The legislative body of Coatesville shall be known as the "City
Council," hereinafter referred to as the "Council." The Council shall
be composed of seven members, two members elected at large and five
members, each being elected from a ward in which he or she resides.
A member of the City Council, hereinafter referred to as a "Council
member," shall be a citizen of the United States, a qualified voter
of the city and a resident for at least one year preceding nomination;
must retain such status during the term of office for which elected;
should not have been convicted of any crime classified as a misdemeanor
of the second class or higher; and must not otherwise be disqualified
from office by the terms of this Charter or by laws of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.
No Council member shall, during the term of office of the Council
member, hold any other elected public office nor any other compensated
position in the City of Coatesville government.
The office of Council member shall be forfeited if the Council
member is declared by any court in this commonwealth to:
A.Â
Lack any qualifications for the office prescribed by this Charter
or laws of the General Assembly.
B.Â
Have willfully violated any express prohibition of this Charter.
C.Â
Be convicted of any crime classified as a misdemeanor of the second
class or higher, under the laws of the commonwealth or of the United
States, or be convicted of any comparable crime under the laws of
any other state in the United States.
Commencing in the general municipal election of 1987 the Council
members to represent the First, Third and Fifth wards shall be elected
to serve four-year terms. In the general municipal elections of 1989,
the Council members representing the Second and Fourth wards and the
two at-large Council members shall be elected to serve four-year terms.
Council members shall serve four-year staggered terms beginning at
3:00 p.m. of the first Monday of January following the year in which
they are elected except for Council members appointed or elected to
fill a vacancy, who shall serve for the remainder of the unexpired
term of the member succeeded or as otherwise provided in § 2-208
of this Charter.
The procedure for the nomination and election of Council members
shall be as provided in the election laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The office of Council members shall become vacant upon death,
resignation, removal of place of residence from the city, legal certification
of mental and/or physical disability or forfeiture of office as directed
by this Charter or as otherwise provided by law.
Whenever a vacancy exists in the office of Council member, the
vacancy shall be filled under the following procedures:
A.Â
The Council, by a majority vote of its total membership, shall, within 30 days from the time the office becomes vacant, make an interim appointment of a qualified person per § 2-202 to fill the vacancy.
B.Â
Should sufficient vacancies exist so that the Council lacks the necessary
majority to make the appointment, the Court of Common Pleas, upon
petition of any Council member or any five registered voters of the
city, shall make the interim appointments to fill the vacancies.
C.Â
Should the Council, for any reason, fail to fill a vacancy within
30 days after the vacancy occurs, the Court of Common Pleas, upon
petition of any Council member or any five registered voters of the
city, shall make the interim appointments to fill the vacancies which
may exist.
D.Â
The person appointed to fill a vacancy shall serve until the first
regularly scheduled meeting of the Council at which a successor assumes
the office following a municipal, general or primary election at which
the successor shall have been elected.
E.Â
At the next regularly scheduled election, municipal, general or primary,
which occurs at least 60 days after a vacancy occurs, a qualified
person shall be elected by special election to fill the vacancy. A
person elected to fill a vacancy shall assume office at the start
of the first regularly scheduled meeting of the Council following
certification of election and shall serve for the remainder of the
unexpired term.
A.Â
The compensation of the Council members to first serve under this
Charter shall be and is hereby set at $600 per annum. The Council
may establish, by ordinance, the annual compensation of succeeding
Council members, but no ordinance changing compensation shall become
effective until the expiration of the term of all Council members
in office at the time the ordinance is enacted. It is the intent of
this Charter that all Council members in office at the same time shall
be paid at the same rate and that no Council shall change the compensation
of Council members then in office during the term for which any of
them were elected. Ordinances affecting the compensation of future
Council members shall be enacted prior to the first day of February
in municipal election years in order to apply to Council members elected
in such years and to other Council members serving at the same time.
They shall be authorized to receive reimbursement of reasonable expenses
actually incurred in the performance of their duties in accordance
with regulations which shall be set forth in the Administrative Code
or other ordinance.
B.Â
Effective on the date of the reorganization meeting for 2002, all
Council Members in office for Calendar Year 2002, and thereafter until
further amended, shall be compensated in accordance with maximum permitted
under the Optional Third Class City Charter Law, § 607(c),
currently established at an annual rate of $1,800 for Councilpersons
and $2,100 for Council President.
