$487. The interest earned or accruing upon any money of the city shall belong to the city, and not to any officer thereof.

§ 488. Every officer of the city, and every person employed by the city, or by any officer of the city, who shall lend or convert to his use, or to the use of another, money belonging to the city, shall be guilty of larceny.

§ 489. Any officer who shall willfully neglect his duty shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

$490. The books, documents, maps, rolls,and papers in the office of any city officer shall, at all reasonable times, be open to the inspection and examination of the public. If any officer shall unreasonably refuse to produce and submit to the inspection of any person any such book, document, map, roll, or paper he shall forfeit fifty dollars to the city, to be recovered by action.

§ 491. The city is hereby authorized to issue either registered or coupon bonds, under any law heretofore or hereafter enacted, authorizing the issue of the bonds of the said city, and shall, at the request of the holder of any coupon bonds, whether heretofore or hereafter issued, issue and deliver to the said holder, on the delivery and surrender to the city thereof, registered bonds of equal amount. Such bonds shall be divided into and issued in such amounts as the said holder shall desire, provided that the city shall not be required to issue any bond for a less sum than one thousand dollars; and provided, further, that the bonds so issued shall be payable upon the same terms, and at the same time as the bonds for which they are exchanged. The city shall keep a record of all bonds surrendered for exchange, and by whom surrendered, and of all bonds issued in exchange therefor, and to whom issued, containing the dates, numbers, and the amounts of the said bonds, and a reference to the laws or resolutions under which they were issued. All bonds issued by the said city after the thirtieth day of

June, nineteen hundred and six, shall be free and exempt from taxation except for state and county purposes. Thus amended by L. 1906, c. 90, Sec. 1

The amendment added the last sentence.

§ 492. Whenever bonds are issued by the city for the purpose of raising money, the Comptroller shall publish a notice in five successive numbers of the official paper, Sundays excepted, and in two other daily papers of the city, stating the amount of bonds to be issued, their rate of interest, and the time of their payment, and that sealed proposals will be received by him until a day specified in the notice, not less than ten days from the first publication thereof, for all or any portion of the bonds issued. Each proposal shall state the amount of the bonds desired, and the price bid for each one hundred dollars thereof. On the day specified in the notice, the Comptroller shall publicly open the proposals and the bonds shall be sold to the person or persons whose bids are most favorable to the city, but no bonds shall be sold at less than their par value. The Comptroller may reject any or all bids received. Nothing in this section contained shall be construed to prevent the Common Council from awarding any bonds at their par value to the Comptroller in trust for any redemption or sinking fund of the city, and as an investment of said redemption or sinking fund of the city, without advertising. And nothing in this section contained shall be construed to prevent the Common Council from awarding any bonds at their par value to the board of trustees of the Firemen's Relief and Pension Fund, the board of trustees of the Public School Teachers' Retirement Fund, or the board of trustees of the Police Pension Fund, and as an investment of any of said funds, without advertising. Where no proposals shall be received, as herein provided, for the par value of bonds, and the accrued interest thereon, after such advertising, the Comptroller may, within sixty days thereafter, award the bonds so advertised to any person for not less than their par value and

accrued interest on receiving and filing in his office a written certificate from the Mayor and Treasurer consenting thereto.

Thus amended by L. 1894, c. 289, Sec. 6, and L. 1906, c. 48, Sec. 1.

The amendment of 1894 added the last sentence. The amendment of 1906 added the sentence before the last, relating to pension funds.

§ 493. Whenever any street or portion of a street, laid out and located by the commissioners of the land office within the south village of Black Rock as known and designated upon the records, surveys, and maps of said commissioners, or appearing upon said records, maps, or surveys, shall be discontinued or contracted as a public highway or street by the authority of the Common Council, the city by its Common Council, may cause to be conveyed to the owners of lands adjacent to the parts of said street which shall have been so discontinued, and to no others, the portions of such street which shall have been discontinued.

§ 494. The printed minutes of the proceedings of each Board of the Common Council, when approved or confirmed by it, and certified by the City Clerk, shall be received by all the courts of this state as a prima facie evidence of such proceedings.

$495. The head of each department shall prepare, and on or about the first day of August in each year, except as herein otherwise provided, transmit to the Common Council a report containing a statement of all the financial transactions of the department for the fiscal year immediately preceding, ending June 30th, and showing in detail its condition.

Thus amended by L. 1903, c. 105.

The amendment changed the date of the annual statement from May first to August first, and provided that it should cover the fiscal year, instead of the calendar year, as formerly.

§ 496. No person shall be incompetent to act as judge, justice, commissioner, referee, juror, or witness by

in

reason of his being a resident or freeholder of the city, any action or proceeding to which the city is a party, or ia which it is interested.

$497. The journals of the Common Council, or a copy thereof, certified by the City Clerk, shall be evidence of the proceedings therein set forth.

§ 498. All the records, including all tax and assessment-rolls, documents,and maps required or permitted by law to be filed and kept in any office of the city when certified by the clerk, head or chief of said office, and attested by the Mayor under the seal of the city shall be admitted in evidence in all courts, and shall be presumptive evidence of the facts or proceedings appearing therein.

§ 499. The seal at present used by the city as its corporate seal shall continue to be the seal of the city.

§ 500. Any clerk making a certified copy of any record under his control, for the use of any other person than an officer of the city, shall charge and collect a fee therefor, not exceeding five cents a folio for each paper copied and twenty-five cents for his certificate. Any clerk making such certified copies shall pay weekly to the City Treasurer all fees received by him, and report the same to the Comptroller.

§ 501. It shall not be necessary for the city, in any action or proceeding in which it is a party, to give any bond, undertaking or security on appeal, or to obtain a provisional remedy, or to take or to prevent any other proceeding.

§ 502. Any officer or the member of any board authorized by this act to make any investigation, hear any complaint or conduct any proceedings in the form of a trial, shall have power to administer oaths and issue subpœnas.

§ 503. A majority of the members of any board constituted under this act shall be a quorum for the transaction of any business of the board, unless otherwise provided.

§ 504. In contracting for any work required to be done by the city, a clause shall be inserted that the contractor submitting proposals shall bind himself in the performance of such work not to discriminate either as to workmen or wages against members of labor organizations, or to accept any more than eight hours as a day's work to be performed within nine consecutive hours. Nor shall any man or set of men be employed for more than eight hours in twenty-four consecutive hours except in case of necessity, in which case pay for such labor shall be at the rate of time and one-half for all time in excess of such eight hours.

§ 505. Except for repairs, no patented pavement shall be laid, and no patented article shall be advertised for, contracted for or purchased except under such circumstances that there can be a fair and reasonable opportunity for competition, the conditions to secure which shall be prescribed by the person, board or body authorized to contract for such article so advertised for.

§ 506. All elective officers in office when this act takes effect shall serve out the terms for which they were respectively elected, except in those cases where the offices to which they are elected are abolished by this act. The engineer in office, at the time when this act takes effect, shall discharge the duties imposed upon the city engineer by chapter three hundred and forty-five of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, and any acts amendatory thereof, during the term of office for which he was elected, without extra compensation, and from and after the expiration of his term, or earlier, if he should cease to fill the office, his duties thereunder shall devolve upon the chief engineer of the Department of Public Works.

§ 507. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed; provided, however, that title fifteen of an act entitled, "An act to revise the charter of the city of Buffalo," passed April twenty-eight, eighteen hundred and seventy, being chapter five hundred and nineteen of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy,