The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: 1. The legislative power of the Corporation of the city of New York, shall be vested in a Board of Aldermen and a Board of Assistants, who together shall form the Common Council of the city. 2. Each ward of the city shall be entitled to elect one person, to be denominated the Alderman of the ward, and the persons so chosen, together shall form the Board of Aldermen; and each ward shall also be entitled to elect one person, to be denominated an Assistant Alderman; and the persons so chosen, together shall form the Board of Assistants. 3. The Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen shall be chosen for one year; and no person shall be eligible to cither office, who shall not, at the time of his election, be a resident of the ward for which he is chosen. 4. The annual election for charter officers shall commence on the second Tuesday in April, and the officers elected shall be sworn into office on the second Tuesday in May thereafter; and all the provisions of law now in force in regard to the notification, duration, and conduct of elections for Members of Assembly, and in regard to the appointment, powers and duties of the inspectors, holding the same, shall apply to the annual election of charter officers. 5. The first election for charter officers, after the passage of this law, shall take place on the second Tuesday in April, one thousand eight hundred and thirty one; and all those persons who shall have been elected under the former laws regulating the election of charter officers, and shall be in office at the time of the passage of this law, shall continue in office until the officers elected under this law shall be entitled to be sworn into office. 6. The Board of Aldermen shall have power to direct a special election to be held, to supply the place of an Alderman whose seat shall become vacant by death, removal from the city, resignation, or otherwise; and the Board of Assistants shall also have power to direct a special election to supply any vacancy that may occur in the Board of Assistants; and in both cases, the person elected to supply the vacancy, shall hold his seat only for the residue of the term of office of his immediate predecessor. 7. The Boards shall meet in separate chambers, and a majority of each shall be a quorum to do business. Each Board shall appoint a President from its own body, and shall also choose its clerk and other officers, determine the rules of its own proceedings, and be the judge of the qualifications of its own members. Each Board shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and the doors of each shall be kept open, except when the public welfare shall require secrecy; and all resolutions and reports of Committees which shall recommend any specific improvement involving the appropriation of public moneys, or taxing or assessing the citizens of said city, shall be published immediately after the adjournment of the Board, under the authority of the Common Council, in all the newspapers employed by the Corporation; and whenever a vote is taken in relation thereto, the ayes and noes shall be called and published in the same manner. 8. Each Board shall have the authority to compel the attendance of absent members; to punish its members for disorderly behavior, and to expel a member with the concurrence of two-thirds of the members elected to the Board; and the members so expelled, shall, by such expulsion, forfeit all his right and powers as an Alderman or Assistant Alderman. 9. The stated and occasional meetings of each Board of the Common Council shall be regulated by its own ordinances; and both Boards may meet on the same or on different days, as they may severally judge expedient. 10. Any law, ordinance or resolution of the Common Council, may originate in either Board, and when it shall have passed one Board, may be rejected or amended by the other. 11. No member of either Board shall, during the period for which he was elected, be appointed to, or be competent to hold any office for which the emoluments are paid from the city treasury, or by fees, directed to be paid by any ordinance or act of the Common Council, or be directly or indirectly interested in any contract, the expenses or considerations whereof are to be paid under any ordinance of the Common Council; but this section shall not be construed to deprive any Alderman or Assistant of any emolument or fees which he is entitled to by virtue of his office. 12. Every act, ordinance or resolution, which shall have passed the two Boards of the Common Council, before it shall take effect, shall be presented, duly certified, to the Mayor of the city for his approbation. If he approve, he shall sign it; if not, he shall return it with his objections to the Board in which it originated, within ten days thereafter; or if such Board be not then in session, at its next stated meeting. The Board to which it shall be returned, shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and cause the same to be published in one or more of the public newspapers of the city. 13. The Board to which such act, ordinance or resolution, has been so returned, shall, after the expiration of not less than ten days thereafter, proceed to reconsider the same. If, after such reconsideration, a majority of the members elected to the Board shall agree to pass the same, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other Board, by which it shall be likewise reconsidered; and if approved by a majority of all the members elected to such Board, it shall take effect as an act or law of the Corporation. In all such cases the votes of both Boards shall be determined by ayes and noes, and the names of the persons voting for and against the passage of the measure reconsidered, shall be entered on the journal of each Board respectively. 14. If the Mayor shall not return any act, ordinance, or resolution so presented to him within the time above limited for that purpose, it shall take effect in the same manner as if he had signed it. 15. Neither the Mayor nor Recorder of the city of New York shall be a member of the Common Council thereof, after the second Tuesday of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one. 16. Whenever there shall be a vacancy in the office of Mayor, and whenever the Mayor shall be absent from the city, or be prevented by sickness, or any other cause, from attending to the duties of his office, the President of the Board of Aldermen shall act as Mayor, and shall possess all the rights and powers of the Mayor during the continuance of such vacancy, absence or disability. 