The legislative body of the City of Meriden shall be called the City Council and shall have all of the rights, duties, privileges and powers which on the effective date of this Charter were vested in the existing Court of Common Council except as may otherwise be herein specified. The legislative and fiscal power shall be vested exclusively in the City Council. Said City Council shall have the power to enact, amend or repeal ordinances not inconsistent with this Charter or the General Statutes of the state and to create or abolish, by ordinance, boards, commissions, departments and offices except those created specifically by this Charter or by state statute. The City Council may contract for services and the use of facilities of the United States or a federal agency, the State of Connecticut and any political subdivision thereof or may, by agreement, join with any such agency, the state or any such political subdivision to provide services and facilities. The City Council is authorized, in adopting ordinances, to incorporate any nationally recognized code, rules or regulations that have been printed in book form, or any code officially adopted by any administrative agency of the state, or any portion thereof, by reference thereto in such ordinance, provided that upon adoption of any such ordinance wherein such code, rules or regulations or portions thereof have been incorporated by reference, there shall be maintained two copies of such code, rules or regulations in the office of the City Clerk for examination by the public. Said City Council may by resolution regulate the internal operation of boards, commissions and offices which it fills by appointment and may fix the compensation of all elected officials and of the officers and employees not in the classified service who are hereinafter provided for in Chapter IX of this Charter, but no salary of any elected official so fixed by the City Council shall be raised or lowered during the official term of any incumbent. Said City Council may fix the charges, if any, to be made for services rendered by the City or for the execution of powers vested in the City as provided in this Charter.
The City Council shall have the power of eminent domain for any public purpose, consistent with the laws of the United States of America and the State of Connecticut.
The City Council shall fill, for the unexpired portion of any term, vacancies of any City office not herein otherwise provided for.
[Amended 11-3-1987]
The City Council shall be composed of 12 members, except that the 10 members of the City Council elected at the November 1987 municipal election shall serve as such until the expiration of the terms to which they were originally elected.
The members of the City Council shall be elected at each biennial municipal election to be held in 1989 and thereafter, in the manner described herein.
There shall be four City Council areas, the boundaries and composition of which shall be determined from time to time, but no later than 120 days preceding any municipal election, by the City Council after public hearing.
At each biennial municipal election, a City Council member shall be elected from each of four City Council areas, and two City Council members shall be elected on a Citywide at-large basis, all for a term of four years, commencing on the first Monday in December following each municipal election.
[Amended 6-26-1996]
Upon the filing with the City Clerk of a petition signed by qualified electors in number equal to 5% or more of the total number of electors of the City as determined by the last effective list of the Registrars of Voters, which petition requests the City Council to consider a proposed resolution or ordinance, the City Clerk shall within 10 days determine whether the petition contains a sufficient number of valid signatures and, if it does, shall so certify and transmit the petition to the City Council. Each page of such petition shall contain the full text of the proposed resolution or ordinance and shall clearly indicate that signatures to the petition are sought in order to bring the proposal before the City Council for consideration. Each signature shall be accompanied by the date of the signature. No signature made more than 60 days prior to the date the petition is submitted to the City Clerk shall be counted as valid. Any petition so certified shall be placed on the agenda of the next regular meeting of the City Council. Within 90 days thereafter, the City Council shall either approve or disapprove of the proposed resolution or ordinance.
A. 
Grants and leases of real estate. All grants and leases of real estate belonging to said City authorized by the City Council, signed by the City Manager and sealed with the City Seal shall be effectual to convey such estate.
B. 
Power of Council to obtain temporary loans. The City Council is empowered to authorize the Director of Finance of said City to obtain temporary loans in anticipation of the collection of the taxes of the municipal year in which debts are incurred, and the City Council may make, alter, repeal and enforce ordinances relative to such subject.
C. 
Power of Council to authorize "emergency notes." The City Council may, by a two-thirds vote of all its members present and absent, direct and empower the Director of Finance to borrow on behalf of said City such sums of money as may be required to discharge its obligations necessarily incurred and existing after the annual appropriations made by said City Council but not included in such appropriations and to execute a note or notes therefor. The City Council may determine whether the means of procuring the money necessary to pay the indebtedness accruing from such borrowing shall be by a special tax levy or by including the same in the next annual appropriation. Any note executed under the authority herein conferred shall be designated "City of Meriden, Emergency Note," and payment thereof shall be made from taxes thereafter levied and collected.
