HomeMy WebLinkAbout(1995, 10/09) - A-10 - AmendedWIN
PROCEDURAL RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
1. Presiding Officer. The Mayor shall be the Presiding Officer at all
meetings of the City Council. In the absence of the Mayor, or at the Mayor's
request, the Mayor Pro Tempore shall preside. In the absence of the Mayor and
Mayor Pro Tempore, the City Clerk shall call the Council to order, whereupon a
temporary Presiding Officer shall be elected by the Council members present to
serve until the arrival of the Mayor or Mayor Pro Tempore.
2. Powers and Duties of Presiding Officer.
a) Participation. The Presiding Officer may move, debate and vote
from the Chair.
b) Seating Arrangement for City Council. Following each
councilmanic election, members of the City Council shall be seated at the
Council table with senior Council members having first choice of seats. The
Mayor, however, shall be seated in the center of the Council table and the Mayor
Pro Tempore shall always be seated immediately next to and to the right of the
Mayor. In the event of equal seniority among members of the Council, selection
of Council seats shall be made alphabetically.
c) Question to be Stated. The Presiding Officer or such member of the
City staff as he or she may designate shall verbally restate each question
immediately prior to calling for the vote. Following the vote, the City Clerk
shall announce whether the question carried or was defeated. The Presiding
Officer in his or her discretion may publicly explain the effect of a vote for the
audience, or he or she may direct a member of the City Staff to do so, before
proceeding to the next item of business.
d) Signing of Documents. The Presiding Officer shall sign all
ordinances, resolutions, contracts and other documents necessitating his or her
signature which were adopted in his or her presence, unless he or she is
unavailable, in which case the signature of an alternate Presiding Officer may be
used.
e) Sworn Testimony. The Presiding Officer may require any person
addressing the City Council to be sworn as a witness and to testify under oath,
and the Presiding Officer shall so require if directed to do so by a majority vote
of the Council.
3. Rules of Debate.
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a) Getting the Floor. Every Council member desiring to speak shall
first address the Chair, gain recognition by the Presiding Officer, and shall
confine himself or herself to the question under debate, avoiding personalities
and indecorous language.
b) Questions to Staff. Every Council member desiring to question the
City staff shall, after recognition by the Presiding Officer, address the questions
to the City Manager, the City Clerk or the City Attorney, who shall be entitled
either to answer the inquiry himself or herself or to designate a member of
his /her staff for that purpose.
c) Interruptions. A Council member, once recognized, shall not be
interrupted when speaking unless called to order by the Presiding Officer,
unless a point of order or personal privilege is raised by another Council
member, or unless the speaker chooses to yield to a question by another Council
member. If a Council member, while speaking, is called to order, he or she shall
cease speaking until the question of order is determined and, if determined to be
in order, he or she may proceed. Members of the City staff after recognition by •
the Presiding Officer shall hold the floor until completion of their remarks or
until recognition is withdrawn by the Presiding Officer.
d) Points of Order. The Presiding Officer shall determine all points of
order subject to the right of any Council member to appeal to the Council. If an
appeal is taken, the question shall be "Shall the decision of the Presiding Officer
be sustained ?" A majority vote shall conclusively determine such question of
order.
e) Point of Personal Privilege. The right of a Council member to
address the Council on a question of personal privilege shall be limited to cases
in which the integrity, character or motives are questioned or where the welfare
of the Council is concerned. A Council member raising a point of personal
privilege may interrupt another Council member who has the floor only if the
Presiding Officer recognizes the privilege.
f) Privilege of Closing Debate. The Council member moving the
adoption of an ordinance, resolution or motion shall have the privilege of closing
debate.
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g) Limitation of Debate. No Council member shall be allowed to
speak more than once upon any particular subject until every other Council
member desiring to do so shall have spoken.
4. Remarks of Council Member and Synopsis of Debate. A Council member
may request through the Presiding Officer the privilege of having an abstract of
his or her statement on any subject under consideration by the Council entered
in the minutes. If the Council consents thereto, such statement shall be entered
in the minutes.
5. Protest Against Council Action. Any Council member shall have the
right to have the reasons for his or her dissent from, of his or her protest against,
any action of the Council entered in the minutes. Such dissent or protest to be
entered into the minutes shall be made in the following manner: "I would like
the minutes to show that I am opposed to this action for the following
reasons....."
