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Council shall hold a regular meeting on the first and third Tuesday of each month, unless that day is a legal holiday, in which case the meeting shall be held on the following Wednesday.
A majority of the members elected to the Council shall be a quorum to do business, but a less number may adjourn from time to time. All legislative action shall be by ordinance except where otherwise required by the Constitution or the laws of the State. The Council shall keep a journal of its proceedings which shall be a public record. At the desire of any member the yeas and nays shall be entered upon the journal, and on the passage of every ordinance, the vote shall be taken by yeas and nays and entered on the journal and no ordinances shall be passed without the concurrence of a majority of the members elected to Council. Special meetings shall be held on the request of any two members upon notice to each member and as provided by rule of Council, consistent with W.Va. Code Sec. 6-9A-3. The proceedings of the Council shall be public, except for executive session as permitted under W.Va. Code Sec. 6-9A-4.
Except where inconsistent with this Charter, general law or ordinance, the proceedings of Council shall be governed by the rules of parliamentary procedure contained in Robert's Rules of Order. including, but not limited to, the requirement that debate must be limited to the merits of the immediately pending question; except that in a few cases the main question is also open to debate. Speakers must address their remarks to the presiding officer, be courteous in their language and deportment, never alluding to the officers or other members by name, where possible to avoid it, nor to the motives of members. It shall be the duty of the presiding officer to see that parliamentary procedure and decorum are maintained.
Except where a pressing public emergency makes complying with this provision dangerous to the public health, safety or morals, and by affirmative vote of two thirds of the members elected to Council, and where the ordinance sets out in full the nature of the emergency, a proposed ordinance shall be read by title at not less than two meetings of Council with at least one week intervening between each meeting, unless a member of Council demands that the ordinance shall be read in full at one or both meetings. If such a demand is made, the ordinance shall be read in full as demanded. No ordinance shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title, and no ordinance shall be revived or amended unless the new ordinance contains the entire ordinance revived, or the section or sections amended, and the section or sections so amended shall be repealed. Council may adopt codification ordinances, codifying, revising and rearranging the ordinances of the City or any portion of such ordinances. Every ordinance and resolution of Council shall be recorded in the office of the City Clerk, and shall be a public record. The Clerk shall prepare and keep a full and proper index of all ordinances, as well as separate indices of other proceedings of Council.
Any member of Council having any interest, direct or indirect, other than as a citizen of Wheeling, in any matter to be acted upon in any way by Council, shall have no vote on such matter, nor shall be privileged to take part in the discussion thereof except by unanimous consent, and, upon the request of any other member of Council, the member shall retire from the session until such matter has been disposed of.
Every ordinance, resolution or action changing the precinct boundaries or otherwise redistricting the City, or annexing any municipality or territory, or appropriating money in excess of one hundred dollars, or ordering any street improvements or sewer, or granting any franchise, or any right to occupy or use the streets, highways, bridges, or public places in the City or any part thereof, for any purpose, shall be complete in the form in which it is finally passed, and remain on file with the City Clerk for public inspection at least one week before the final passage or adoption thereof. No franchise, or right to occupy or to use the streets, highways, bridges, or public places in the City, or any part thereof, shall be granted, renewed, altered, amended, repealed or extended except by ordinance; provided, however, that nothing contained herein shall prohibit Council from empowering the City Licensing Officer from granting permits to churches, community associations and the like, for the use of portions of City streets for street fairs and fetes of similar character.
No ordinance, resolution or action of the Council changing the precinct boundaries or otherwise redistricting the City, or annexing any municipality or territory, or granting to any corporation, firm, person or association, or combination of persons, any privilege, right, license, easement or franchise to establish, maintain or conduct in the City any public utility, except when otherwise required by the general laws of this State, shall go into effect before thirty days from the time of its final passage, and not then unless within two days after passage, Sundays and holidays excepted, the same shall have been published in two newspapers published and generally circulated in the City. And, if during those thirty days a petition signed by ten percent of the qualified voters of the City of Wheeling protesting against the passage of such ordinance, resolution or action, be presented to Council, the ordinance, resolution or action thereupon suspended from going into operation, and it shall be the duty of Council to reconsider the same, and if the same is not entirely repealed the Council shall submit the ordinance, resolution or action as is provided in relation to referendum of ordinances to the vote of the electors of the City, either at the next general municipal election or at a special municipal election to be called for the purpose, and such ordinance, resolution or action shall not go into effect or become operative unless a majority of the qualified electors voting on the same shall vote in favor thereof. Such petition shall conform to the provisions of Section 81
of this Charter and shall be submitted, examined and certified in the manner provided in Section 81
.
Any proposed ordinance may be submitted to the Council by petition signed by ten percent of the qualified voters of the City. Such petition shall be conformed as provided by Section 81
of this Charter, and shall be submitted, examined and certified in the manner provided in Section 81
. If the petition be certified to Council as provided in Section 81
of this Charter, and contains a request that the ordinance be submitted to a vote of the people if not passed by the Council, the Council shall either (a) pass such ordinance without alteration within twenty days after attachment of the Clerk's certificate of sufficiency to the petition; or (b) forthwith after the Clerk shall attach to the petition a certificate of sufficiency, the Council shall call a special election, unless a general election is to be held within ninety days thereafter, and at such special or general municipal election such ordinance shall be submitted without alteration to the vote of the electors of the City. If a majority of the votes cast be in favor thereof, such ordinance shall thereupon become a valid and binding ordinance of the City, and any ordinance proposed by petition, or which has been adopted by a vote of the people, shall not be repealed or amended except by a majority vote of the people. Any number of proposed ordinances may be voted upon at the same election. In accordance with the provisions of this section, but there shall not be more than one special election in any period of six months for such purpose.
Whenever any ordinance or proposition is required by this Charter to be submitted to the voters of the City at any election, the City Clerk shall cause such ordinance or proposition to be published once in two daily newspapers published in the City, such publication to be not more than twenty days or less than fifteen days before such election.
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