2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 6 - Autonomous Municipalities (§§ 4001 — 4990-4990j) › Chapter 209 - Municipal Legislative Process (§§ 4201 — 4214) › § 4203 - Sessions

The Legislature may meet in regular and special sessions. These sessions of the Municipal Legislature shall be public and held on the days and time provided through regulations, including holidays.
(a) Regular sessions.— The Legislature shall establish in its bylaws the number of regular sessions to be held during the calendar year, which shall not exceed twelve (12) each year. The duration of regular sessions of the Legislature may not exceed five (5) days, and ten (10) days in the case of a session to consider the budget resolution, except in those cases in which said term is extended upon prior authorization of the mayor, or as provided in subsection (b) of this section. Whenever the mayor convenes the holding of a special session to consider an emergency matter while the Legislature is in session within the five (5) day term of a regular session, the Legislature may, by a vote of ⅔ of its memebers, approve the interruption of the regular session for a term that shall not exceed five (5) days in order to address said matters. Upon conclusion of the five (5) day special session period, the Legislature may reconvene its regular session for the corresponding number of days without exceeding the five (5) day term provided in this section.
The presidents of the committees shall request the President of the Legislature in writing the authorization to meet, explaining briefly the issue or issues to be covered in the agenda. Said petition may be submitted to the President of the Legislature at any given time, and he shall have five (5) days to answer it as of the date in writing, it is filed in the office of the Secretary to answer it to approve it, or to deny it [sic]. When answering in the negative, the President shall explain the reasons for the denial.
The Legislature shall devote one of its regular sessions for the discussion, consideration and approval of the general budget of income and expenditures of the municipality, as provided by § 4301 of this title. This regular session can be held earlier, but never shall it be held later than the 3rd of June of each year, and shall not last more than ten (10) days, which do not have to be consecutive, and excluding Sundays and holidays, but in any case, it must be concluded no later than the 13th of June of each year with the approval of the budget, as provided in § 4304 of this title.
(b) Special sessions.— Special sessions shall be called by the mayor at his own initiative or through a petition signed by not less than two-thirds (⅔) of the total number of the members of the Legislature. The sessions shall not exceed five (5) consecutive days, unless said term is extended as provided in subsection (a) of this section. Only those matters included in the agenda of the call shall be considered in the special sessions, however, the mayor shall have the power to extend the call for a special session to include additional matters, subject to compliance with the terms and parameters set forth in this section.
No later than the 31st of May of each year, the mayor shall be bound to call a special one-day session to present to the Legislature the project and the message of the budget, complying thus with § 4301 of this title.
(1) By mayor’s initiative.— Every special session called by initiative of the mayor, shall be initiated on the date and hour indicated by the official in the summons.
(2) By petition of the Legislature.— When there is a petition of the Legislature to call a special session, the mayor shall notify his acceptance or rejection of it in writing, with acknowledgment of receipt, within five (5) days following the receipt of said petition.
The five-day term for the mayor to state his acceptance or rejection of the Legislature’s petition to call for a special session, shall begin to count from:
(i) The day following the personal delivery of the petition to call a session to the mayor, by the Secretary of the Legislature, or by the President, or by a committee thereof. In these cases, the President, or the Secretary, as the case may be, shall draft and sign a certificate to the Legislature stating the date, hour and place that personal delivery of the petition in question was made to the mayor, and shall prepare minutes certifying these matters.
(ii) The first working day after the date the petition was received, as is found on the acknowledgement of receipt issued by the postal service, if the petition to the mayor to call the session is handled in this fashion.
When in the term stated above, the mayor does not take any action on the Legislature’s petition to call a special session, the President of the Legislature may issue the call.
When the Legislature understands that the matter at hand is urgent, and the mayor does not approve the holding of a special session, the President of the Legislature may call to a special one-day session, in which holding the special session may be approved, with the full vote of the members of the Legislature. If approved, the day of the voting shall count as part of the five (5) days of the special session.
Special sessions called by petition of the Legislature must be held within ten (10) days following the date on which the mayor or the President of the Legislature, as the case may be, issues the corresponding call.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 5.003; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 18; Apr. 13, 1995, No. 36, § 18; Jan. 10, 1999, No. 28, § 1; Aug. 4, 2008, No. 153, § 1.