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the people of this community. She said the resolution was about rules and acceptable behavior, not about free speech. The Mayor said the City Charter of University City, Section nine states “the Council shall determine its own rules and order of business. It shall keep a journal of its own proceedings which shall be open to public inspection. It shall be the judge of election returns and qualification of its members and may punish its members for disorderly behavior.” She said on November 8, 2010, five members of this Council approved a revision of Council’s Rules of Order and Procedures. It is stated in these rules, “Except as otherwise provided by the Charter or by these rules, the proceedings of the Council shall be guided by Robert’s Rules of Order as Revised. The presiding officer shall preserve the decorum and shall decide all questions of order subject to appeal to the Council.” In Robert’s Rules of Order as Revised, portions of Section 43 state, “In debate a member must confine himself to the question before the assembly and avoid personalities. It is not allowable to arraign the motives of a member but the nature or consequences of measure may be condemned in strong terms. If at any time the Chairman rises to state a Point of Order or give information or otherwise speak within his privilege, the member speaking must take his seat till the chairman has been heard first when called to order by the Chair the member must sit down until the question of the order is decided.” The Mayor said it was her determination that the decorum of the Council’s debate at the February 14, 2011 meeting was not appropriate and she conveyed her concerns by a letter to Councilmember Price. She said it was her understanding that any formal reprimand of a member of this body must be delivered by a majority of the Council and that is why she has requested consideration of this resolution. The Mayor said only people who were in attendance at the February 14, 2011 Council meeting know what happened and understands that each person may perceive the proceedings differently. She said she acted on her concern about behavior that she saw as disorderly and believes it negatively impacted the work and deliberation of this Council. The Mayor noted that this is a challenging time in the community and are faced with making difficult decisions to insure the long term fiscal health of the City. She noted that each member of the Council can enter the discussions with a different idea of how to deal with those challenges. The Council must be able to discuss these issues openly and can disagree, agreeably without being hostile or disorderly. The Mayor stated that all Points of Order are fully considered in the Council’s deliberations. She said this not about free speech but rather trying to insure that there is form of respect of different opinions without name calling and disorderly behavior. The Mayor said this is a difficult step to make it clear to this community that the Council will only accept behavior from the elected members of this Body that is worthy of the people who put them on this Council. The Mayor said this resolution is about all members of Council living within their own rules, which was approved by a majority of the members, three months ago. She said the Council cannot do the business of the people if each member of the Council does not follow the Council’s rules and respect the right of other members of Council, staff and the public to have a different point of view. Mr. Sharpe said he had no idea why individuals believe Mr. Price and his deliberation is hostile, menacing to any degree. He said he is a little exuberant, he likes to speak, he speaks well, and he has a point to make and he makes it in Byron Price’s way. He said Mr. Price’s way may not be the same way as everyone else’s but to say he is menacing, hostile or out-of-control is not so. Mr. Sharpe said Mr. Price is his friend, counterpart in the third ward and he whole heartedly supported him and he is really upset about some individuals who feel that what he is doing is out-of-order. He said he completely supported Mr. Price and sorry that this has come about and hopes that the Council can continue to work continually together and apologizes to his counterparts for putting this before the Council. 11