Division 3 — CONDUCT OF MEETING

2123. • SEATING ARRANGEMENT.

The seating arrangement of all persons at the Council table shall be under the direction of the presiding officer.

No person except city officials, their representatives and representatives of newsgathering agencies, shall be permitted within the rail in front of the Council Chamber without the consent of the Council in each instance.

The Presiding Officer shall call the Council to order precisely at the hour appointed for the meeting. The Presiding Officer shall preserve order at all meetings of the Council. He may, and upon request of any voting member shall state every question coming before the Council, announce the decision of the Council on all subjects, and decide all questions of order, subject, however, to an appeal to the Council, in which event a majority vote of the Council shall govern and conclusively determine such question of order.

Unless the reading of the minutes of a former meeting is requested by a Councilman, such minutes may be approved without reading if the City Clerk has previously caused a copy thereof to be mailed or delivered to each Councilman.

Prior to the taking up of any matter on the agenda other than the approval of minutes, or at any time during the meeting, the presiding officer may require all persons, prior to addressing the City Council on any subject or on any specific agenda item, to be sworn to tell the truth.

Any written, pictorial or material object of any kind presented to the City Council during any noticed public hearing for the purpose of explaining, clarifying or exemplifying to the Council the matter under discussion or for the purpose of influencing the judgment or decision of the Council on any such matter, shall be submitted to the City Clerk, marked as an exhibit and kept on file in such matter, unless and until the City Council directs its return upon such conditions as the Council may prescribe in any such directive. Any

written, pictorial or material object of any kind presented to the City Council during any other portion of the meeting for the purpose of explaining, clarifying or exemplifying to the Council the matter under discussion or for the purpose of influencing the judgment or decision of the Council on any such matter may be required by the City Council to be submitted to the City Clerk, marked as an exhibit and kept on file in such matter, unless and until the City Council directs its return upon such conditions as the Council may prescribe in any such directive.

Written communications addressed to the City Council or City Clerk need not be read in full at a Council meeting even if the writer thereof specifically so requests, if copies thereof have been made available to each member of the City Council prior to the Council meeting. Any Councilman may, however, request the full reading of any such communication, and the author thereof may read the same into the record upon recognition for such purpose by the presiding officer.