MEMBERS
Duties and Privileges

5. Seats in the Council chamber shall be arranged in numerical order and each member shall occupy the seat corresponding to his ward number. Every member, when about to speak on a question or make a motion, shall address the chair as "Mr. President" who shall pronounce the name of the member entitled to the floor. The member shall speak only to the question.

6. No member shall be allowed to speak more than once on any one subject until every member choosing to speak shall have spoken, nor more than twice upon any one subject, nor for a time longer than ten minutes without leave of Council.

7. Every member present, when a question is put shall vote either "yes" or "no" or may abstain for special reasons. Any member may demand a call of the roll upon the vote upon any question before the Council at any time before the decision is announced by the Chair. It shall not be in order for members to explain their vote during the call of the roll.

The call of the roll shall be on a rotating basis. In the case of the absence of the member who would start the vote, the roll call vote shall start with the next present member of Council.

8. No member of the City Council shall leave the Council Chamber while in regular session without permission of the presiding officer.

MEETINGS OF COUNCIL

9. At 7:30 P.M. on the first Monday in January following a regular municipal election, unless such Monday shall fall on a legal holiday, the Council shall meet at the Council Chambers in the Lima Municipal Center at which time the newly elected members of Council shall assume the duties of their offices. Should the first Monday in January fall on a legal holiday, then such meeting shall take place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January following a regular municipal election. Thereafter, Council shall meet on Monday at 7:30 p.m. according to the schedule adopted by the Clerk of Council or as otherwise determined by Council. The Mayor, the President of Council, or any three members thereof may call a special meeting of the Council upon at least twelve hours written notice to each member of the Council served personally on each member or left at the usual place of residence of such member, unless a waiver of such notice is given in writing and filed with the Clerk of the Council. Any such notice shall state the subjects to be considered at the meeting and no other subject shall be there considered. All meetings of the Council shall be public, excluding executive sessions, and any citizen shall have access to the minutes and records of the public meetings at all reasonable times.

Any person who wishes to determine the time and place of all regularly scheduled meetings of Council may telephone or visit the office of the Clerk of Council.

Any person who wishes to determine the time and place and purpose of special meetings of Council may file a written request with the Clerk of Council. Such person shall furnish self- addressed, pre-stamped postcards which the Clerk shall file in the Council office. If a special meeting is scheduled, the Clerk shall forthwith note the time, place, date and purpose of the meeting upon such postcard and deposit it in the U. S. mail. It shall not be the responsibility of the Clerk to notify any such person when the supply of postcards is exhausted. The method of notification in this paragraph shall not apply to the news media. The Clerk shall notify those news media which request notification of special or regular meeting of Council by placing the appropriate notice thereof in their respective mail boxes in the Council office or by facsimile transmission.

A meeting of a Committee of Council called by the Chairman of the Committee or any two members of that committee for the purpose of deliberating on a matter which was referred to it shall be open to the public. Notice of such meetings shall be made by notifying the Clerk of Council 36 hours prior to such meeting, unless waiver of such notice is filed by each member of the Committee. The clerk shall notify the news media by placing a notice thereof in their respective mail boxes in the Council office or by facsimile transmission.

The above notification rule shall not apply to informal gatherings of the members of Council among themselves or with the Mayor or the Mayor's Department Heads for the purpose of receiving information, and where no decision is made during such informal gatherings.

10. At each meeting, the minutes of the preceding meeting shall be read unless the reading shall be dispensed with and shall be approved by a two-thirds vote of the members present.

ORDER OF BUSINESS

11. Council shall transact business in the following order:

(a) Call to order (reading of call if special meeting)
(b) Invocation
(c) Flag Ceremony (Pledge of Allegiance)
(d) Roll call to determine the presence of a quorum
(e) Scheduled Public Hearings
(f) Privilege of the Floor
(g) Consent Calendar
(h) Presentation of communications and reports from the Mayor
(1) Presentation of communications from city officials, city boards, or others
(j) Presentation of official petitions
(k) Presentation of reports of officials
(l) Reports of Council Committees
(m) Presentation of Resolutions
(n) Presentation of Ordinances
(o) Miscellaneous Business

The order of business for any meeting may be modified by majority vote of Council.

