BOARD OF ALDERMEN. SEC. 12. The legislative power and authority of said city shall be vested in a Board of Aldermen. At the first meeting President. of each municipal term, said board shall elect from among its members a president, who shall preside at the meetings of said board. Said board may elect a president pro tempore, to act in case of the death, resignation, removal, absence, or disability of the president. In case of the absence of the City Clerk from any meeting, said board may choose one of its own number to perform the duties of clerk pro tempore. Clerk pro tempore. SEC. 13. Said Board of Aldermen shall hold regular meet- Meetings. ings, and may be specially convened at any time by the Mayor, or the acting Mayor, and upon petition of the majority of the Aldermen in writing, filed with the City Clerk, a meeting shall be called by the Mayor in the manner provided by city ordinance. A majority of said board shall constitute a quorum Quorum. to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from time to time, not exceeding one week by any one adjournment, and may compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such pecuniary penalties as said board may prescribe. SEC. 14. Said board shall determine the rules of its proceedings according to the general principles of parliamentary law, punish members for disorderly conduct, and by a twothirds vote of all the members, present and absent, expel a member for due cause, or remove any officer of said city for due cause, involving continued neglect or default of official duty or moral delinquency; provided, however, that there shall be no such expulsion or removal except on charges preferred and hearing had, nor of any officer whose removal is otherwise provided for herein. The vote upon any question, when re- Yea and nay quested by one-fourth of the members present, and all votes upon questions involving the appropriation of money shall be taken by yeas and nays, and such vote duly recorded. vote. Bribery. Power to compel attendance and testimony of witnesses. Elections to be by ballot. Votes of board to Operative by reason of time limit. Action in case of veto. SEC. 15. Any member of said board who shall, while holding office therein, directly or indirectly take or bargain for any fee, compensation, or reward to influence his official action or vote upon any proceeding, ordinance, resolution, or by-law pending in said Board of Aldermen, shall pay the said city a fine of five hundred dollars and be expelled from said body and be forever disqualified from holding office therein or in said city. SEC. 16. The presiding officer of said Board of Aldermen, of the several committees thereof, and of the several boards, shall have power to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of books, papers, and other evidence, in the same manner as a court of justice may, and to administer oaths. The refusal of any witness to testify to any facts within his knowledge, or to produce any books or papers in his possession or under his control shall constitute the crime of contempt and shall be punished as such. No witness shall be excused from testifying touching his knowledge of the matter under inquiry, but such testimony shall not be used against him in any prosecution except for perjury. SEC. 17. All elections to office or to any position within the gift of the Board of Aldermen shall be made by ballot, and a majority of all the votes cast shall be sufficient to elect. SEC. 18. Every vote, resolution, order, by-law, or ordinance which passes said board shall be transmitted to the Mayor. If he approves it by signing it, or fails to take action on it within ten days after it has been sent to him, such vote, resolution, order, by-law, or ordinance shall become operative from and after that date, except as hereinafter provided; if approved, record shall be made of the date of approval; if no action be taken, record shall be made of the date when it becomes operative by reason thereof. If he disapproves it, he shall within ten days return it to the City Clerk, with his objections in writing, and the clerk shall present the same to the Board of Aldermen at its next meeting; and such vote, resolution, order, by-law, or ordinance shall not become operative unless passed over the Mayor's veto by an affirmative vote of disapproval. two-thirds of the members, present and absent. The Mayor may also approve or disapprove any part of any vote, reso- Approval or lution, order, by-law, or ordinance, and the part disapproved shall be void unless passed over his veto, as aforesaid; but if any measure is approved in part and disapproved in part, the part approved shall not become operative unless the part disapproved shall be passed over the Mayor's veto as aforesaid, or unless the part approved shall again be passed by a majority vote. ordinance or until referred committee. engrossed by SEC. 19. No vote shall be taken upon any by-law, ordinance, resolution, or other measure until the same shall have been No action on referred to and reported upon by an appropriate committee or other measure one of the standing boards of commissioners, unless by unani- to appropriate mous consent, and the clerk shall make record of such fact. No by-law or ordinance shall be put upon its final passage in said Board of Aldermen until it has been fairly engrossed by Ordinance to be the City Clerk for examination, nor, if one-fourth of said board City Clerk. so desires, until it has lain on the table until the next meeting after the same has been reported; and, on a like request, any proposition to repeal or alter a by-law or ordinance shall lie on the table for the same period. No ordinance shall be of effect Ordinance when until it shall have been published twice in one or more daily papers published in said city, nor until one week after its enact ment. operative. supervise and investigate. SEC. 20. The board shall have power to supervise and in- Board to vestigate all departments, officers, and employees of the government of the city, and to inquire into any charges preferred