Branch of the City Council, who shall possess the qualifica-
tions required and hereinbefore defined, of the Mayor of the
City of Baltimore. His duty shall be to preside over the
Second Branch of the City Council, and vote on all ques-
tions, and perform such other duties as may be prescribed
by ordinances not inconsistent with this Article. He shall
be paid a salary of three thousand dollars per annum, pay-
able monthly. A joint convention of the two branches of the
City Council, by a majority vote of all the members elected
to the City Council, may remove from office the President of
the Second Branch for incompetency, willful neglect of duty
or misdemeanor in office) upon charges preferred by the
Mayor, and after notice of such charges is given to the
President of the Second Branch, and an opportunity af-
forded him to be heard.

215. The qualifications of electors of members of the City
Council shall be the same as those of electors of the Mayor.
All vacancies in the First Branch shall be filled without de-
lay by the First Branch from the ward in which the said
vacancy occurs, by an election of a person possessing the
qualifications hereinbefore prescribed, to fill the unexpired
term of the former incumbent. If a vacancy occurs in the
Second Branch, then said Branch shall forthwith fill said
vacancy by the election of a person possessing the qualifi-
cations hereinbefore prescribed from the City at large or
from the proper Councilmanic District, if there be such Dis-
trict at that time.

216. The City Council shall meet on the Thursday next
after the third Monday in May, in the year eighteen hun-
dred and ninety-nine, and upon the same day in each year
thereafter, and may continue in session for one hundred and
twenty days, and no longer, in each year; provided, that
they may, by ordinance or resolution, so arrange their sit-
tings that the same may be held continuously or otherwise,
and provided further, that the Mayor may convene the City
Council in extra session, as he may now do by the fourth
section of the Eleventh Article of the State Constitution.

ARTICLE XI-A.*
LOCAL LEGISLATURES.

SECTION 1. On demand of the Mayor of Baltimore and
City Council of the City of Baltimore, or on petition bearing
the signatures of not less than 20 per cent of the registered
voters of said city or any county (provided, however, that

* Added by Chapter 418, 1914, ratified November 2, 191S.