D. 
Nonrecurring expenses. The City Council shall have the power granted to towns under § 7-346 of the General Statutes of the State of Connecticut relative to the apportionment of nonrecurring capital expenditures over a period not to exceed five years.
E. 
Meetings of Council; appointment of officers. The City Council shall meet on the first and third Monday of every month unless that day shall be a legal holiday in which case the following day shall be the day of the meeting. At the first regular meeting in December following the biennial election, the City Council shall elect by roll call vote such officers, except for those officers otherwise provided for in this Charter, to such offices necessary for the transaction of the public business as may be created from time to time by said City Council or provided for by law. Such officers shall serve for a period not to exceed two years from the date of such meeting and until their successors shall have been elected and qualified, unless such officers shall be sooner removed as provided in this Charter. In the event of the failure to elect any officer or officers at such meeting, said City Council may at any subsequent meeting fill such vacancy for the unexpired term. Said officers shall hold their respective offices for a period not to exceed two years from the date of their election and until their successors shall have been elected and shall have qualified unless sooner removed as provided in said Charter. Their compensation shall be fixed by said City Council subject to the provisions contained in this Charter as to the raising or lowering of the compensation or salary of public officers.
[Amended 6-26-1996; 11-7-2006]
F. 
Procedure in meetings; special meetings. The Mayor shall be the presiding officer of the City Council and shall call it to order. He/she shall not have a vote on any matter voted upon by the City Council except that in those situations in which the City Council vote results in a tie the Mayor shall cast the tie-breaking vote. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Mayor shall in no event have a vote on any zoning matter or on any matter related to the appointment, suspension or removal of the City Manager. Said City Council may be specially convened at any time by the Mayor or City Manager, or special meetings shall be called by the Mayor or City Manager to be held within 24 hours after the presentation of a petition for the same signed by a majority of its members. The City Council may determine the rules of its proceedings, but said rules shall provide that the public comment portion of City Council meetings must take place after the City Council meeting is called to order. The majority of all of the members thereof shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day. Said City Council shall not be specially convened unless written notice shall be given to all of the members of said City Council by some proper officer or left at the usual place of abode of the members or read in their hearing. Such notice shall be given at least 10 hours before such meeting. Said City Council shall sit with open doors and shall cause the journal of its proceedings to be open to public inspection. In any case where the City Council is to elect or appoint any officer or to vote concerning the appointment or discharge of any officer, said City Council may by majority vote of the members present declare itself in executive session and may thereupon direct that the room in which the Council shall sit be cleared of all persons except those entitled to sit with the Council, but no business other than that relating to appointment or removal from office or other matters permitted to be conducted in executive session by state statute shall be considered in such executive session. Each committee of the City Council shall have power to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the chairman of such committee shall have power to administer oaths, and willful false swearing before it shall constitute a crime as defined in the General Statutes of the State of Connecticut and may be punished as such. Each vote, resolution, order or ordinance passed by said City Council, except zoning matters and matters pertaining to the appointment, suspension or removal of the City Manager, shall be transmitted to the Mayor, who shall have the power to veto it by returning the same to the Clerk of the City Council within seven calendar days following its adoption with a veto statement in writing of his/her objection thereto to be read into the Council record. If the City Council by a vote of yeas and nays of 2/3 of the entire membership at a special meeting or at the next regularly scheduled meeting shall approve it, then it shall thereupon be effective as so originally adopted. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Mayor shall have no authority to veto any zoning matter or any matter related to the appointment, suspension or removal of the City Manager. The Mayor may affirmatively waive in writing his/her veto authority as to any individual matter voted upon by the City Council.
[Amended 6-26-1996; 11-7-2006]
G. 
Proposed bylaws or ordinances to be referred to committees; public hearings. No proposed bylaw or ordinance of said City shall be voted upon by the City Council until it shall have been referred to a committee of said Council which shall hold a public hearing thereon. Any such proposed bylaw or ordinance referred to a committee of the Council shall be reported upon by such committee to the entire Council at any regular or special meeting thereof not later than 90 days from the date of original referral. Any matter not so reported upon within said ninety-day period shall be void. Said committee shall give notice that a public hearing will be held by it upon any proposed bylaw or ordinance, which notice shall set forth title, object, time and place of hearing and shall be published at least once in at least one daily newspaper published in said City, at least five days prior to said hearing.
