The 2011 Rules of Council for the Village of Minerva Park were adopted November 8, 2010 in the November council meeting. They are effective through December 31, 2011.
The document containing this legislation can be found at http://www.minervapark.org/legislation/2011/2011_rules.pdf.
All Minerva Park legislation that is published on their website can be found at http://www.minervapark.org/legislation/index.htm.
I encourage all to read the entire document, but there are some points that are of particular interest. The following omits large portions of the document, for a complete reading, see the above link.
Work/Study Sessions
Work/Study sessions of council shall be held as needed at the Community Building or inany other public place within the corporate limits of the Village of Minerva Park.
Work/Study sessions may be continued following the regular session of the council at the discretion of the mayor or in his/her absence, the president pro tempore. All council members should be notified of work/study sessions by mail or phone at least 24 hours in advance. All meetings shall be open to the general public and notification shall be made in accordance with the section "Postings of Regular, Special, and Work/Study Session Meetings" of these rules and in compliance with the Ohio Revised Code.
There shall be no public discussion or participation in deliberations of council in its work/study sessions. However, specific residents or other individuals may be deliberately invited to participate in a work/study session when the topic of the work/study session directly relates to that citizen or individual. No resolution, regulation, rule, ordinance or formal action of any kind shall be adopted at a work/study session.
Postings of Regular, Special, and Work/Study Session Meetings
The Clerk-Treasurer is responsible for posting notices of regular and special meetings.
Special meetings and Work Session announcements must be placed in the following
locations at least 24 hours before the scheduled meeting:
• In the community building on the inside board
• On the community building front window.
• In or on the official board of the community outside of the community building
• in or on the board at the playground area on Maplewood Road
• In or on the board at the pool
In addition:
• The Columbus Dispatch must also be notified by fax at 461-7580 attention: Kirk D.
Richards.
• Any citizen can request in writing to be notified when there are special meetings and
we will comply with that request.
The Clerk-Treasurer keeps a list of all those who have done so as well as the manner in which they would like to be notified.
Should the Clerk-Treasurer be out of town, the Mayor's Administrative Assistant, the President of Council, or any council member can also post the announcements.
Appeals from Decisions of the Chair
The mayor or president pro tempore of council shall preserve decorum and decide all question of order, subject to appeal to council. If any member transgresses the rules of council, the chair shall, or any member may, call him/her to order and in the latter instance the chair shall render a decision as to the point of order. In case of an appeal from a ruling of the chair, the question shall be “Shall the decision of the chair stand as the decision of council?" The chair shall be sustained unless overruled by a majority vote of the members of council present.
Limitation of Debate
Members of council shall confine themselves to a maximum of twenty (20) minutes of time on a single topic.
Voting
Every member present when a question or motion is put shall vote on same. Abstentions are discouraged, however, should a council member abstain from voting, he/she should state their reason to be reflected in the minutes. If a council member knows he/she should abstain because there is a conflict of interest, he/she may should state that there is a conflict of interest before discussion begins. The council member then leaves the room during discussion and voting.
Citizen Comments During Council Meetings
Council meetings are public business meetings of the Minerva Park Council. As such, all citizen comments must pertain to current issues and topics of business before council.
Citizens wishing to address council at a Council Meeting must sign in and complete a Citizen Comments Card. The Citizen Comments Card includes the name and address of the citizen and what specific topic/committee report the citizen wishes to address. The citizen then gives the President of Council the card before the meeting begins. (More on these in another post)
Throughout the meeting, when the appropriate topic comes up in the agenda (guest speaker, individual report or committee report), the citizen will be recognized by the Mayor. The citizen then has three minutes to address the council on a topic that relates directly to that committee or topic at hand. At the discretion of the Mayor there can be discussion surrounding the topic. However, realizing that the council meeting is a business meeting, the discussion should always directly pertain to the business at hand.