17. It shall be the duty of the Mayor. FIRST. To communicate to the Common Council, at least once a year, and oftener, if he shall deem it expedient, a general statement of the situation and condition of the city, in relation to its government, finances and improvements. SECOND. To recommend to the adoption of the Common Council all such measures, connected with the police, security, health, cleanliness, and ornament of the city, and the improvement of its government and finances, as he shall deem expedient. THIRD. To be vigilant and active in causing the laws and ordinances of the government of the city to be duly executed and enforced. FOURTHI. To exercise a constant supervision and control over the conduct and acts of all subordinate officers, and to receive and examine into all such complaints as may be preferred against any of them for violation or neglect of duty; and generally to perform all such duties as may be prescribed to him by the charter and city ordinances, and the laws of this state and the United States. 18. Annual and occasional appropriations shall be made by proper ordinances of the Common Council for every branch and object of city expenditure, nor shall any money be drawn from the city treasury, except the same shall have been previously appropriated to the purposes for which it was drawn. 19. The Common Council shall not have authority to borrow any sums of money whatever on the credit of the Corporation, except in anticipation of the revenue of the year in which such loan shall be made, unless, authorized by a special act of the legislature. 20. It shall be the duty of the Common Council to publish, two months before the annual election of charter officers, in each year, for the general information of the citizens of New York, a full and detailed statement of the receipts and expenditures of the Corporation during the year ending on the first day of the month in which such publication was made; and in every such statement the different sources of city revenue, and the amount received from each; the several appropriations made by the Common Council, the objects for which the same were made, and the amount of moneys expended under each; the moneys borrowed on the credit of the Corporation, the authority under which each loan was made, and the terms on which the same was obtained, shall be clearly and particularly specified. 21. The executive business of the Corporation of New York, shall hereafter be performed by distinct departments, which it shall be the duty of the Common Council to organize and appoint for that purpose. 22. It shall be the duty of the Common Council to provide for the accountability of all officers and other persons to whom the receipt or expenditures of the funds of the city shall be intrusted, by requiring from them sufficient security for the performance of their duties or trust, which security shall be annually renewed; but the security first taken shall remain in force until new security shall be given. 23. The Clerk of the Board of Aldermen shall, by virtue of his office, be Clerk of the Common Council, and shall perform all the duties heretofore performed by the Clerk of the Common Council, except such as shall be assigned to the Clerk of the Board of Assistant Aldermen ; and it shall be his duty to keep open for inspection, at all reasonable times, the records and minutes of the proceedings of the Common Council, except such as shall be specially ordered otherwise. 24. The division of the Common Council into two Boards shall not take effect until the officers to be elected under this law shall enter on the duties of their office. Each Board shall hold its first meeting for the purpose of organizing, on the second Tuesday of May in each year, at which time the Mayor or Clerk of the Common Council shall attend, by whom the oath of office shall be administered to the members elected. the absence of the Mayor and Clerk, such oath may be administered by the Recorder, or First Judge of the city, or by any of the Justices of the Superior Court. In 25. None of the provisions of this act, except the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-second sections, shall be construed as applying to the Common Council as now constituted. 26. Such parts of the charter of the city of New York, and of the several acts of the Legislature amending the same, as are not inconsistent with the provisions of this law, shall not be construed as repealed, modified, or in any manner affected thereby, but shall continue and remain in full force. AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. PASSED APRIL 2, 1849, "THREE-FIFTHS BEING PRESENT." The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: § 1. The legislative power of the Corporation of the city of New York, shall continue to be vested in a Board of Aldermen and a Board of Assistant Aldermen, who, together, shall form the Common Council of the city. The Board of Aldermen shall consist of one Alderman from each ward, who shall be elected by the people of the respective wards for two years. The Board of Assistant Aldermen shall consist of one Assistant Alderman from each ward, who shall be elected in like manner, and shall hold their office for one year. § 2. The election for charter officers shall be held on the day of the general state election, when all charter officers eligible, by the people, shall be chosen, and the officers who shall be elected, shall be sworn into office on the first Monday of January thereafter; and the laws of the state regulating elections, shall apply to elections of charter officers; but the Common Council may, by law, extend the time for the canvass of the votes. The Mayor shall hold his office for a period of two years. §3. The Common Council, during the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty, may hold its sessions as often as each Board shall, by resolution, appoint, and thereafter the Common Council shall annually hold only three stated sessions of not exceeding one month each, commencing on the first Monday of January, May and September. The Mayor may convene the Common Council or the Board of Aldermen, only, at any time between the sessions, if, in his judgment, any exigency shall have arisen to render such a proceeding necessary, on the request, in writing, of a majority of the members elected to each Board, specifying the purposes for which such meeting is called; in which case, the action of the Common Council shall be confined to the matters in reference to which it shall have been so convened, or to such other matters as may be submitted by the Mayor for its consideration, during such session; and the respective Boards may adjourn from day to day, until such business shall be completed. § 4. The Boards shall sit in separate chambers, and the doors shall be kept open, except when the public welfare shall require secrecy. A majority of each shall be a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent |