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REPORTS OF COMMITTEES.

RULE 25. Committees of the board, to whom any matter is especially referred, shall report within four weeks, or ask for further time.

SPECTATORS.

RULE 26. No person, except a member of the board, shall be permitted to occupy the seat of any member while the board is in session.

RULE 27. No persons, excepting members of the city council, heads of departments, and reporters, shall be allowed in the anteroom of the aldermanic chamber while the board is in session. No person shall be allowed to enter the aldermanic chamber while the board is in session, after the seats furnished for spectators are occupied. The city messenger shall enforce this rule.

LICEN SES.

RULE 28. No licenses shall be granted for exhibitions of wrestling.

RULE 29. No permission for the use of land for the purpose of burial, or for the construction of underground conduits, shall be granted until a public hearing shall have been given by the board of aldermen on the application for such permission. No permission shall be granted for the erection of poles, piers, abutments or other fixtures for the support of electric wires unless the applicant for such permit shall bear the expense of the notification required by the provisions of chapter 237 of the Acts of 1903.

RULE 30. Every license or permit hereafter granted for the location of a street railway track, the erection of a pole or post, the construction of an underground conduit, the laying of a pipe or wire, or for the doing of any other work which may involve the disturbance of a surface of a street, shall specify the time within which the contemplated work shall be done, and shall not confer authority to do any such work after the expiration of such specified time.

LAMPS.

RULE 31. Any person desiring a lamp to be erected in any way, shall make application therefor to the superintendent of lamps, who shall examine the place where it is proposed to locate the lamp and report thereon to the board; provided, however, that if the lamp is to be an electric lamp the superintendent shall obtain the opinion of the commissioner of wires on the location, and forward to the board the opinion with his report.

SUSPENSION OF RULES.

RULE 32. Any rule may be suspended by a vote of two-thirds of the members of the board present and voting.

RULES AND ORDERS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL.

RULE 1. Unless otherwise ordered from time to time, the regular meeting of the common council shall be held on every Thursday, at 7.45 o'clock P.M., and, on the appearance of a quorum, the council shall be called to order. In the absence of the president the oldest senior member present shall take the chair, and a president pro tempore shall be chosen by ballot; and, if an election is not effected on the first trial, on subsequent trials a plurality vote shall elect.

The roll shall be called at each meeting of the council, at the discretion of the president, but not later than nine o'clock.

When the meeting of the common council is called to order, it shall be the duty of the city messenger to cause the electric bell in the antechamber to be rung for the purpose of notifying the members that the body is in session, and for the three minutes next following the ringing of the bell no business shall be transacted and no member recognized by

the chair for any purpose.

PRESIDENT.

RULE 2. The president shall appoint and announce all committees, unless otherwise ordered, and shall communicate his appointments to the council at the meeting following such action, if not made during a session. All vacancies upon committees shall be filled in the manner of original appointment, and members so appointed shall take rank according to the date of their appointment, unless otherwise designated by the president.

RULE 3. The president may, at any time, call another member to the chair, but such substitution shall not continue beyond an adjournment. In all cases the president may vote.

RULE 4. The president shall preserve order in the council chamber, during sessions of the council, and in case any member other than the one recognized by the chair insists on occupying the floor for any purpose, except to rise to a point of order or question of personal privilege, he shall, upon request of the president, take his seat, and upon refusal to comply with such request, said member shall by a majority vote of the members present and voting be removed from the council chamber, such removal to remain in effect during the remainder of the session, unless otherwise ordered. The president shall forbid

smoking in the council chamber.

CLERK.

RULE 5. The clerk shall keep a record of the acts, votes, and proceedings of the common council, and a separate record of all decisions

of the chair upon questions of order. He shall have the care and custody of all papers belonging to this branch of the city council, and shall prepare a schedule of business in order for each meeting, in such manner as the president may direct.

He shall draw up and send all messages to the board of aldermen; and shall retain in his possession all papers until the right to file a notice of reconsideration has expired, and if such notice is made he shall keep the papers pertaining thereto until the right of reconsideration has expired.

CONDUCT OF MEMBERS.

RULE 6. Except when otherwise provided, no member shall speak for more than fifteen minutes, and a further equal time if the council so vote. No member shall speak a second time on a question, if another member, who has not spoken, claims the floor.

RULE 7. No member speaking shall be interrupted by another, except upon a point of order.

Every member, while speaking, shall confine himself to the question under debate, and shall refrain from personalities, and shall not refer to any other member of the council except by a respectful designation; and no member shall speak or vote out of his place without leave of the president.

QUORUM.