6. Rules of Order. Except as provided in this Policy, the City Charter, other
rules or practices followed by the City Council, or applicable provisions of State
law, the procedures of the Council shall be governed by the latest revised edition
of Roberts' Rules of Order.
7. Failure to Observe Rules of Order. Rules adopted to expedite the
transaction of the business of the Council in an orderly fashion are deemed to be
procedural only and the failure to strictly observe such rules shall not affect the
jurisdiction of the Council or invalidate any action taken at a meeting that is
otherwise held in conformity with law.
8. Addressing the Council.
a) Manner of Addressing Council. Each person desiring to address
the Council shall step up to the microphone in front of the rail, state his /her
name and address for the record, state the subject he /she wishes to discuss, state
whom he /she is representing if he /she represents an organization or other
persons and, unless further time is granted by the Mayor, shall limit his /her
remarks to five (5) minutes except those who under Public Comments section
shall be limited to three (3) minutes. All remarks shall be addressed to the
Council as a whole and not to any member thereof. No question shall be asked a
Council member or a member of the City staff without the permission of the
Presiding Officer.
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b) Spokesman for Group of Persons. In order to expedite matters and
to avoid repetitious presentations, whenever any group of persons wishes to
address the Council on the same subject matter, it shall be proper for the
Presiding Officer to request that a spokesman be chosen by the group to address
the Council and, in case additional matters are to be presented by any other
member of said group, to limit the number of such persons addressing the
Council, subject to the right of all members of the public to speak on any item on
the agenda pursuant to the Brown Act.
c) After Motion. After a motion has been made or a public hearing
has been closed, no member of the public shall address the Council from the
audience on the matter under consideration without first securing permission to
do so by a majority vote of the City Council.
9. Rules of Decorum.
a) Council Members. While the Council is in session, the members
must preserve order and decorum. Each Council member shall conduct himself
or herself with decorum and shall neither, by conversation or otherwise, delay
nor interrupt the proceedings or the peace of the Council, nor disturb any
member while speaking or refuse to obey the orders of the Presiding Officer. •
Members of the Council shall not leave their seats during the meeting without
first obtaining the permission of the Presiding Officer.
b) Persons Addressing the Council. Members of the general public
have the right to address the City Council on any item on the agenda and any
item of interest to the public.
1. Public comments. The agenda shall contain a public comment
section during which any member of the public may address the Council on any
non - agenda item generally considered to be a municipal affair and within the
subject matter jurisdiction of the Council. To ensure that all members of the
public have an opportunity to address the Council during public comments,
each speaker shall be limited to three minutes and shall immediately step down
from the lectern upon expiration of the allotted time unless the presiding officer
has granted the speaker's request for additional time.
2. Agenda Items: Speakers on agenda items shall limit their
comments to five minutes and shall step down from the lectern immediately
after their time has elapsed unless the presiding officer has granted the speakers
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request for additional time. The presiding officer may grant the speaker
additional time if they areaddressing the Council on a complicated or complex
matter or represent a group of individuals whose individual testimony would
exceed the total time allotted to the speaker. Speakers shall limit their comments
to matters relevant to the item on the agenda.
3. Decorum of Speakers: Speakers shall not engage in willful
conduct which interrupts the meeting or interferes with the orderly conduct of
the meeting. Any speaker engaging in such conduct all be called to order by the
presiding officer and, if the conduct continues, the presiding officer may order
the speaker barred from speaking and /or attending the meeting. No person
shall be declared out of order, prevented from speaking or barred from
attendance at any meeting because of any disagreement with the speaker's
position or view on any matter, because of the speaker's identity or because of
any disagreement with the content of relevant testimony.
c) Members of the Audience. No member of the audience
shall willfully interrupt the orderly conduct at the meeting. The presiding
officer shall direct the removal of any individual whose willful interruption
renders infeasible the orderly conduct of the meeting. In the event the removal
of the individual or individuals willfully interrupting the meeting does not
restore order, the presiding officer may order the meeting room cleared and
continue in session. Media representatives shall be allowed to remain at the
meeting except those representatives of whose willful conduct interrupted the
meeting.
d) Persons Authorized to be Within Rail. No person except
members of the Council and the City staff shall be permitted within the rail
without the consent of the Presiding Officer.
e) Enforcement of Decorum. The Chief of Police, or such
member or members of the Police Department as he may designate, shall
be Sergeant -at -Arms of the City Council and shall carry out all orders given by
the Presiding Officer for the purpose of maintaining order and decorum at the
Council meetings. Any Council member may move to require the Presiding
Officer to enforce the rules upon affirmative vote of a majority of the Council.
