§45-8A-23.066. Meetings, passage or ordinances, etc.

The council shall hold regular public meetings as may be prescribed by its own rules, provided that a regular hour and day shall be fixed by the order of the council, and publicly announced. It may hold such adjourned, called, special, or other meetings as the business of the city may require. The mayor when present and in his or her absence the assistant mayor shall preside at all meetings of the council. A majority of the whole qualified membership of the council shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any and every power conferred upon the council. The affirmative vote of a majority of the quorum shall be necessary and sufficient for the passage of any resolution, rule, or ordinance, or the transaction of any business of any sort by the council or the exercise of any of the powers conferred upon it by the terms of this part or which may hereafter be conferred upon it. No resolution or ordinance granting any franchise, appropriating any money for any purpose, providing for any public improvements, any regulation concerning the public health, or of any other general or permanent nature shall be enacted except at a regular public meeting of the council or an adjournment thereof; provided that a resolution or ordinance of any emergency nature may be passed by the council at any meeting. A resolution or ordinance shall be deemed to be of an emergency nature if it shall be declared so to be by an affirmative vote of not less than four-fifths of the whole qualified membership of the council. Every ordinance introduced shall be in writing and read before any vote thereon shall be taken, and the yeas and nays thereon shall be recorded. A record of the proceedings of every meeting of the council shall be taken and prepared by the city clerk, and the record of the proceedings of the meeting shall, when approved by the council, be signed by the mayor and the city clerk and entered in the journal. The journal shall be kept available for inspection by all persons at all reasonable times. No ordinance of permanent operation shall be passed at the meeting at which it was introduced except by unanimous consent of all members of the council present, and such unanimous consent shall be shown by the aye and nay votes entered upon the minutes of the meeting; provided, however, that if all members of the council present vote for the passage of the ordinance and their names are so entered of record as voting in favor thereof, it shall be construed as giving unanimous consent to the action upon such ordinance at the meeting at which it is introduced. Publication of ordinances shall be had as provided in Section 11-45-8.

(Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §3.17.)