If it appears that the topic is not specific to the business before council or the committee, the citizen will not be recognized until the end of the meeting at a general Citizen Comments time. Any citizen speaking at that time will have a maximum of three minutes to address council. No citizen will have more than nine minutes at any council meeting.
As always, citizens are encouraged to make an appointment to speak with the Mayor or any member of Council about general issues of the Village.
In addition to the Citizen Comments Card, the Mayor or President of Council may recognize any nonmember of council for the purpose of asking a brief question that clarifies for the citizen the topic before council.
[...]
Speakers must be courteous and avoid discussion of personalities. If at any meeting, any person becomes discourteous or undertakes a discussion of personalities, the Mayor or president pro tempore of council may request that he/she return to the topic at hand and speak with courtesy. If the person refuses, the mayor or president pro tempore of council can ask that the person surrender the floor and /or leave the meeting. If the person refuses, the mayor or president pro tempore of council can ask the Police Officer (if one is present) to escort the person out of the room. The person can return when the Police Officer determines appropriate. However, if the same actions continue, the person shall be expelled permanently from that meeting.
Motion to Suspend Rules and Votes Required
A motion to accept a reading of a piece of legislation or to pass legislation requires two-thirds (2/3) vote of the members of council. Minerva Park Village council has six members on council; four votes are needed to accept a reading of a piece of legislation or to pass legislation.
A motion to pass legislation as emergency legislation requires two-thirds (2/3) vote of the members of council. Minerva Park Village council has six members on council; four votes are needed to pass legislation as emergency legislation.
A motion to suspend the rule which requires council to accept three (3) readings on three separate days must receive by roll call vote the affirmative vote of three-fourths (3/4) of the members elected or appointed to council. Minerva Park Village council has six members on council; three fourths of council shall be deemed to be five members supporting the motion to suspend the rule. Upon the passage of such motion, the main
question or motion shall be open to debate.
A majority of members of council present without debate may suspend all other rules.
Ordinances and Resolutions
Each ordinance and resolution shall be read by title only, provided the council may require any reading to be in full by a majority vote of its members. Each ordinance or resolution shall be read on three different days, provided the council may dispense with this role by a vote of at least three fourths of its members. See Motion to Suspend Rules.
Ordinances, resolutions, and motions not receiving a second to be passed shall be deemed to have been defeated and will be declared lost.
From time to time, council makes corrections on ordinances or resolutions as they are presented to council. If these corrections are simply typographical or to clarify a matter, which might appear ambiguous to some by reading the same, it may be corrected after it is passed. However, if the change is substantive in nature as to what is being legislated, that piece of legislation should be withdrawn and new legislation presented which accurately states the purpose and intent of the legislation. In all cases, the public and the citizens must have time to review and analyze said substantial corrections or changes to legislation.
Executive Session
In line with the Ohio Sunshine Laws 2008: An Open Government Resource Manual, all council meetings, special meetings, work sessions, and all meetings of any committee are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times. There are limited exemptions in the case when deliberations and discussions should not be heard and observed by the public. In those limited cases, council can go into executive session as
specified in the Ohio Revised Code section 121.22.
Council may hold an executive session only after a majority of a quorum of council determines, by a roll call vote, to hold an executive session for the sole purpose of the consideration of any of the following matters:
[...see omissions on page 11-page 13 http://www.minervapark.org/legislation/2011/2011_rules.pdf ...]
Committee Meetings
Each committee chairperson shall have the authority to call meetings of their committee as deemed necessary and desirable, and to notify the mayor and clerk as to the date, time and place of the said meetings. Meetings should be held in the community building or other public building so as to allow any interested citizens to attend.
The clerk shall then post notification of the committee meeting at the Community Building as soon as notified of such meeting and never later than 24 hours before the meeting is to begin and any other notification required by Ohio Revised Code and Sunshine Laws.
[...]
While legislation in general is sometimes a more overbearing read than a good novel, it is worth your time to read the 15 pages of the Rules of Council.
Stay informed!!
No comments:
Post a Comment