforce cloture;
(b) To adjourn;
(c) To table the motion;
(d) To postpone to a time certain;
(e) To commit for further study;
(f) To amend; and
(g) To postpone indefinitely.
(3) Motions to enforce cloture and to adjourn. A motion to enforce cloture and a motion to adjourn shall always be in order unless Council is engaged in voting. A motion to enforce cloture and a motion to adjourn shall be decided without debate.
(4) Absence. No regular or ex officio member of Council shall leave the Council Chamber without permission to do so granted by Council. Any member leaving without permission shall be guilty of contempt and may be censured at the discretion of Council. However, no member shall be required to remain in the Council Chamber longer than one-half hour after the hour fixed for convening, unless a quorum is present.
(5) Voting. Any member of Council may call for the yeas and nays on any proposition before Council. Every member present shall vote on any question, unless excused by the unanimous consent of all other members of Council present. All such voting shall be done on a random basis at the discretion of the Fiscal Officer. Refusal to vote shall be deemed contempt of Council, and the member so refusing may be censured or suspended at the direction of Council in separate proceedings or charges in contempt.
(F) Censure and expulsion. Council may censure or expel any member for disorderly conduct in Council or for a violation of its rules, and declare his or her seat vacant for absence without valid excuse where such absence has continued for two months. No expulsion shall take place without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members elected and until the delinquent member has been notified of the charge against him or her and has had an opportunity to be heard.
(G) Amendments. These rules may be amended or new rules adopted by a vote of a majority of all the members elected at any meeting of Council, or such rules may be temporarily suspended on a vote of at least five members.
(H) Procedure. Technicalities of parliamentary procedure shall not be invoked except when necessary to avoid or prevent interruption of the orderly procedure of the business before Council, but in the event of necessity, unless otherwise provided in these rules, Robert’s Rules of Order shall govern the deliberations of Council.
(Prior Code, § 220.01) (Ord. 516, passed 2-22-1988; Ord. 745, passed 3-16-2009; Ord. 841, passed 1-24-2019; Ord. passed 2-18-2020)