(a) All legislative action shall be by ordinance, resolution or motion.
(b) Each proposed ordinance or resolution shall be introduced in written or printed form and shall contain only one subject which shall be expressed in its title, provided, however, that general appropriation ordinances may contain the various subjects, accounts and amounts for which moneys are appropriated.
(c) The vote on the question of passage of each ordinance, resolution and motion shall be taken by yeas and nays and entered on the Journal and no ordinance, resolution or motion shall be passed without concurrence of a majority of all members elected to Council, except as provided in Section 8 of this Article.
(d) No ordinance or resolution of a general or permanent nature or granting a franchise or creating a right or involving the expenditure of money or the levying of a tax or authorizing the purchase, lease, sale or transfer of property shall be passed unless the title thereof has been read at Council meetings on three different days and with respect to any such ordinance or resolution there shall be no authority to dispense with this rule except by a two-thirds affirmative vote of all members elected to Council taken separately by yeas and nays on each ordinance and resolution and entered on the Journal; provided that the requirement of this paragraph (d) shall not be applicable to any ordinance or resolution determining to submit any question to the electorate or determining to proceed with any election.
(e) No ordinance or resolution or any section thereof, shall be revived or amended unless the new ordinance or resolution contains the entire ordinance, resolution or section as revived or amended, and the ordinance, resolution or section so amended shall be repealed. This requirement shall not prevent the amendment of an ordinance or resolution by the addition of a new section or sections, and in such case the full text of the former ordinance or resolution need not be set forth.
(f) As soon as an ordinance or resolution has been passed, it shall be recorded by the Clerk of Council in a book established and maintained for that purpose.
(g) Council may by ordinance adopt standard ordinances and codes prepared by any public or private department, board, subdivision or agency on such subjects as fire prevention, building construction, fire hazards, fire, plumbing, electrical construction, refrigeration machinery, piping, boiler construction or the maintenance and operation thereof, heating and ventilating, air conditioning and such other matters as the Council may determine to be appropriate for adoption by reference. The ordinance adopting any such standard ordinance or code shall make reference to the date and source of such standard ordinance or code without reproducing the same at length in the ordinance. In such cases, publication of the standard ordinance or code shall not be required, but the Clerk of Council shall make copies of such available for reference by interested persons. If the standard ordinance or code after its adoption by reference by the Council is amended, the Council may adopt the amendment or change by incorporation by reference in an ordinance under the same procedure as is established herein for the adoption of the original standard ordinance or code without the necessity of setting forth in full in the ordinance the provisions either of the amendment or change or of the original ordinance or the standard ordinance or code. (Amended November 3, 2020)
(h) All ordinances and resolutions passed by the Council shall be published in a manner prescribed by Council. As used in this Section “published” shall mean to post copies thereof, or a summary of such adopted legislation in a manner reasonably accessible by and available to the public, as determined by the Council for a period of not less than ten days and to take such other actions as provided by Council. Failure to publish as required by this Section shall not invalidate any ordinance or resolution and, in such event, the Clerk of Council may authorize the legislation to be published at a later date.
(Amended November 2, 2010) (Amended November 3, 2020)