The council shall be the legislative body of the city. In it are vested all the powers of the city except as otherwise provided in this Charter, including the power to adopt, amend and repeal ordinances for the preservation of the public peace, health, safety and welfare, and to provide for their enforcement by the enactment of appropriate penalties for their violation.
Each member of the council shall be entitled to receive compensation at an annual rate to be fixed by the council, by ordinance, provided that such compensation shall be at the rate of one thousand two hundred dollars a year until another rate is fixed by ordinance and provided, further, that compensation of councilmen shall not be increased or diminished during the term for which they were elected.
Each newly elected council shall assemble in a designated public facility at seven o'clock p.m. on the first Monday in January following its election. The meeting shall be called to order by the city clerk who shall then administer to each member an oath or affirmation to the effect that such member will faithfully perform the duties of his office and will support the constitution and laws of the State of Rhode Island and the United States of America. In the absence of the city clerk the meeting may be called to order by the oldest member present, according to age, of the newly elected council and the oath administered by any person authorized to administer oaths.
(Res. No. 91-68, 10/28/1991, §§ 2, 3, approved at referendum 11/3/1992)
The council shall on the first Monday in January following its election or as soon thereafter as practicable elect from its own number by majority vote of all its members a president and vice-president to serve for terms of two years. The president shall preside at all meetings of the council and perform such other duties as are assigned to the president by this Charter or by ordinance. The vice-president shall preside in the absence of the president and in the event of a vacancy in the office of president from any cause arising shall become the president. A vacancy in the office of vice-president shall be filled by the council for the unexpired portion of the term by majority vote of all its members. If at any meeting of the council both the president and the vice-president shall be absent the council shall elect by majority vote of the members present a presiding officer for that meeting.
(Approved at referendum 11/3/1998)
The president of the council shall receive in addition to the compensation provided as a member of the council an annual sum to be fixed by ordinance, but which shall not exceed fifty per cent of such councilmember compensation.
(Approved at referendum 11/3/1998)
The council shall have power to adopt, amend and repeal rules for the conduct of its proceedings not inconsistent with the provisions of this Charter. Such rules may contain penalties for nonattendance at meetings of the council and of its committees and for disorderly conduct in such meetings. Absence from more than three consecutive regular meetings of the council shall operate to vacate the seat of a member unless such absence is excused by a resolution of the council setting forth the nature of the excuse and spread upon the journal. A majority of all the members of the council shall constitute a quorum, but a smaller number may adjourn from time to time and enforce the attendance of members in the manner provided by the rules.
Regular meetings shall be held at such times as the rules of the council shall prescribe; provided, that not less than one regular meeting shall be held each month. Special meetings may be called by the mayor, the president of the council or any three members upon at least twenty-four hours written notice delivered by messenger or mail at the place of residence of each member or via email. Such notice shall state the specific items of business to be transacted at the meeting and no other business shall be transacted thereat unless all members are present and consent thereto. Any regular or special meeting may by action of a majority of the members present be adjourned to a time fixed in such motion and such adjourned meeting shall be treated in all respects as a continuation of the original meeting. All meetings of the council and its committees shall be open to the public. Under such reasonable rules as may be adopted by the council for the preservation of order and decorum and the efficient conduct of its business, opportunity shall be given at all regular meetings, as well as at scheduled hearings, for citizens to be heard on matters within the authority of the council. The mayor, city solicitor and the directors of finance and public works shall be assigned permanent seats in the council chamber. The mayor shall be entitled to introduce ordinances and to be heard at any time on all matters before the council. The city solicitor and the directors of finance and public works shall have the right to be heard on the legal, financial and engineering aspects, respectively, of pending municipal legislation. The heads of all other departments shall have the right to be heard on problems within their respective jurisdictions.
