City of Aurelia Act: Part V (Practices and Procedures)

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City of Aurelia Act: Part V (Practices and Procedures)

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PART VI
PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES
First Meeting


First council meeting
41. The first meeting of a new city council after a regular election shall be held not later than 28 days after its term commences.

Declaration of office
42. (1) A person shall not take a seat on city council until the person takes the declaration of office in the English.

Separate declarations
(2) Subsection (1) applies even if the person has already taken a declaration of office for another office on city

Condition for conducting business
(3) No business shall be conducted at the first meeting of city council until after the declarations of office have been made by all members who present themselves for that purpose.

Location of Meetings and Public Offices


Location
43. (1) City council shall hold its meetings and keep its public offices within the City; however, in the case of an emergency, it may hold its meetings and keep its public offices at any convenient location within or outside the City.

Joint meetings
(2) Despite subsection (1), a meeting of the councils of the City and one or more other municipalities for the consideration of matters of common interest may be held within the City or within any of the other municipalities or in a municipality adjacent to any of them.

Quorum


Quorum
44. A majority of the members of city council is necessary to form a quorum.
Procedure By-law
Definitions
45. (1) In this section,
committee” means any advisory or other committee, subcommittee or similar entity of which at least 50 per cent of the members are also members of one or more municipal councils or local boards;
meeting” means any regular, special or other meeting of city council, of the local board or of a committee of either of them.

Meetings open to public
46. (1) Except as provided in this section, all meetings shall be open to the public.

Exceptions
(2) A meeting or part of a meeting may be closed to the public if the subject matter being considered is,
(a) the security of the property of the City or local board;
(b) personal matters about an identifiable individual, including a city employee or a local board employee;
(c) labour relations or employee negotiations;
(d) advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose; or
(e) a matter in respect of which the city council, board, committee or other body may hold a closed meeting under another Act.

Resolution
(3) Before holding a meeting or part of a meeting that is to be closed to the public, the City or local board or committee, shall state the fact of the holding of the closed meeting and the general nature of the matter to be considered at the closed meeting.

Opening meeting
(4) A meeting shall not be closed to the public during the taking of a vote.

Record of meeting
(5) The City, a local board or a committee of either of them shall record without note or comment all resolutions, decisions and other proceedings at a meeting of the body, whether it is closed to the public or not.

Same
(6) The record required by subsection (8) shall be made by,
(a) the clerk, in the case of a meeting of the council; or
(b) the appropriate officer, in the case of a meeting of a local board or committee.

Calling of meetings
47. In this section,
(a) the head of council may at any time call a special meeting; and
(b) upon receipt of a petition of the majority of the members of city council, the clerk shall call a special meeting for the purpose and at the time mentioned in the petition.

Presiding officer
48. (1) The head of council or other presiding officer designated under this section shall preside at all meetings of city council, except where otherwise provided.

Same
(2) With the consent of the head of council, city council may designate another member of council to preside at meetings of the City, and the designation may be made by secret ballot.

Power to expel
(3) The head of council or other presiding officer may expel any person for improper conduct at a meeting.

Absence of head
49. The City may, by by-law or resolution, appoint a member of city council to act in the place of the head of council to preside at meetings when the head of council or designated member is absent or refuses to act or the office is vacant, and while so acting such member has all the powers and duties of the head of council or designated member, as the case may be.

Voting
50. (1) Despite any Act, every member of city council has only one vote.

Open voting
(2) No vote shall be taken by ballot or by any other method of secret voting, and every vote so taken is of no effect.

Tie votes
(3) Any question on which there is a tie vote is deemed to be lost, except where otherwise provided by any Act.

Recorded vote
(4) If a member present at a meeting at the time of a vote requests immediately before or after the taking of the vote that the vote be recorded, each member present, except a member who is disqualified from voting by any Act, shall announce his or her vote openly and the clerk shall record each vote.

Failure to vote
(5) A failure to vote under subsection (4) by a member who is present at the meeting at the time of the vote and who is qualified to vote is deemed to be a negative vote.

By-laws


Language of by-laws
51. (1) The by-laws and resolutions of the City shall be passed in English.

