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Who Can Preside Over Council Meetings?

Parliamentary procedure requires that meetings must have a presiding officer, and Robert’s Rules of Order provides specific duties for this presiding officer. 

Duties for this role come from Section 47.7 of Robert’s Rules. Among other things, the presiding officer 

  • opens the meeting, 
  • determines that a quorum is present, 
  • announces the order of business, 
  • recognizes members who are entitled to the floor, and
  • states and puts to vote motions that come before the body. 

By tradition, the mayor ordinarily presides at meetings of council. In some cases, a council may desire to name a member other than the mayor to preside at meetings. Can the council do so?

Rules under the different forms of government

In South Carolina, there are three forms of government for cities and towns: mayor-council, council and council-manager. State law provides general rules for all forms of government in Title 5, Chapter 7 of the SC Code. Inpidual chapters of Title 5 provide rules specific to each form of government.

For all three forms of government, state law provides that mayor pro tempore acts as mayor during the absence or disability of the mayor. If the mayor’s office becomes vacant, the mayor pro tempore serves as mayor until a successor is elected. At meetings where the mayor is not present, the mayor pro tempore presides by default.

Can the council provide different rules for meetings where the mayor is present? 

In the mayor-council form of government, Section 5-9-30(3) provides that the mayor has the power “to preside at meetings of the council and vote as other councilmen.” Because state law specifically commits this power to the mayor in the mayor-council form, the South Carolina attorney general opined in 2012 that local ordinances cannot name a different presiding officer in the mayor-council form of government.

Attorney general opinions have also informed the issue of presiding at meetings in the other forms of government. In 1995, the attorney general opined that in the council-manager form, local ordinances can name a presiding officer other than the mayor. On the other hand, in 2014 the attorney general opined that in the council form, local ordinances cannot name a presiding officer other than the mayor. Because neither form of government has state law specifically stating that the mayor is the presiding officer, confusion resulted from these attorney general opinions.

On August 25, 2022, the attorney general clarified the issue. Recognizing that neither the council nor the council-manager of government specifically requires that the mayor must be the presiding officer, the attorney general overruled the 2014 opinion. 

Now, as interpreted by the attorney general, the mayor is entitled to preside at meetings in the mayor-council form of government, but the council can name a different presiding officer in the council and council-manager forms of government.

More information 

For more information about South Carolina’s forms of municipal government, see the Municipal Association’s handbook Forms and Powers of Municipal Government.

The Association also presents on this issue frequently, including in sessions of the Municipal Elected Officials Institute of Government, and at the upcoming SC Municipal Attorneys Association Annual Meeting and Continuing Legal Education Seminar, taking place in Columbia on Friday, December 9.