The text
Footnotes:
--- (2) --- State Law reference— Councils and governing bodies, G.L. 1956, § 45-5-1 et seq.
Sec. 2-31. - Rules for town council meetings; certain council petitions exempt from action at meetings.#
(a)
In general, order and decorum will prevail in the council chambers during meetings.
(b)
All matters to come before the council must be filed with the council clerk no later than 4:00 p.m. of the Wednesday preceding the meeting. All matters filed after this deadline will be held over for the next meeting. However, a councilmember has the prerogative to introduce new matters at any meeting. Also, an agenda will be prepared and be available for public inspection at the meetings.
(c)
In the interests of time and efficiency, the clerk will not read the items in their entirety. Instead, the clerk will first mention whom the item is from. Then the clerk will give a short statement indicating the nature of the request, after which the council will take action on the matter. All items will be made public for those interested in reading the entire text. If, for some reason, any councilmember or the author of the petition or letter is at the council meeting and wants his item read in full, the council will oblige.
(d)
No petition, letter, or other matter shall appear on the council agenda unless said petition, letter, or other filing shall contain the complete name and address of the applicant or petitioner, fully legible, together with a telephone number, if any.
(e)
Certain petitions to the town council need not come before the town council but may be handled administratively in the following manner:
(1)
Petitions for road cuts or utility pole installation shall be approved by the director of public works on behalf of the town council, subject to approval of the town administrator or his designee.
(2)
Petitions for street lights or sidewalk and curbing installation under the matching fund program shall be processed by the director of public works on behalf of the town council, subject to availability of funds and forwarded to the town administrator for approval subject to funds.
(3)
All renewals of town-granted licenses, for example, play pool licenses, cesspool pumpers' licenses, Sunday sales licenses, victualling licenses, peddlers' licenses, detective licenses, motion picture licenses, entertainment licenses, etc., shall be processed by the council clerk on behalf of the town council, subject to the payment of the appropriate fee and filing any necessary bonds.
(4)
All petitions for junk licenses, intoxicating beverage licenses or other licenses requiring public hearing, upon payment of the cost of submitting notice and advertising, shall be set up for a public hearing by the council clerk at the time and place of a regular town council meeting and advertised accordingly.
(5)
Petitions for Class F or F-1 beverage license (one-day license) or petitions for a religious street parade shall be approved by the council clerk on behalf of the town council, subject to notice to and approval of the town administrator. This section shall not apply when such a petition is made by a limited liability company or a sole proprietorship.
(f)
Nothing herein shall preclude the town council from acting on requests before it or from taking action where necessary against holders of licenses granted hereunder.
(Code 1972, § 2-1; Ord. No. 2015-07, 6-10-15; Ord. No. 2015-08, 6-10-15; Ord. No. 2019-10, 9-18-19)