against the same, and shall have power of access to all records thereto appertaining, and power to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of books, papers, and other evidence at any meeting of the body or of any committee thereof. SEC. 21. The Board of Aldermen, when assembled accord- Power and ing to law, shall have power by the affirmative vote of a majority of its members, present and absent, subject to the approval or disapproval of the Mayor as hereinbefore provided, to exercise the powers hereinafter conferred and specified, to make, alter, and repeal ordinances or by-laws for the To enact purpose of carrying the same into effect, not inconsistent with duties. ordinances. Prescribe penalties. To lay taxes. To control city finances and property. Execution, etc., of deeds, etc. and paying claims. the provisions of this act or the statute laws of this State, or with the authority given to the standing boards by this act, and to prescribe penalties not exceeding one hundred dollars fine or thirty days imprisonment, or both, for any violation of the same; and any such violation, and any violation of any of the provisions of this act, shall be a misdemeanor and may be proceeded against by criminal complaint, warrant, and judgment for commitment, as in other criminal cases: To lay taxes to meet the expenses of the city; to manage, regulate, and control the finances, property, real and personal, of the city; to regulate the borrowng of money for the temporary needs of the city; provided, however, that the amount so borrowed together with the amount expended and the amount on hand shall at no time be in excess of the estimated income of said city for said year; to regulate the assessment and collection of taxes and the enforcement of liens; to provide for the due execution, authentication, and delivery of deeds, grants, and releases of city property, of contracts and of evidences of indebtedness Keeping accounts issued by said city, as now provided by law; to provide the mode of keeping the accounts of said city, and of adjusting and paying claims against said city; to provide for the police of said city; to prescribe and regulate the duties of a city police force; to punish resistance, hindrance, or obstruction to any public officer in the discharge of his duties; to protect said city from fire; to organize, maintain, and regulate a fire department and fire apparatus; to regulate the construction and the mode of building and the materials used for building or altering buildings within said city, or any part thereof, and the mode of using any building therein and of heating the same, when such regulations seem expedient for the purpose of protecting said city from the dangers of fire; to regulate the cleaning of chimneys; to grant permits for the erection, addition to, repair, and enlargement of buildings and the removing of same, and to prevent the erection, addition to, repair or enlargement or removing thereof, without such permit; to establish and designate districts of said city within which it shall not be lawful to remove any wooden building except by license of said Board of Aldermen; to prohibit the erection or use within said city of buildings which, by reason of their structure or use, are or may Police force. Fire department. Construction of building and material used. Permits for buildings, erections, etc., removing. Inspector. become unsafe; to provide for and enforce the disuse, removal, or demolition of such buildings, or of such parts thereof, as are or may become unsafe; to provide for the appointment of a Building Building Inspector and to prescribe his duties; to provide that before any building shall be erected or altered, the plans and specifications therefor shall be submitted to said Building Inspector for his approval; to provide that no building shall be erected, repaired, or altered without the approval of said Building Inspector; to regulate and provide for the convenient Fire escapes. and safe egress, in case of fire or other accident, from theaters or other buildings designed in whole or in part for public use, already erected or which may be hereafter erected in said city, and to prohibit the use of such buildings as are or may become Dangerous unsafe by reason of insufficient facilities for egress, or for other cause; to regulate the use, keeping, and sale of firearms, ex- Firearms, etc. plosives, and inflammable materials and dangerous machinery; structures. alarm grades, etc to make, maintain, and regulate public hydrants, reservoirs, Hydrants, etc. cisterns, wells, pumps, and watering troughs and to provide the same with water; to protect the same from injury and to prevent any unnecessary waste of water; to protect from injury Protect fire fire-alarm telegraphs in said city and public gas and other lamps telegraphs, etc. therein; to establish building lines in the streets and ways of Building lines. said city beyond which it shall not be lawful to erect buildings or other structures; to provide for the laying out, grading, dis- Layouts. continuing, altering, establishing, improving, and maintaining highways, streets, walks, bridges, squares, parks, public grounds, openings for the circulation of air, drains, sewers, gutters, and for the draining, filling up or raising of low lands; to provide for the assessment of all damages or benefits for Benefits and any such work or improvement, which shall be a lien upon any estate especially benefitted thereby, which lien may be foreclosed at the suit of the city in the same manner as a mortgage upon said estate; to prescribe the forms of proceeding and Forms of assessing of damages and benefits in all cases of taking land for assessing public use not specially prescribed in this act; to make, repair, benefits. purify, light, and keep open and safe for public use and travel Control of and free from obstruction or encroachment, the streets, highways, gutters, sidewalks and public grounds and places in said city; to regulate the width of all streets, highways, gutters, and damages. proceeding and damages and streets. |