The President of the Common Council shall appoint its standing committees, unless the Common Council shall, by resolution passed by a majority vote of all its members, decide upon some other method of appointing, in which case the appointment of such committees shall be made by the method so decided upon. Special committees shall be designated or appointed in such manner as the Common Council may direct by a majority vote.
[1]
Editor's Note: Plan F of the Optional City Government Law, Laws 1914, Ch. 444, adopted by the City of Binghamton on January 1, 1938, provides for a Council consisting of 13 members, one elected from each ward in the City, whose term of office is four years. However, Article IA, as added to the Supplemental Charter by L.L. No. 3-1966, provides for a Council consisting of nine members, one elected from each Councilmanic district, thereby superseding Plan F insofar as it is inconsistent with said local law. One Councilperson is elected by the Council as president to preside over its meetings for one year. Regular meetings are held on the first and third Mondays of each month and special meetings may be called by any member on three days' notice. In addition to other powers conferred upon it, Plan F gives the Council power by ordinance to designate officers and employees deemed by it necessary for the administration of City affairs, to fix the duties and salaries of such officers and employees, to abolish offices and transfer powers and duties, and to regulate the exercise of any power or the performance of any duty by any officer or employee of the City.
The minutes of each meeting of the Common Council shall be printed in full within six days after its adjournment and immediately distributed, one to the Mayor, one to each member of the Common Council and one to the head of each department. At the end of the year the printed minutes shall be indexed and bound in such manner as shall have been provided in the original letting of the official printing.
[L.L. No. 3-1937, § 1]
No ordinance of the Council shall become operative until it has been attested by the Clerk and signed and approved in writing by the Mayor or passed over his or her veto, and whenever the same may be necessary promulgated according to law; any ordinance imposing a penalty or forfeiture for the violation thereof shall not take effect until 10 days after its approval by the Mayor nor until five days after the publication thereof in the official proceedings of the Council as required by law; provided, however, in the event maps, plans and/or drawings of whatever nature are included in, referred to and/or made a part of any ordinance, such maps, plans and/or drawings shall not be published but the ordinance of which said maps, plans and/or drawings are included, referred to and/or made a part of, shall recite the City office or offices in which the said maps, plans and/or drawings are filed and made available for public inspection and examination. No other publication of such ordinance shall be necessary; provided that in the case of insurrection, riot, pestilence, conflagration or other public necessity requiring immediate operation of such ordinance, it shall take effect as soon as proclamation thereof has been made by the Mayor and it with said proclamation has been posted in five public places in each ward of the City.
In addition to all other powers conferred by law, the Common Council shall have power:
A.
To provide for laying out, opening, constructing, extending, widening, altering, straightening, altering of grade, grading, regrading, paving, repaving, surfacing, resurfacing, narrowing, discontinuing, improving, repairing, maintaining, caring for, cleaning, sprinkling, oiling, watering and flushing of public streets, and acquiring all lands or easements necessary for any or all such purposes.
B.
To provide for constructing, flagging, surfacing, altering, repairing, maintaining, caring for and cleaning sidewalks, crosswalks, drains, gutters and curbs in the public streets.
C.
To provide for constructing, operating and maintaining by the City in, along and under the public streets, highways, parks, squares and public places and in, along and under any real estate owned by the City, or acquired for the purpose, of conduits or ducts for electrical wires and cables and to cause to be installed therein electrical wires and cables constituting part of any system owned or operated by the City, and to permit the installation therein upon uniform rates, terms, rentals and conditions, which shall be approved by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, of electrical wires and cables, owned, used or operated by any corporation authorized and empowered to construct, own, use or maintain a line or lines of electric telegraph, telephone, or signal system within the City, or to manufacture and supply electricity, for producing light, heat and power. No franchise or right heretofore granted by the Common Council or under lawful authority to any corporation now operating in the City shall be hereby affected.
D.
To provide for the planting and rearing and to protect and preserve shade and ornamental trees in the streets and public grounds, and to prohibit the injury, defacement or destruction of such trees.
E.
To give names to streets, and to change such names in the manner and subject to the restrictions provided by law; to give numbers to lots and buildings and to change such numbers, and to compel the owners or occupants of any lot or building to place such numbers in a prominent place thereon.
F.