RULE 8. Whenever a member raises a doubt of a quorum being present, the chair shall ascertain and declare whether a quorum is present or not. For this purpose he may at his discretion, or on motion, sustained by one-fifth of the members present, order the roll to be called. If a quorum is not present he shall declare the council adjourned.

COMMITTEES.

RULE 9. All matters relating to the election of members shall be referred to the standing committee on elections, which shall consist of five members.

RULE 10. There shall be a standing committee on judiciary, consisting of five members, who shall have the power to obtain the opinion of the corporation counsel on all matters that shall be referred to them.

RULE 11. All committees of this council shall be notified of their meetings by the clerk of committees. They shall not sit during sessions of the council without special leave, nor be called on less notice than twenty-four hours from the time the notices are mailed by the clerk or despatched by special messengers, unless all the members consent; and the clerk shall keep a record of their doings. The member first named shall be chairman, unless otherwise ordered by the committee, in which case the council shall be notified of the change; and the same rule shall apply to the members serving on joint committees.

RULE 12. Special committees of the council shall consist of three members, unless otherwise ordered.

RULE 13. No report of any committee shall be received unless agreed to by such committee at a duly notified meeting thereof. Such report, when presented, may be ordered to be printed, and shall then take its place among the unfinished business for consideration at the next

meeting.
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE.

RULE 14. When the council shall determine to go into a committee of the whole, the president shall appoint the member who shall take the chair. RULE 15. The rules of proceedings in the council shall be observed in the committee of the whole, so far as they are applicable; but the previous question shall not be moved, and a motion to rise, report progress, and ask leave to sit again shall be first in order, and shall be decided without debate. ORDER OF BUSINESS. RULE 16. At every meeting of the council the order of business shall be as follows: First. Reading of the records of the preceding meeting, if called for by a majority of the members present. Second. Messages from his honor the mayor, reports of city officers, and other communications addressed to the council. Third. Papers from the board of aldermen. Fourth. Reports of committee on finance. Fifth. Reports of committees, which shall be called for by divisions in numerical order. Sia:th. Motions, orders, and resolutions. Orders and resolutions shall be read once, and, upon motion, referred to their appropriate committees or assigned to the next meeting. If no objection is made or the rules are suspended, orders and resolutions may, at the time they are offered, be given a second reading and passed. All orders relating to heads of departments shall, unless otherwise ordered, be referred to the mayor. Seventh. Unfinished business of preceding meetings. Eighth. Notices of motions for reconsideration. (See Rule 35.) Ninth. Motions, orders, and resolutions, which shall take the same course as provided in the sixth section of this rule; provided, however, that not more than thirty minutes shall be allowed for the presentation of papers under the sixth order of business. Papers shall be called for by divisions in numerical order, and only one member in division one, two members in division two, two members in division three, and one member in division four, shall be recognized until each division has been called. RULE 17. All papers addressed to the council shall be presented by the president or by a member; and, unless the council shall otherwise determine, they shall be read by the president, or such other person as he may request, and be taken up in the order in which they have been presented.

RULE 18. All ordinances, orders, and resolutions shall, unless rejected, have two several readings, after each of which debate shall be in order, and they shall then be put on their passage. Whenever the second reading immediately follows the first, the document may be read by its title only.

RULE 19. No ordinance, and no order or resolution imposing penalties, or authorizing the expenditure of money, shall have more than one reading on the same day; but this rule shall not apply to an order to print a document.

MOTIONS.

RULE 20. Every motion shall be reduced to writing, if the president shall so direct, and no other motion shall be entertained until a reasonable time be afforded for compliance with such direction.

RULE 21. In naming sums and fixing times, the largest sum and longest time shall first be put to the question.

RULE 22. When a question is under debate the president shall receive any of the following motions, but no others:

To adjourn.

To lay on the table.
The previous question. -
To close debate at a specified time.
To assign to a time certain.
To amend.
To refer to a committee.
To refer to another board.
To postpone indefinitely.

These several motions shall not be applied to each other, except that the motion to assign, amend, refer, or to close debate at a specified time, may be amended ; and the previous question may be demanded upon an amendment, which motion shall be decided without debate. When one of these motions has been made, none of the others inferior to it in precedence shall be made, and, in proceeding to vote, motions pending shall be put in the order of their rank, as above arranged. No motion or proposition of a subject different from that under consideration shall be admitted under color of amendment.

RULE 23. When a matter has been assigned to be taken up at a fixed hour, or at a certain stage of proceedings, such matter shall, at the time appointed, or at any time subsequent thereto, during the same or succeeding meetings, be in order upon the call of any member, and take precedence of all other business.

RULE 24. When an order or resolution relates to a subject which may properly be examined and reported upon by an existing committee of the city council, such order or resolution shall, upon presentation,

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