Official plan
(2) An official plan adopted by the City shall be in English.

Proceedings
(3) City council and every committee of council may conduct its proceedings in English.

Minutes
(4) The minutes of the proceedings shall be kept in English or in both English and French.

Proviso
(5) Nothing in this section,
(a) affects an obligation imposed by or under any Act to make, keep, use, file, register or submit any record in the language or languages specified by or under the Act; or
(b) affects any requirement at law to give reasonable notice.

Seal of the City
52. (1) Every by-law of the City,
(a) shall be under the seal of the City; and
(b) shall be signed by the city clerk and by the head of council or presiding officer who was at the meeting at which the by-law was passed.

Failure to seal
(2) If, by oversight, the seal of the City was not affixed to a by-law, it may be affixed at any time afterwards and when so affixed, the by-law is as valid as if it had been originally sealed.

By-laws upon application
53. (1) Where by this or any other Act a by-law may be passed by city council upon the application of a required number of electors or inhabitants of the City or a geographic area, the by-law shall not be finally passed until the clerk has certified that the application was sufficiently signed.
Records
Inspection of records
54. (1) Any person may, at all reasonable times, inspect any of the records under the control of the clerk, including,
(a) by-laws and resolutions of the City and of its local boards;
(b) minutes and proceedings of regular, special or committee meetings of the city council or of the city’s local boards, whether the minutes and proceedings have been adopted or not;
(c) records considered at a meeting, except those records considered during that part of a meeting that was closed to the public;
(d) the records of city council.

Retention of records
55. (1) The City shall retain and preserve the records of the City and its local boards in a secure and accessible manner and, if a local board is a local board of the City and one or more other municipalities, the City is jointly responsible with the other affected municipalities for complying with this subsection.

Same, local boards
(2) Despite subsection (1), a local board of the City that has ownership and control of its records shall retain and preserve the records in a secure and accessible manner.
Vacancies
Vacant seat
56. The office of a member of city council becomes vacant if the member,
(a) fails to make the declaration of office before the deadline;
(b) is absent from the meetings of council for one year without being authorized to do so by a resolution of council;
(c) resigns from his or her office and the resignation is effective under section 57;
(d) is appointed or elected to fill any vacancy in any other office on the council;
(e) has his or her office declared vacant in any judicial proceeding;
(f) forfeits his or her office under this or any other Act; or
(g) dies, whether before or after accepting office and making the declaration of office required by section 42.

Resignation as member
57. A member of city council may resign from office by notice in writing filed with the clerk.

Declaration re vacancy
58. If the office of a member of city council becomes vacant under section 56, the council shall at its next meeting declare the office to be vacant, except if a vacancy occurs as a result of the death of a member, the declaration may be made at either of its next two meetings.

Filling vacancies
59. (1) If a vacancy occurs in the office of a member of city council, the City shall fill the vacancy by appointing a person who has consented to accept the office.

(2) The following rules apply to filling vacancies:
1. Within 60 days after the day a declaration of vacancy is made with respect to the vacancy under section 56, the City shall appoint a person to fill the vacancy under subsection (1) or
2. Despite paragraph 1, if a court declares an office to be vacant, the City shall act under subsection (1) within 56 days after the day the court makes its declaration.

Term of office, vacancy
60. A person appointed or elected to fill a vacancy under section 56 holds office for the remainder of the term of the person he or she replaced.
Judicial Investigation
Investigation by judge
61. (1) If the City so requests by resolution, a judge shall,

(a) investigate any supposed breach of trust or other misconduct of a member of city council, a city employee or a person having a contract with the City in relation to the duties or obligations of that person to the City; or

(b) inquire into any matter connected with the good government of the City;

Report
(2) The judge shall report the results of the investigation or inquiry to the City as soon as practicable.

Counsel
(3) The City may hire counsel to represent the City and pay fees for witnesses who are summoned to give evidence at the investigation or inquiry.

Representation by counsel
(4) Any person whose conduct is called into question in the investigation or inquiry may be represented by counsel.

Costs
(5) The judge may engage counsel and other persons to assist in the investigation or inquiry and the costs of engaging those persons and any incidental expenses shall be paid by the City.
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