Subject to the Constitution and laws of the state, to regulate the use of streets and sidewalks by foot passengers, animals or vehicles; to regulate the speed at which horses may be driven or ridden and at which vehicles may be propelled in the streets; to regulate processions or parades occupying or marching upon any street; to prevent encroachments upon and obstructions to the streets and to authorize and require their removal by the proper officers; to regulate the opening of street surfaces for purposes authorized by law; to regulate and control the laying, maintaining, alteration and repair of subways, conduits, mains and pipes in and under the streets; to require cables and wires in the public streets, to be placed underground, provided after reasonable notice to the company or companies affected and after hearing, it shall appear to the Common Council that public necessity and convenience require that such cables and wires be placed underground; to regulate and prevent the throwing or depositing of ashes, garbage or other filth and rubbish of any kind upon the streets; to regulate the use of the streets for signs, sign posts, awnings, awning posts, horse troughs, comfort stations, posts for telegraph or other electric wires, trolley poles; and poles for other purposes; to regulate public criers, advertising, noise, steam whistles, and ringing bells in the streets; to regulate the exhibition of banners, placards or flags in or across the streets or from houses or other buildings; to regulate the distribution or exhibition of advertisements or handbills along the streets; and to make such regulations in reference to the running of stages, omnibuses, trucks and cars as may be necessary for the convenient use of the streets and stations. Whenever the word "street" or the plural thereof occurs in this section, it shall be deemed to include all that is included by the term "street, avenue, road, alley, lane, highway, boulevard, concourse, public square and public place," or the plurals thereof respectively; whenever the word "vehicle" or the plural thereof occurs in this section it shall be deemed to include wagons, trucks, carts, cabs, carriages, stages, omnibuses, motors, automobiles, street cars, locomotives, bicycles, tricycles, sleighs or other conveyances for persons or property. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the Common Council from providing by special ordinance for the erection or maintenance on the streets or sidewalks within the City of Binghamton of fountains, public comfort stations, urinals, public baths, or other like structures maintained by the public authorities; for the establishment of which the said Common Council is hereby empowered to provide. All general ordinances relating to authorized structures, encroachments or obstructions in or upon the streets or sidewalks by persons other than the authorities of the City of Binghamton or other public authorities, shall fix a definite license fee for every such authorized structure, encroachment or obstruction, according to the character, extent and duration thereof, excepting, however, any such structures as may belong to the necessary fixtures of public service corporations duly authorized by general or special laws or ordinances of the City to operate in the City, and shall provide for the issuing of revocable licenses therefor, which shall be according to an established form and shall be regularly numbered and duly registered as shall be prescribed by the Common Council.
G.
To establish and maintain a public pound; to restrain the running at large of animals and poultry; to authorize the impounding and sale of the same for the penalty incurred and the fees and costs thereof; to prescribe the manner of impounding or selling animals and poultry impounded; and to collect all costs and expenses from the owners thereof.
H.
To grant rights and franchises to use the streets, highways and public places or any part thereof, or the space above or underneath them for any purpose whatever, upon such terms as it may deem proper and as may be permitted by law.
I.
To provide for constructing, extending, altering, repairing, rebuilding, maintaining and caring for public sewers and drains within or without the limits of the City, and the drainage of swamps and lowlands.
J.
To provide for constructing, building, altering, rebuilding, repairing, maintaining and caring for sewage disposal plants within or without the limits of the City.
K.
To provide for constructing, building, rebuilding, repairing, maintaining, and caring for bridges, arches and culverts.
L.
To provide for constructing, altering and repairing the walls along the banks of any river, stream or watercourse within the City and improving, altering, changing, repairing and cleaning the beds and banks thereof, and to forbid and punish throwing, depositing or leaving rubbish in or on banks of streams.
M.
To establish and define the boundaries and grade of the natural watercourses and streams in the City and to prevent obstructions and encroachments in or upon the same, and to provide for and compel the removal of all obstructions, encroachments and deposits in and to the same and to assess the cost thereof to the owner, and to establish lines for docks, wharves, and retaining walls.
N.
To provide for laying out, enlarging, opening, ornamenting, equipping, improving, maintaining, caring for, and regulating the use of public squares, parks and playgrounds.
O.
To provide for acquiring, constructing, maintaining and regulating the use of public markets.
P.
To provide for acquiring, constructing, building, altering, enlarging, improving, repairing, equipping, furnishing, maintaining and caring for buildings for libraries, hospitals, dispensaries, sanitariums, public baths, fire houses, police stations, lockups, a City Hall, and for other City purposes, and acquiring sites therefor.