(Res. No. 2020-27, § 1, 6/25/2020, approved at referendum 11/8/2022)
The city clerk who shall be appointed by the council as provided in chapter 4 shall in addition to such other duties as are prescribed by other provisions of this Charter be the clerk of the council and as such shall be responsible for keeping in the journal a complete record of its proceedings and of all actions taken by it. The city clerk shall keep such other records and files as the council may require which, together with the journal, shall be open to public inspection in the clerk's office during business hours.
(Res. No. 73-122, 6/25/1973, § 19, approved at referendum 8/7/1973; approved at referendum 11/3/1998)
No ordinance, resolution, motion or vote except motions of a purely procedural nature shall be adopted by the council and no appointment or removal shall be made by less than the affirmative votes of a majority of all the members of the council. All voting shall be by roll call and the yeas and nays of the individual members shall in all cases be recorded in the journal.
In addition to such acts of the council as are required by applicable laws of the state or by other provisions of this Charter to be by ordinance every act of the council creating, altering or abolishing any board, commission, department, office, agency or employment in the city government, assigning or reassigning the same to a department or otherwise affecting the organization of the city government, fixing compensation of the officers and employees of the city or any of them, making an appropriation, authorizing the borrowing of money, levying a tax, requiring payment of a fee or charge, establishing any rule or regulation for the violation of which a penalty is imposed, or placing any burden upon or limiting the use of private property, shall be by ordinance.
An ordinance may be introduced by any member, any committee of council or the mayor at any regular meeting of the council or at any special meeting if the ordinance is pertinent to the item or items of business specified in the notice of such special meeting. It shall be introduced in typewritten or printed form. Every ordinance except the annual appropriation ordinance or an ordinance making a codification of ordinances shall be confined to a single subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title. All ordinances which amend or repeal existing ordinances shall set forth the section or subsection to be amended or repealed and if it is to be amended shall indicate matter to be omitted from the revised section or subsection by enclosing the same in brackets and new matter by underscoring except that if the ordinance is printed italics may be substituted for underscoring. The enacting clause of all ordinances shall be "It is ordained by the city council of the City of Cranston as follows:".
Upon introduction of an ordinance the council shall set a day and hour not earlier than the seventh day thereafter at which the council or a committee thereof shall hold a public hearing on such ordinance. Such hearing may be held at a regular meeting of the council or at such other time and place as the council may order and may be adjourned from time to time. It shall be the duty of the city clerk to cause to be published, except as hereinafter provided, within five days of its introduction every proposed ordinance together with a notice of the time and place of the public hearing thereon, as a paid advertisement once in a newspaper of general circulation in the city. The city clerk shall also place a copy of the ordinance in a file provided for each member of the council and deliver copies to the mayor and city solicitor. Copies of the ordinance shall also be kept available for inspection by the public in the office of the city clerk. Newspaper publication may be dispensed with in the case of an ordinance making a codification of ordinances or in the case of any other ordinance exceeding one newspaper column in length when printed in eight-point type without leads, provided that copies of such ordinance have been made available in suitable form for distribution in the office of the city clerk. In such cases a description of the ordinance shall be prepared by the city solicitor and published by the city clerk together with a notice of the public hearing thereon, in the manner provided for the publication of other ordinances.
No ordinance shall be finally passed other than an emergency ordinance as defined in section 3.13 prior to the fourteenth day following its introduction nor until the conclusion of the public hearing thereon. No ordinance shall be finally passed until there is on file in the office of the city clerk an endorsement of its form and legality by the city solicitor. If prior to final passage a proposed ordinance other than an emergency ordinance is amended it shall be republished and reheard as amended in the manner provided for the publication and hearing of the original ordinance and shall not be finally passed until the conclusion of the public hearing thereon.