12. All such communications, petitions, reports of officials, resolutions and ordinances shall be filed with the Clerk not later than 4:00 P.M. two days next preceding the regular meeting, except that if the meeting be on a Monday, the Thursday preceding the meeting at 4:00 P.M., and if the meeting be on a Tuesday, the Friday preceding the meeting at 4:00 P.M. The Clerk shall include the same in the calendar of said meeting day in their order upon the agenda, and all such matters not filed with the Clerk and introduced upon the agenda shall not be read or referred but shall lay over until the next meeting to be pl aced on the calendar and taken up on the regular call of the members unless leave for immediate placement on the agenda and consideration is granted by a two-thirds vote of the Council.

13. The Council shall determine its own rules and order of business and shall keep a journal of its proceedings. It may punish or expel any member for disorderly conduct or violation of its rules. No expulsion shall take place without the concurrence of two-thirds of all members elected nor until the delinquent member shall have been notified of the charge and been given an opportunity to be heard.

CLERK AND OTHER OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES

14. The Council shall choose a clerk and such officers and employees of its own body as it determines to be necessary. The clerk shall keep the records of the Council and shall perform such other duties as may be required by the Charter or by the Council. All such officers and employees chosen by the Council shall serve during the pleasure thereof.

LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE

15. The council shall be the judge of the election and qualifications of its members. A majority of all the members elected shall be a quorum to do business, but a less number may adjourn from day to day and compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as may be prescribed by ordinance. The affirmative vote of a majority of the members elected to the Council shall be necessary to adopt any ordinance or resolution. The vote upon the passage of all ordinances and upon the adoption of such resolutions as the Council by its rules shall prescribe, shall be taken by "yeas" and "nays" and entered upon the journal.

16. Ordinances and resolutions shall be introduced in the Council only in written or printed form. All ordinances and resolutions, except ordinances making appropriations shall be confined to one subject which shall be clearly expressed in the title, except as provided in the next section. Ordinances making appropriations shall be confined to the subjects of appropriation. No ordinance shall be passed until it has been read on three separate days unless the requirement of reading on three separate days has been dispensed with by a two-third vote of all the members of the Council. The final reading shall be in full unless a written or printed copy of the measure shall have been furnished to each member of the Council prior to such reading. The enacting clause of all ordinances passed by the Council shall be "Be it ordained by the Council of the City of Lima." The enacting clause of all ordinances submitted by the initiative shall be, "Be it ordained by the people of the City of Lima."

17. The reading of the caption of an ordinance or resolution shall constitute a reading of the legislation. Unless a motion is made to suspend the rule requiring three readings and pass the legislation on other than third reading, the legislation shall automatically be on its next reading at the next regular or called special meeting of Council. A motion to defeat legislation on first or second reading shall require a two-thirds vote of members elected to Council. A motion to defeat legislation on third reading shall require a majority vote of members elected to Council.

18. Ordinances may be revised, codified, rearranged and published in book .form under appropriate titles, chapters and sections and such revision and codification may be made in one ordinance containing one or more subjects. The publication of such revision and codification in book form as aforesaid shall be held to be a sufficient publication of the ordinance or several ordinances contained in such revision and codification so published. Any such publication of a revision or codification of ordinances in book form shall contain a certificate of the President of Council and the Clerk of the correctness of such revision, codification and publication; and such book so published shall be received in evidence in any court for the purpose of proving the ordinance or ordinances therein contained, the same and for the same purpose as the original book of ordinances, minutes or journals would be received.

19. No ordinance or resolution or section thereof shall be revised or amended unless the new ordinance or resolution contains the entire ordinance or resolution or section revised or amended, and the original ordinance, resolution, section or sections so amended shall be repealed.

20. All ordinances and resolutions shall be in effect from and after twenty (20) days from the date of their passage by the Council except as otherwise provided in the charter. The Council may, by a two-thirds vote of the members, pass emergency measures to take effect at the time indicated therein. An emergency measure is an ordinance or resolution for the immediate preservation of the public peace, property, health or safety, or providing for the usual daily operation of a municipal department, in which the emergency is set forth and defined in a preamble thereto. Ordinances appropriating money may be passed as emergency measures, but no measures making a grant, renewal or extension to a franchise or other special privilege, or regulating the rate to be charged for its services by any public utility shall ever be so passed.

