The common council is both the city's legislative body and its fiscal body. Members of the common council (Often referred to as the city council) are part-time elected officicials who serve for a term of four years; they are not subject to term limits and may run for re-election as often as they wish.
As individual council members, they do not possess significant statutory powers.
As the city's legislative body, however, the council exercises many of the powers given cities through the passage of ordinances and appropriation of monies (IC 36-4-6-18). The council fixes the annual salaries of all elected officials of the city, which may not be changed in the year for which they are fixed, or reduced below the previous year's level (IC 36-4-7-2).
It has authority to reduce, but not to increase, any other items in the city budget as submitted by the mayor for its approval (IC 36-4-7-7).
A council member must have been a resident of the district from which he or she is elected, if any, for at least six month's before the election, and must have been a resident of the city for at least one year before the election IC 3-8-1-27).
If the council member ceases to be a resident of the city or a resident of the district from which the council member was elected, the council member forfeits his or her office (IC 36-4-6-2).
