The City Commission shall have the power to
order the laying of sidewalks along the public streets or on any promenade
or public thoroughfare of the city and to prescribe the width thereof
and the materials to be used and, after thirty (30) days' notice to
the abutting property owners and upon the failure of such property
owners, within such time, to lay any such sidewalk so ordered, shall
have the power to cause such sidewalk to be laid and shall have the
power to assess the cost and expense of the same against such abutting
property, which assessment shall constitute a lien against such property
of equal dignity with tax certificates and enforceable in the manner
provided for the enforcement of the lien of tax certificates, provided
that such certificates shall be payable and the collection thereof
enforceable in not less than one (1) year from the issue of any such
certificates. Construction of new city and public streets, alleys,
promenades and sidewalks, shall be funded by assessment only where
these elements have not previously existed. Said assessment shall
be levied only against those property owners serviced by, abutting
and contiguous to the improvements.
In the proceedings provided for in the preceding
section, the owner or owners of the land, if they can be ascertained,
shall be parties defendant. If the owner or owners cannot be ascertained
after diligent inquiry, the proceedings shall be against the property
on which the lien is claimed without mentioning any party defendant.
In such case, service shall be had by a notice of the institution
of said suit for the enforcement of such lien by an advertisement
in a newspaper published in the City of South Pasadena, and in case
there is no newspaper in the City of South Pasadena, then such notice
may be published in any newspaper having a general circulation in
the City of South Pasadena; and provided, further, that before such
service shall be had, the complainant or plaintiff, as the case may
be, his agent or attorney, shall make affidavit and file with the
bill in chancery or the declaration of law setting forth the fact
that the owner or owners of such property are unknown to him. In all
proceedings to enforce said liens or any of them, save in cases where
the owner or owners cannot be ascertained, service shall be made on
the parties defendant in the same manner as is provided by law for
service in other cases. In such proceedings, appeals and writs of
error may be taken to the proper appellate courts as in other cases.
Upon the affirmative vote of four-fifths (4/5)
of the membership of the City Commission, the City Commission is hereby
authorized, at any time, to borrow money to the extent of one-half
(1/2) of the amount of the taxes levied in any one (1) year, and to
issue, as evidence of indebtedness for the money borrowed, revenue
bonds which shall be signed by the Mayor of the city and attested
by the City Clerk under the Seal of the city, and shall not be of
less denomination than $100 each. Said bonds shall be issued separately
against any or all of the funds for which taxes are assessed, and
when issued against any fund, the amount realized from the loan of
the said bonds shall be carried and credited to the fund against which
said bonds were issued. Said bonds shall be issued in serial numbers
beginning with the number one as against each separate fund, and the
holder of such bonds shall have a first lien upon the uncollected
taxes to the extent of the amount borrowed and as against each fund
for which said bonds were issued; and as the taxes are collected,
the bonds shall be paid in the order in which they were issued out
of the funds against which said bonds were negotiated. No revenue
bonds shall be issued for a longer time than 12 months, and shall
bear such interest, not to exceed 6%, as the City Commission may fix.