No ordinance whose passage will obligate or cause the City of Cranston to expend funds shall be reported out of committee or placed on the docket of the Cranston City Council for consideration without a fiscal note attached to said proposed ordinance. Said note shall be supplied by the Department of Finance and shall indicate the approximate costs that the City will incur or be obligated to pay or guarantee if the proposed ordinance is passed. Said fiscal note shall contain information detailing the approximate costs to the city including, but not limited to, the anticipated amount of state and federal taxes and/or other benefits the city may be obligated to pay. Any ordinance which requires a fiscal note which is passed without a fiscal note attached thereof shall be deemed null and void.
(Res. No. 73-122, 6/25/1973, §§ 6, 7, approved at referendum 8/7/1973; Res. No. 91-75, § 2, 10/28/1991, approved at referendum 11/3/1992)
Emergency ordinances for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, containing a specific statement of the emergency claimed, may be introduced at any regular meeting of the council or at any special meeting if the consideration of such an ordinance has been included in notice of the meeting. Upon introduction it shall be published in the manner provided for other ordinances. If approved by the affirmative votes of at least two-thirds of the members of the council it may be finally passed at any regular, adjourned or duly called special meeting following such publication.
Every ordinance passed by the council shall be signed by the president or other person presiding at the session at which it was passed and shall be presented within twenty-four hours by the city clerk to the mayor. If the mayor approves the ordinance, the mayor shall sign it within ten days of its receipt by the mayor. If the mayor disapproves the mayor shall within such ten day period return the ordinance to the office of the city clerk with a written statement of the reasons for the mayor's disapproval. The city clerk shall present the ordinance with the mayor's objections thereto to the council at its next meeting. Thereupon the council shall proceed to reconsider the ordinance. If upon such reconsideration the ordinance shall be repassed by the affirmative votes of at least two-thirds of all the members of the council the ordinance shall become effective as hereinafter provided. Otherwise, the ordinance shall be lost and no further proceedings shall be had thereon. If the mayor fails to approve or disapprove the ordinance within the ten day period the mayor shall be deemed to have approved it as of the tenth day. In the case of the annual appropriation ordinance the mayor's veto shall apply only to the individual items thereof with the effect provided in section 6.10. The time at which an ordinance other than an emergency ordinance shall take effect may be specified in the ordinance; provided that if no time is specified it shall take effect on the fourteenth day following its final adoption which shall be taken to be the day of its signature by the mayor, the day ofits passage over the mayor's veto by the council or, if the mayor has neither signed nor vetoed it, on the final day of the ten day period allowed him of the purpose. An emergency ordinance shall specify the time at which it shall take effect.
(Approved at referendum 11/3/1998)
Every ordinance that becomes effective shall be given a serial number and be included in the journal. It shall also be recorded by the city clerk in a properly indexed book. All ordinances for violation of which a penalty is imposed or which limit the use of or impose a burden on private property shall be published by the city clerk once as a paid advertisement in a newspaper of general circulation in the city within five days after their final adoption. All ordinances of general and permanent character shall be published by the city clerk at least biennially in pamphlet form as a supplement to a complete codification of all general and permanent ordinances which shall be made under the supervision of the city solicitor as of December 31, 1969, and every ten years thereafter. The city clerk shall be responsible for the publication of the recodified ordinances and shall have authority to sell the same to the public at a price to be fixed by the council.
(Res. No. 73-122, 6/25/1973, § 8, approved at referendum 8/7/1973)
The council shall have power by ordinance not inconsistent with other provisions of this Charter to create, modify or abolish departments and nondepartmental agencies in addition to those provided for in this Charter; and to create, modify or abolish within departments divisions, bureaus and other organizational units not established by this Charter. The council shall further have power by ordinance not inconsistent with this Charter and subject in particular to the provisions of chapter 14, to fix the number, qualifications, powers, duties, hours of work and compensation of all officers and employees of the city except employees of the school committee and to make needful rules and regulations for the operation of all public buildings except school buildings, public grounds, parks, parkways, streets and other public property.