[Laws 1953, Ch. 878, § 50]
Q.
To provide for the leasing of buildings, or parts of buildings, for City purposes for a period of not exceeding five years.
R.
To provide for lighting the public streets, squares, parks, playgrounds and public buildings of the City.
S.
To provide for maintaining, operating, extending, improving and repairing the waterworks system of the City; acquiring and developing additional sources of water supply, building, operating and maintaining reservoirs, water towers, aqueducts, pumping stations, filtration beds, and acquiring by purchase or condemnation the lands needed therefor, within or without the limits of the City, and to regulate the use of water.
T.
To provide for maintaining a fire department, and acquiring horses, fire engines and other apparatus for the use of such department.
U.
To provide for a police department.
W.
To establish and maintain libraries, hospitals, dispensaries, sanitariums and public baths.
X.
Subject to the Constitution and laws of the state, to provide for licensing and otherwise regulating auctioneers, pawnbrokers, junk dealers, dealers in secondhand articles, hawkers, vendors, peddlers, dirt carts, public carters, truckers, hackers, cabbies, expressmen, taxicab drivers, car drivers, bootblacks, porters, scavengers, sweepers, theaters, bowling alleys, shooting galleries, billiard saloons, dance halls, skating rinks, automatic baseball courts, circuses, menageries, and other places of amusement and common shows; bone boiling, fat rendering and other noxious business. The Common Council shall establish uniform fees for licenses and shall prescribe the manner in which such licenses shall be issued.
Y.
To regulate the rates of fares to be taken by owners or drivers of hackney coaches, carriages, motors, omnibuses or other vehicles for public hire.
Z.
Subject to the Constitution and laws of the state to provide for licensing and otherwise regulating the carting, carrying, keeping, storing, selling or using gunpowder, dynamite, nitroglycerine and other explosives, gasoline, kerosene, petroleum and other combustible and dangerous materials, and to prevent the manufacture thereof and the refining or preparing of combustible oils or fluids, or bone boiling, fat rendering or other noxious business, either within the limits of the City or except in a specified area.
AA.
To regulate the sale of milk and provide for the inspection thereof, and of the dairies where the same is produced, to fix the fees for such inspection to be paid by the producer or seller, and to prohibit the sale of milk within the City without such inspection, or without first procuring a license therefor.
BB.
To prohibit the use within the City of steam boilers except upon such conditions and regulations regarding safety to life and property as it shall prescribe; to provide for the inspection and testing of steam boilers; to provide for the appointment and to prescribe the duties of an inspector of boilers and steam engines; to provide for the licensing of steam engineers or persons managing or operating steam engines or boilers.
CC.
To regulate or to prohibit the emission of smoke, noxious gas, deposits or other pollution from buildings, engines and from all other sources.
DD.
To regulate and prescribe the manner of weighing and marketing hay, straw, wood, coal and other commodities, and to regulate the inspection and sealing of weights and measures.
EE.
To adopt building ordinances, and to prohibit the erection, construction or repair of buildings, within the City except in compliance therewith; to fix and from time to time extend the area to be included in the fire limits, and to prohibit the erection or construction therein of buildings, except in compliance with such ordinances as to construction and material as it may prescribe. The Common Council shall not pass any special ordinance in relation to any of the matters mentioned in this subdivision. All ordinances in relation thereto shall be general ordinances which may be either applied throughout the whole City or throughout specific portions thereof.
FF.
To regulate the use of all buildings used for the purposes of public assemblage, and to prohibit the use of such buildings except in compliance with its requirements for the safety and security of persons therein; to raze or demolish any building or erection which by reason of fire or any other cause may become dangerous to human life or health.
GG.
To provide for the collection, removal and disposal of garbage, ashes, dead animals and rubbish; to provide for the erection and operation of crematories, incinerators or other apparatus for the burning and destruction of garbage, dead animals and other substances, and acquiring sites therefor.
HH.
To provide for insuring against fire of City property.
II.
To determine the number of Commissioners of Deeds in the City.
JJ.
To restrain and regulate the rate of speed of locomotive engines and cars upon the railroads within the City, and the unnecessary interruption of the passage in the streets of the City, and to prescribe the rules for and the warning to persons of the approach of locomotives in the City, and to prevent persons, not employees or passengers on any engine or cars, from jumping on or off such engine or cars while in motion. