(a)
The
city council elects, determines and ordains not to divide the city
into wards, and elects, determines and ordains that its city council
shall be one of six members, composed of the mayor and five (5) city
councilmembers.
(b)
The
five city council positions shall be separately designated and identified
as follows, to wit: “Councilmember, Place 1,” and “Councilmember,
Place 2,” and “Councilmember, Place 3,” and “Councilmember,
Place 4,” and “Councilmember, Place 5,” respectively.
(c)
The
council provides, determines and ordains that at the first annual
city election to be held on April 6, 1954, the two persons elected
as “Councilmember, Place 1,” and as “Councilmember,
Place 2,” respectively, shall each hold office for the long
terms of two (2) years each, and that at such first election the three
persons elected as “Councilmember, Place 3,” and as “Councilmember,
Place 4,” and as “Councilmember, Place 5,” respectively,
shall each hold office for the short terms of one (1) year each. But
beginning with the second annual city election to be held in April
of 1955, at which election the Place 3, 4 and 5 city councilmember
offices are the only ones to be voted upon, and as to each following
annual city election held thereafter, the mayor and/or councilmember
elected thereat shall each hold office for a term of two years (and
until their respective successors are duly elected and qualified).
(Ordinance 22, secs. 1–3,
adopted 2/11/54)
There shall be a regularly scheduled city council meeting the
first and third Thursdays of each month beginning at 7:00 p.m., and
the council meeting shall be held in the city hall. The city council
by a majority vote may by resolution move a regular meeting to another
date where the regular meeting would otherwise coincide with a local,
state, or federal holiday.
(Ordinance 328 adopted 10/10/96; Ordinance adopting Code)
Petitions and remonstrances may be presented to the council
in writing only. The city council shall hold stated meetings at such
times and places as they shall by resolution direct. The mayor, of
his own motion, or on the application of three city councilmembers,
may call special meetings, by notice to each member of the council,
the secretary and the city attorney, served personally or left at
their usual place of abode. The council shall determine the rules
of its proceedings and be the judge of the election and qualification
of its own members, and may compel the attendance of absent members
and punish them for disorderly conduct.
(Ordinance 156, sec. IV, adopted 8/23/76)
The mayor shall be the chief executive officer of said corporation,
and shall be active at all times in causing the laws and ordinances
of the city to be duly executed and put in force. He shall inspect
the conduct of all subordinate officers in the government thereof,
and shall cause all negligence, carelessness and other violations
of duty to be prosecuted and punished. He shall have power, if in
his judgment the good of the city may require it, to summon meetings
of the city council, and he shall communicate to that body such information
and recommend such measures as may tend to the improvement of the
finances, police, health, security, cleanliness, comfort, ornament
and good government of the city.
(Ordinance 156, sec. I, adopted 8/23/76)
The mayor shall have power to administer oaths of office. He
shall have authority in case of a riot or any unlawful assemblage,
or with a view to preserve peace and good order in the city, to order
and enforce the closing of any theater, ballroom, or other place of
resort, or public room or building, and may order the arrest of any
person violating in his presence the laws of this state or any ordinance
of the city. The mayor shall preside at all meetings of the city council
and shall have a casting vote in the event of a tie vote by the members
of the city council present and voting.
(Ordinance 156, sec. II, adopted 8/23/76)
The city council or other governing body shall have power to
pass, publish, amend or repeal all ordinances, rules and police regulations,
not contrary to the constitution of this state, for the good government,
peace and order of the city and the trade and commerce thereof, that
may be necessary or proper to carry into effect the powers vested
by this code in the corporation, the city government or any department
or office thereof, to enforce the observance of all such rules, ordinances
and police regulations, and to punish violations thereof.
(Ordinance 156, sec. V, adopted 8/23/76; Ordinance adopting Code)
(a)
Departments created; control by council.
There are hereby
created and placed under the control of the city council five administrative
departments of the city government as follows:
(b)
Power to establish, discontinue and consolidate departments and offices.
The city council shall have power by ordinance to establish
other departments and offices. The council may discontinue any department
or office established by ordinance and may prescribe, combine, distribute
or abolish the functions and duties of departments and offices, but
no function or duty assigned by this article to a particular department
or office shall be abolished or assigned to any other department or
office; provided that the council may, as it deems it advisable, consolidate
into one department not more than two of the departments hereby established.
No administrative department or office created by ordinance, and no
consolidation as hereinbefore provided, shall be established or discontinued
until the recommendation of the council shall have first been heard.
(c)
Salaries.
The council shall fix all salaries.
(d)
Appointment of directors; term; authority.
A director
for each of the above departments shall be elected by the city council,
and shall serve for a period of six months. Each director shall have
power to prescribe rules and regulations, not inconsistent with this
article or ordinance, for the conduct of his department and the preservation
of the records and property under his control. Subject to the control
and supervision of the council in all matters, the director of a department
shall manage his department.
(e)
Reports and recommendations to council.
The directors
of departments elected by the city council shall be immediately responsible
to the city council for the administration of their department, and
their advice in writing may be required by the city council on all
matters affecting their departments. They shall prepare departmental
estimates, which shall be open to public inspection, and they shall
make all their reports and recommendations concerning their departments
at stated intervals, or when required by the city council.
(f)
Removal of directors.
All such directors of departments
shall be immediately responsible to the city council and may be removed
by them at any time. In case of removal after six months’ service,
if the director removed so demands, a written statement shall be made
by the city council as to the reason of his removal, and the director
shall, if he so demands, be given a public hearing by the city council
before the order of removal is made final. The statement of the council
and any written reply by the director thereto shall be filed as a
public record in the office of the secretary of the council.
(g)
Authority of directors to hire and discharge employees.
The director of each department shall have the right to hire or discharge
any of the subordinate employees of his department subject to the
approval of the city council.
(h)
Investigations by council.
The council, the mayor, or
any person or committee authorized by either or both of them shall
have power to inquire into the conduct of any department or office
of the city, and to make investigations as to city affairs, and for
that purpose may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths and compel the
production of books, papers and other evidence material to said inquiry.
The council shall provide by ordinance penalties for contempt in refusing
to obey any such subpoenas or failure to produce books, papers and
other evidence, and shall have the power to punish any such contempt
in the manner provided by ordinance.
(i)
Suspension of employees.
The director of each department
shall have the exclusive right to suspend any of the officers or employees
who may be under his jurisdiction and control for incompetence, neglect
of duty, immorality, drunkenness, failure to obey orders given by
the proper authority or for any other just and reasonable cause. If
any officer or employee be suspended as herein provided, the director
of said department shall forthwith, in writing, certify the fact,
together with the cause for the suspension, to the city council, who
shall, within five days from the receipt of such certificate, if demanded
by the suspended officer or employee so to do, proceed to inquire
into the cause of the suspension and render judgment thereon, which
judgment, if the charge be sustained, may be suspension, reduction
in rank, or dismissal, except as may be otherwise provided herein.
(Ordinance 156, sec. V, adopted 8/23/76; Ordinance adopting Code)
