There has been many discussions about who should be running the council meetings. Should it be the council chair? The mayor?
Not sure of the city ordinance or Roberts Rules on the issue, but logically the council chair should be running all council related meetings, and if the council chair cannot, the co-chair should be. For some reason, after Munson took office the mayor started running the gig. It only makes sense for the legislative body to run their own meetings. The President doesn’t preside over the Senate and the Governor doesn’t preside over the legislature.
The mayor presents an agenda to the council, and they vote on it. Obviously the mayor should be present for the meetings in case of a tie vote he has to break or if he would like to comment on his agenda, but he should not be seated with the council, and he should certainly not be running the meeting.
Of course, this would force the mayor to have to sit with the rest of us poor schlumps and city directors without the protection of the terrier dog fence, but if he feels his safety is compromised, they can always give him a chair in the corner directly behind the city clerk.
Hopefully the new council will consider removing the mayor from running the meetings, I would suggest it to be their first action at their first meeting.