The council or any committee thereof when duly authorized by the council shall have power to investigate the official conduct of any department, board, commission, office or agency, or officer or employee of the city; providing that no such investigation shall be made of any activity of the school department over which the state department of education has exclusive supervisory jurisdiction. For the purpose of conducting any such investigation each member of the council shall have the power to administer oaths and the council or authorized committee may compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of books and papers. If any person summoned as a witness shall refuse to testify to any facts within that person's knowledge or to produce any books or papers within that person's possession or under that person's control relating to the matter under inquiry the council may apply through the city solicitor or other designated attorney to any justice of the superior court for a citation of such person in contempt and thereupon such person may be cited in contempt and be punished in like manner as if that person were in contempt of such court.
(Approved at referendum 11/3/1998)
The council by majority vote of all its members may remove any officer or member of a board or commission appointed by it, for any reason, provided the person to be removed shall first have been served with a written notice of the intention of the council to remove that person, containing the reasons for the removal and fixing a time and place, not less than ten days after the service of such notice, at which the person to be removed shall be given an opportunity to be heard in that person's own defense. The hearing shall be public at the option of the person sought to be removed and the person may be represented by counsel. From the time of service of the notice above required the person sought to be removed shall be suspended from the performance of any duty or function for the city, but until final action of the council the person shall continue to receive such compensation the person would otherwise have been entitled to. The provisions of section 3.17 relating to the administration of oaths and enforcement of the attendance of witnesses shall apply to all hearings conducted under this section and the council shall summon such witnesses on behalf of the person sought to be removed as that person may request. Upon the conclusion of the hearing the decision of the council shall be final.
(Approved at referendum 11/3/1998)
No member of the council shall direct or request the appointment of any person to or any person's removal from any office or employment by the mayor or any of the mayor's subordinates or in any way take part in the appointment or removal of officers and employees of the city except as specifically provided in the Charter. Except for investigation as provided in section 3.17 the council and its members shall deal with the administrative services of the city solely through the mayor and neither the council nor any of its members shall give orders either publicly or privately to any subordinate of the mayor. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, department heads shall give to councilmembers such information as may be requested. If any councilmember shall violate any of the provisions of this section, that member's seat on the council may be declared vacant by a majority vote of all the other council members, after a public hearing. The seat so declared vacant shall be filled according to the provisions of this Charter.
(Res. No. 73-122, 6/25/1973, § 9, approved at referendum 8/7/1973; approved at referendum 11/3/1998)
The council shall by ordinance fix the amount and conditions of surety bonds to be required of the mayor, the director of finance and such other officers and employees concerned with the financial transactions of the city or the handling of money as may be designated in such ordinance. Such bonds shall in all cases be surety company bonds and the premiums thereon shall be paid by the city.
Not later than three months before the expiration of each fiscal year, the council shall engage and contract for the services of a certified public accountant or a firm of certified public accountants to make a financial audit of the records of the city; said audit shall commence at the close of each fiscal year and a copy of the auditor's report shall be filed with the city clerk by said auditor within one hundred and eighty days after the close of the fiscal year.
(Res. No. 78-17, 2/27/1978, § 1, approved at referendum 11/7/1978)
The council shall have a legislative research staff consisting of two part-time and unclassified members, one appointed by the members of the majority party and one appointed by the members of the minority party, and who shall serve atthe pleasure of the appointing authority. The members of the research staff shall assist the members of the council in the performance of their duties, and the salary of each shall not exceed two-thirds of a councilmember's compensation.
(Res. No. 73-122, 6/25/1973, § 11, approved at referendum 8/7/1973; approved at referendum 11/3/1998)
The right to enact ordinances, other than operating budget ordinances and capital budget ordinances, is hereby granted to the qualified electors of the city by initiative. The initiative shall be exercised in the following manner:
(a)
Whenever twenty percent of the qualified electors of the City petition the city council to enact a proposed ordinance it shall be the duty of the city council to consider such proposed ordinance within ninety days of receipt. Receipt for the purposes of this section shall be defined as the introduction of said petition at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the city council.