21. Any ordinance or resolution passed by the Council shall be signed by the President or other presiding officer and presented forthwith to the Mayor by the Clerk. If the Mayor approves such ordinance or resolution, he shall sign it within ten (10) days after its passage or adoption by the Council; but if he does not approve it, he shall return it to the Council with his objections within said (10) days, or if the Council is not in session, at the next regular meeting, which objections the Council shall cause to be entered in full on its journal. If the Mayor does not sign or veto an ordinance after its passage or adoption within the time specified, it shall take effect in the same manner as if he had signed it. The Mayor may approve or disapprove the whole or any item or part of any ordinance or resolution appropriating money. When the Mayor refuses to sign an ordinance or resolution or part thereof and returns it to the Council with its objections, the Council shall, after the expiration of not less than one week, proceed to reconsider it, and if upon reconsideration, the resolution or ordinance or part or item thereof disapproved by the Mayor be approved by the vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to the Council, it shall take effect without the signature of the Mayor. In all cases, the votes shall be taken by "yeas" and "nays" and entered on the journal.

22. Any ordinance or resolution acted upon by City Council may be reconsidered upon motion made by a member who voted with the prevailing side. The prevailing side will be one who voted "yes" if the legislation passed, or "no" if the legislation failed. A motion for reconsideration may be made at the meeting at which final action was taken on the legislation or at the next regularly scheduled meeting of City Council. If the motion to reconsider carries by a majority vote, the legislation must be reconsidered at the next regularly scheduled meeting after which final action was taken on the legislation.

COMMITTEES

23. The standing Committees of Council are as follows:

(A) Public Works
(B) Finance
(C) Safety Services
(D) Utilities
(E) Neighborhood Concerns
(F) Economic and Community Development
(G) Building, Planning & Zoning
(H) Human Resources
(I) Council of the Whole

Members of standing or special committees are appointed by the President and approved by a majority of Council. The Committee of the Whole shall consist of the entire Council presided over by the President or his replacement, as the case may be, and shall meet at a time called by Council President.

The President of Council is an ex-officio member of all committees and the Clerk is the Secretary to all Committees.

24. The reports of the committees shall, if at all possible, be in writing, be agreed to in committee assembled and the documents referred shall be returned with the report. Nothing in this rule shall be construed to prevent the introduction of minority reports. Upon motion, and a majority vote, Council may relieve the committee of further consideration of any question.

25. All questions shall be decided by a majority vote.

26. All petitions, communications, reports, when referred to committee shall be considered pending until such report is made by the committee. To keep all members of Council informed on referrals, a formal motion of referral on any matter to a Committee must be made in a regular or special called meeting of Council prior to Committee study or recommendation on the matter. Legislation may be authorized by a majority vote of the Committee to which the matter is referred. Otherwise, legislation may be authorized only by a majority vote of those elected to Council, by the President of Council, or by the Mayor. It shall not be proper for a committee to authorize legislation on matters which have not been referred to that committee, or which have been referred to another standing or special committee.

It shall be the duty of the Chairman to call the committee together, but this shall not relieve the other members of the Committee of the responsibility if the Chairman does not act. If the Chairman is negligent, the members of the Committee shall call a meeting, any two having the right to do so, being sure to notify each member of the Committee.

MISCELLANEOUS

27. The regular and special meetings of the Council are open to the Public, excluding executive sessions; however, no person except members of Council, the Mayor, or city officials may speak unless that person secures "Privilege of the Floor" by one of the two following methods:

(a) Contact with the Clerk of Council either by phone or by letter prior to 4:00 P.M. on a Thursday preceding a regular meeting of Council. The Clerk shall give any person requesting privilege of the floor a copy of the rules relating thereto, as soon as possible after the request is made.

(b) Presenting to the President of Council prior to the meeting a form (available from the Clerk by request) showing the name and address of the person wishing to speak and the subject matter of his presentation.

Those receiving Privilege of the floor will be permitted to speak only on matters which are related to the municipal government or otherwise of public interest. The speaker shall make all remarks from the speaker's stand. If a person other than a city official desires to speak to a member of Council while Council is in session, and the member is willing that he do so, the member shall leave his seat and retire to the back of the room or elsewhere while conversing with such person.

28. The Clerk and other employees and officers of Council shall be under the control and direction of the chair during sessions of Council.

29. Time limits for speaking at Public Hearings and privileges of the floor shall be as follows: Public Hearings: Initial proponent, five minutes; initial opponent(s), five minutes; rebuttal proponent(s), three minutes; rebuttal opponent(s), three minutes. Privilege of the Floor; three minutes. If a large group is present and each desires to speak, Council shall have the right to set a time limit on each speaker.

30. Whenever the term "majority" is used herein, unless otherwise expressly indicated, it shall be held to mean a majority of those elected to Council or serving on a Committee. 31. All officers and employees to be appointed, chosen or elected by Council shall be so appointed, chosen, or elected by a majority of those elected to Council.

32. The absence of a Council member shall be explained.