10. Motions - Second not Required. A motion by any member of the Council,
including the Presiding Officer, may be considered by the Council without
receiving a second.
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11. Voting Procedure. Any vote of the Council, including a roll call vote, may
be registered by the members by answering "Yes" for an affirmative vote or
No" for a negative vote upon the member's name being called by the City
Clerk, or by pressing a switch to cause a green light to show for an affirmative
vote or a red light to show for a negative vote, upon a vote being called for by
the Presiding Officer. The result of any vote registered by means of a lighting
system shall be audibly announced by the City Clerk and recorded in the
minutes as the vote.
12. Disqualification for Conflict of Interest. Any Council member who is
disqualified from voting on a particular matter by reason of a conflict of interest
shall publicly state or have the Presiding Officer state the nature of such
disqualification in open meeting. Where no clearly disqualifying conflict of
interest appears, the matter of disqualification may, at the request of the Council
member affected, be decided by the other Council members. A Council member
who is disqualified by reason of a conflict of interest in any matter shall not
remain in his or her seat during the debate and vote on such matter, but shall
request and be given the permission of the Presiding Officer to step down from
the Council table. A Council member stating such disqualification shall not be
counted as a part of a quorum and shall be considered absent for the purpose of •
determining the outcome of any vote on such matter.
13. Failure to Vote. Every Council member should vote unless disqualified
by reason of a conflict of interest. A Council member who abstains from voting
in effect consents that a majority of the quorum may decide the question voted
upon.
14. Tie Vote. Tie votes shall be lost motions and may be reconsidered.
15. Changing Vote. A member may change his vote only if he makes a timely
request to do so immediately following the announcement of the vote by the
City Clerk and prior to the time that the next item in the order of business is
taken up.
16. Reconsideration. A motion to reconsider any action taken by the City
Council may be made only by one of the Council members who voted with the
prevailing side.
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17. Ordinances, Resolutions and Contracts.
a) All ordinances, resolutions and contracts shall be prepared by the
City Attorney. No ordinance shall be prepared for presentation to the Council
unless ordered by a majority vote of the Council, or requested by the Mayor, or
City Manager, or prepared by the City Attorney on his own initiative. The
Planning Commission may initiate zoning and planning ordinances.
b) Prior Approval bV Administration Staff. All ordinances,
resolutions and contract documents shall, before presentation to t
18. Reading of Ordinances and Resolutions. If a motion to waive reading of
all ordinances and resolutions has been adopted at the beginning of the Council
meeting, the City Clerk will read the ordinances and resolutions by title only. If
any Council member so requests, the ordinance or resolution shall be read in
full.
19. Council Meeting Length. It is the intent of the City Council that no
additional item will be introduced on a City Council agenda after the hour of
11:00 p.m. Furthermore, it is the City Council's intent that if the item introduced
and being discussed by 11:00 p.m.is not concluded by 12:00 p.m., the Council
should adjourn the meeting to another date. The intent and purpose of this
policy is to encourage a reasonable hour in which the Council business is
discussed and to protect against fatigue in discussing and deciding important
City issues.
Adopted - August 21, 1972
Amended - November 24,1975
Amended - November 28, 1977
Amended -July 24, 1978
Amended - September 11, 1978
Amended - November 27, 1978
Amended - October 23, 1979
Amended - February 9,1981
Amended - June 25, 1984
Amended - October 22,1984
Amended - March 24,1986
Amended- January 12,1987
Amended - May 26,1987
Amended - November 28,1988
Amended - August 13,1990
Amended - October 22,1990
Amended - June 28,1993
Amended - March 28,1994
Amended - October 9, 1995
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