(b)
The signatures on any initiative petition provided for in this section may be on separate papers; provided however, that such separate paper shall contain a full and correct copy of the title and text of the proposed ordinance and all such separate papers shall be bound together and filed as one instrument with the city clerk. To each said separate paper there shall be attached a signed statement of the circulator thereof, who shall state under oath therein that each signature appended to said paper was made in the presence of the circulator.
(c)
In the event that the city council shall fail to enact such proposed ordinance without amendment, and upon the receipt of the city clerk of a notarized referendum petition signed by an additional five percent of the qualified electors of the city, the city council shall submit the proposed ordinance to a vote of the people of the city at the next general election; provided, however, that said ballot referendum petition must be filed at least sixty days prior to the date fixed for such general election.
(d)
The ballots used when voting upon such proposed ordinance shall include an ordinance title which shall state the purpose or intent of such ordinance, the question, 'Shall the ordinance pass?' and shall set forth on separate lines the words 'Yes' and 'No'.
(e)
If a majority vote of the electors voting on the proposed ordinance shall vote in favor thereof, such ordinance shall thereupon become a valid binding ordinance of the city; an ordinance so adopted shall not be altered or modified by the city council within one year after adoption of the ordinance at said general election.
(f)
Any initiative submitted must be phrased in such a manner that a yes vote means yes and a no vote means no.
(g)
The chief purpose of the question must be plainly stated and concise and consist of no more than one hundred and twenty-five words.
(h)
The city council may by ordinance make such other further regulations for carrying out the provisions of this section as are not inconsistent herewith.
(Res. No. 94-41, § 2, 6/27/1994, approved at referendum 11/8/1994; Res. No. 2010-45, §§ 1, 2, 5/24/2010, approved at referendum 11/2/2010)
The council shall have the authority to engage the services of an attorney, as may from time to time be deemed necessary, without requiring the approval of the mayor. The terms of every such contract for legal services, including the payment arrangements and fee agreements shall be reported to the city council at the next regular meeting, and an updated accounting of the expenditures and obligations related to each such contract shall be disclosed to the council no later than every sixty days thereafter.
(Approved at referendum 11/3/1998)
The city council by a majority of all its members shall appoint an internal auditor who shall be a certified public accountant who shall have a minimum of five (5) years' experience in finance, operational auditing or equivalent training or experience. The city internal auditor shall have access to the books and records of all offices, departments and other agencies of the city, and it shall be the duty of all officers and employees thereof to supply such information and comments concerning the affairs of the city at the internal auditor request.
(A)
Powers and duties of the internal auditor. The powers and duties of the internal auditor shall be, without limitation, the following:
(1)
To perform audits of all offices, departments and other agencies of the city, and additional audits as directed by the president of the city council or by resolution of the city council;
(2)
To report the findings of such audits to the city council at least quarterly;
(3)
To issue a report to the city council at least annually on all operations of the city;
(4)
To submit such reports and financial data, information and statements to the city council as it may from time to time require;
(5)
To perform such other duties as may be assigned by ordinance and perform other auditing services of an official nature as may be required by the city council.
(B)
Scope of audits. Audits shall include, but shall not be limited to determining:
(1)
Whether financial operations are properly conducted in accordance with standards for governmental accounting and generally accepted accounting controls;
(2)
Whether the audited entity is operating within its budgetary limits;
(3)
Whether the audited entity is in compliance with the state constitution, this Charter, city ordinances, and all other applicable laws and regulations;
(4)
Whether the audited entity is managing and utilizing its resources in an economical and efficient manner;
(5)
Whether the management information system, administrative procedures and organizational structure are adequate to insure the timeliness and reliability of management information;
(6)
Whether the property of the city is properly accounted for and safeguarded from losses;
(7)
Whether the objectives or benefits of the audited entity are being achieved.
(Res. No. 06-52, 7/24/2006, § 1, approved at referendum 11/7/2006)