§ 11-44B-7 — Powers and Duties of Mayor

The mayor shall preside at all meetings of said council and sit with said council. Provided, however, the mayor shall not, for any purpose, be a member of the council, shall vote only in the case of a tie, and shall have the right of veto as provided herein.
(1) The mayor shall be the chief executive officer, and shall have general supervision and control of all other officers and the affairs of the city except as otherwise provided by this article and general statutes of the state.
(2) The mayor shall devote full time to the duties of his office. The mayor shall maintain an office at the city hall and be present thereat during reasonable hours when not otherwise absent therefrom on other duties of the city.
(3) The mayor shall, each quarter, prepare a detailed statement of all receipts and expenses of the city, and annually, at the end of each fiscal year, the mayor shall cause the books and accounts of the city to be audited by a reputable, disinterested, and certified accountant, selected by the council, and the audit report shall be certified to by the finance director, attested by the mayor, and published in pamphlet form. A true summary of the annual audit report shall be published one time in a newspaper regularly published and of general circulation in the city. The audit report shall be submitted by the mayor to the council at its first meeting after the completion of the report, and the same shall be spread upon the minutes of the council. The mayor shall prepare and submit the budget of the city annually to the council.
(4) All resolutions or ordinances which are intended to be of general nature or permanent operation passed by the council, shall be transmitted by the clerk, within forty-eight (48) hours after their passage, to the mayor for his or her consideration, who, if he or she shall approve thereof, shall sign and return the same to the clerk, who shall publish them, and such ordinances or resolutions shall thereupon have the force of law; provided, that the council may provide that they shall be effective from approval.
Any such ordinance or resolution may be recalled from the mayor at any time before it has become a law or has been acted on by him or her by resolution adopted by a majority of the members elected to the council in regular or special session.
If the mayor shall disapprove of any such ordinance or resolution transmitted to him or her, he or she shall, within seven (7) days of the time of its passage by the council, return the same to the clerk with his or her objections in writing, and the clerk shall make report thereof to the next regular meeting of the city council; and, if five (5) members of the said council shall adhere to said ordinance or resolution notwithstanding said objections, said vote being taken by “yeas” and “nays” and spread upon the minutes, then, and not otherwise, said ordinance or resolution shall, after publication thereof, have the force of law, unless by its terms it was to take effect on its approval, in which event it shall take effect upon its passage over such veto. The failure of the mayor to return to the clerk, an ordinance or resolution with his veto in writing stating his or her objections, within seven (7) days after its passage by the council, shall operate and have the same effect as an approval of the same, and the clerk shall publish the same as required by law for the publication of laws and ordinances of said city. If no publication is required, the ordinance or resolution shall become effective upon the expiration of said seven (7) days.
The veto of the mayor shall pertain to the entire ordinance or resolution as passed by the city council and no ordinance or resolution may be vetoed by the mayor in part as to specific items or any portion thereof.

Legislative History

(Acts 1985, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 85-107, p. 141, §7; Acts 1996, No. 96-455, p. 566, §1.)