Section 20: Passage of ordinances
Section 20. No ordinance shall be passed finally on the date on which it is introduced, except in cases of special emergency involving the health or safety of the people or their property.
No ordinance shall be regarded as an emergency measure unless the emergency is defined and declared in a preamble thereto separately voted on and receiving the affirmative vote of two thirds of the members of the city council.
No ordinance making a grant, renewal or extension, whatever its kind or nature, of any franchise or special privilege shall be passed as an emergency measure, and except as provided in sections seventy and seventy-one of chapter one hundred and sixty-four and in chapter one hundred and sixty-six, no such grant, renewal or extension shall be made otherwise than by ordinance.