[Added 1-25-1999 by Ord. No. 1095-99; amended 9-23-2002 by Ord. No.
1201-2002]
The Council shall organize at a meeting at 3:00 p.m. on the
first Monday of January of each year. If the first Monday is a legal
holiday, the organizational meeting will be held on the first day
following which is not a legal holiday. At the organizational meeting,
the Council shall elect from its membership a President and a Vice
President, who shall hold such offices at the pleasure of the Council.
The President or, in the President's absence, the Vice President
shall preside at Council meetings, shall serve as the city's
representative at ceremonial occasions and shall carry out such duties
as prescribed elsewhere in this Charter or in the Administrative Code
or other ordinance.
A.Â
The Council shall meet regularly at least once in every month at
such time and place within the city as the Council may prescribe by
ordinance or resolution.
B.Â
At its first meeting each year, the Council shall designate and advertise
the calendar of regular monthly meetings for the remainder of the
year. Special meetings may be held on the call of the presiding officer
by providing notice to each Council member at least 24 hours in advance
of such special meeting, which meeting notice shall be prominently
posted at the City Hall. In the event of an emergency which makes
it necessary to convene a meeting with less than 24 hours' advance
notice, this requirement may be waived. The Council shall, in the
Administrative Code or other ordinance, adopt rules and regulations
for its meeting which shall be designed to assure full and equal participation
in the deliberations of the Council by all of its members and shall
not be inconsistent with specific provisions of this Charter. All
regular meetings of the Council and any special meetings at which
official actions are taken shall be open to the public, and public
notice of such meetings shall be given.
The Council shall cause to be prepared for each regular meeting
an agenda of matters to be considered by the Council at such meeting,
including pertinent background information, which agenda shall be
distributed to the public in attendance at the start of the meeting.
The agenda shall be available prior to the start of the meeting. No
official action may be taken on any matters not included in the announced
agenda for the meeting except by an affirmative vote of a majority
of the total number of the members of the Council. The agenda shall
include opportunity and reasonable time for public participation in
the meeting.
A majority of the members of the Council shall constitute a
quorum. The Council shall conduct no business except in the presence
of a quorum. The action of a majority of Council members present and
entitled to vote shall be binding upon and constitute the action of
the Council, provided that a quorum is present, except as otherwise
stated in the Charter. The phrase "majority of the total membership
of the Council" or similar language is used elsewhere in this Charter
to indicate actions which must be taken by a majority of the total
membership rather than by a majority of a quorum.
All actions of the Council shall be taken by the adoption of
an ordinance, resolution or motion. All legislation shall be enacted
by the adoption of an ordinance. All ordinances and resolutions shall
be in written form and enacted only after reasonable notice, except
as otherwise provided in this Charter. All final action in adopting
ordinances and resolutions shall be by roll call vote, and the vote
of each Council member shall be entered in the record of the meeting.
The City Manager shall maintain a written record of the minutes
and proceedings of all meetings of the Council. All ordinances and
resolutions shall be entered, as approved, in the record books of
the city. All records and reports shall be open and available for
public inspection at City Hall throughout normal office hours. No
citizen of Coatesville shall be denied reasonable access to all public
records of the city. Copies of the minutes, ordinances, resolutions
and other official reports and actions of the Council shall be available
to the public without charge or at a reasonable fee established by
the Council.
All legislative powers and duties of the city shall be exclusively
vested in and exercised by the Council. The Council shall provide
for the exercise of and performance of all legislative powers and
duties imposed on the city by law or this Charter and, specifically,
but not limited to, the following:
A.Â
To adopt the budget, make appropriations for expenditures for all
lawful purposes and levy taxes authorized by law and limitations thereon
imposed by this Charter or general law.
B.Â
To adopt, amend and repeal an Administrative Code to create, alter,
combine and/or abolish municipal departments, bureaus, boards and
commissions and prescribe procedures not inconsistent with this Charter
or general law.
C.Â
To make or cause to be made such studies or postaudits and investigations
as it deems to be in the best interest of the city.
D.Â
To adopt ordinances and resolutions not inconsistent with or restrained
by the Constitution and laws of the commonwealth or by this Charter
and prescribe fines and penalties consistent with general law for
the violation of city ordinances.
E.Â
To make provision for any matter of the city government not otherwise
provided for in this Charter or general law and inconsistent therewith.
