§ 4. Composition of council; terms of members; designation of vice-mayor; vacancies.

The council as presently composed shall continue and shall consist of seven members, one of which shall be the mayor, all of whom shall be elected at large and shall serve for the respective terms as hereinafter provided. The members of council shall serve for terms of four years, from the first day of July next following the date of their election and until their successors shall have been elected and qualified. The mayor shall serve for a term of four years from the first day of July next following the date of election and until a successor shall have been elected and qualified; provided, however, that on the first Tuesday in May, nineteen hundred seventy-two, and on such day each four years thereafter, three council members and a mayor shall be elected for a term of four years, and on the first Tuesday in May, nineteen hundred seventy-four, and each four years thereafter, three council members shall be elected for a term of four years.

The member of council receiving the largest number of votes in each regular councilmanic election shall be the vice-mayor of the city, for a term of two years, to commence on the first day of July next following the date of such election and until the vice-mayor's successor shall have been elected and qualified.

The council shall be a continuing body, and no measure pending before such body shall abate or be discontinued by reason of the expiration of the term of office or removal of the members of council, or any of them. No person may be a candidate for the office of mayor and for the office of council member in the same election.

Vacancies in the council or vacancy in the office of mayor shall be filled within thirty days, and until the day upon which the terms of office of council members elected in the next following regular councilmanic election shall commence, by a majority vote of the remaining members of council, and if as much as two years of any such unexpired term of a member of council or of the mayor remains at the time of such next regular councilmanic election, a council member or a mayor, as the case may be, shall be elected at such election for the remaining portion of such unexpired term.

(Acts 1956, Ch. 393, § 1; Acts 1962, Ch. 442, § 1; Acts 1966, Ch. 73, § 1; Acts 1972, Ch. 625, § 1; Acts 2002, Ch. 685, § 1)

(Acts 1956, Ch. 393, § 1; Acts 1962, Ch. 442, § 1; Acts 1966, Ch. 73, § 1; Acts 1972, Ch. 625, § 1; Acts 2002, Ch. 685, § 1)