Newport News City Council

• City Council administration

• All council meetings open to the public (but not all allow public comment). Placards, banners, and signs are banned at meetings

• “Citizen comments on matters germane to the business of city council” are allowed as part of the prescribed agenda on every regular meeting, but not special meetings or work session meetings.

Ordinances

• Submission: “Any member of the council desiring to submit an ordinance or resolution to the council shall submit it in writing under the regular order of "new business," and such ordinance or resolution shall be signed by the member sponsoring it, and it shall not be regarded as before the council for action thereon before it has been read at least once by its title or otherwise.”

• Need 1 sponsor to submit

• Vote: “No ordinance, resolution, motion or vote shall be adopted by the council except at a meeting open to the public and, except motions to adjourn, to fix the time and place of adjournment and other motions of a purely procedural nature, unless it shall have received the affirmative votes of at least four (4) members. All voting, except on procedural motions, shall have the ayes and nays recorded in the journal.”

• Majority vote

• Taking effect: “All ordinances and resolutions passed by the council shall, unless another date is specified therein as the effective date and except as otherwise provided in the city charter, be in effect on the tenth day following their passage.”

• Public comment

• People must register with the city clerk at the entrance before the meeting, giving name and address; 3min speaking limit

• Nothing about remote meetings or comments in the code