Legislative Process

All legislation requiring City Council action must be referred out of a Work Session or Council Committee before being presented to full Council for consideration. City Council Rules allow for the establishment of Work Sessions or various Council Committees during which all items requiring City Council action are introduced and discussed. Each November, City Council is required to make the determination whether Work Sessions or Council Committee meetings will be held the following calendar year.

Ordinances and Resolutions

In accordance with the Canal Winchester City Charter, ordinances and resolutions shall contain only one subject, which shall be expressed in its title. Exceptions to this rule are ordinances appropriating money and ordinances or resolutions that are codified or re-codified.

Ordinances shall be read by title only on three separate days. However, this requirement can be waived with a suspension of the rules at the discretion of Council. A vote of at least two-thirds of the members of Council is required for this action to be approved. Ordinances become effective 30 days after passage or at such later date as specified by Council in the ordinance. The following ordinances take effect upon passage unless a later time is specified within the ordinance:

• Appropriation of money
• An annual tax levy for current expenses
• Improvements petitioned for by owners of the requisite majority of the front footage or of the area of the property benefited and to be assessed
• Submission of any question to the electorate or the determination to proceed with an election
• Approval of a revision, codification, re-codification, or rearrangement or ordinances
• Any emergency ordinance 

Resolutions shall be read once by title only and may be voted on the date of reading. Resolutions become effective 30 days after passage or at such later date as specified by Council in the resolution.

All proposed Ordinances and Resolutions are submitted to the Clerk of Council for processing. The Clerk is responsible for making sure that all proposed legislation is assigned a number, introduced by a Council Committee, and placed before Council for final action. All legislation receiving final approval is then signed by the Council President, Law Director and the Clerk, and is then forwarded to the Mayor for signature of approval. The Mayor has ten (10) days to act on the legislation. Once the Mayor approves the legislation, it is returned to the Clerk's Office. The Clerk then records the legislation and issues a public notice.