[Amended 11-3-1987]
G.1. 
Publication of bylaws and ordinances; exception; when bylaws and ordinances affected. All bylaws or ordinances shall be published at least once after their enactment by the City Council in at least one daily newspaper published in said City unless such publication shall by vote of said City Council be ordered to be dispensed with, and no bylaw or ordinance shall be of force or effect until one week after the date of its last publication or until 10 days after adoption when said bylaw or ordinance is not published, unless the City Council shall by majority vote order that said bylaw or ordinance shall be effective immediately upon its adoption by the City Council.
The City Council may order that notice of the passage of any such bylaw or ordinance be published by setting forth the title and purpose thereof in lieu of a full printing of the text, provided that reference is made to be availability of the entire text of the bylaw or ordinance in the office of the City Clerk.
[Amended 11-3-1987]
H. 
Petitions and resolutions. All petitions or resolutions that have been referred to a committee of the Council shall be reported upon by such committee to the entire Council at any regular or special meeting thereof not later than 90 days from the date of original referral. Any matter not so reported upon within said ninety-day period shall be void.
[Amended 11-3-1987]
I. 
Public improvements not to be ordered unless appropriation made. No public improvement of any kind shall be ordered by the City Council or any other authority or officer having power to authorize the same or contract for the same until an appropriation for said improvements has been duly made and funds to pay for the same have been provided and set apart for that purpose.
J. 
How appointments by City Council made.
[Amended 11-3-1992; 11-7-2006]
The Mayor shall recommend any and all appointments to officers or positions within the appointing power of the City Council (except as to chairpersons of the standing committees to the City Council) for approval. The City Council may, within its next two regular meetings after submission of a recommendation by the Mayor, reject said recommendation by majority vote of the entire membership except as herein otherwise specified, in failure of which said recommendation shall be deemed confirmed.
In the event the City Council rejects the Mayor’s recommendation, the Mayor, before the next regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council, shall recommend another individual for appointment.
At its next regularly scheduled meeting, the City Council may reject said recommendation by majority vote of the entire membership except as herein otherwise specified, in failure of which said recommendation shall be deemed confirmed.
In the event the City Council rejects the Mayor's recommendation by majority vote of the entire membership, the Mayor, before the next regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council, shall recommend another individual for appointment, said individual not being an individual previously rejected by the City Council for this appointment.
At its next regularly scheduled meeting, the City Council may reject said recommendation by majority vote of the entire membership except as herein otherwise specified, in failure of which said recommendation shall be deemed confirmed.
In the event that the City Council votes to reject the three individuals recommended by the Mayor for appointment to a particular position, at the next regularly scheduled City Council meeting, the City Council shall, by a majority vote of the entire membership, select one of the three individuals previously recommended by the Mayor for the appointment.
K. 
Duties. The duties of all appointed officers not particularly designated in this Charter shall be prescribed by the City Council.
L. 
Deputy Mayor. The Mayor shall appoint the Deputy Mayor from within the membership of the City Council. Whenever the Mayor shall be absent from the City or prevented by illness or some other cause from attending to the duties of the office of Mayor, the Deputy Mayor shall act as Mayor and shall have all of the powers conferred upon the Mayor during the continuance of such absence, illness or inability of the Mayor. Whenever the Deputy Mayor shall serve as Mayor, he/she shall receive compensation at a rate to be fixed by the City Council.
[Amended 11-3-1992]
M. 
Removal from office; public hearings. Any officer, employee or commission members not herein otherwise provided for, appointed either by the City Manager or by the City Council or any City board, may be removed for malfeasance in office, neglect of duty, incompetence or other just cause but shall not be removed upon any charge preferred against him/her without due notice and hearing by the City Council. When any such charges shall have been preferred, the officer complained of shall have the right to be heard with his/her witnesses and by counsel, and such hearing may be adjourned from time to time as the City Council may direct. A chairperson of a Council standing committee shall be considered an officer hereunder. Any officer, employee or commission member charged and subject to removal under the provisions of this section shall be removed from office or employment after due notice and hearing as herein provided upon majority vote of the City Council.
N. 
Zoning authority. The City Council shall be the zoning authority of the City of Meriden and shall sit as the Zoning Commission of the City of Meriden in determining zoning matters.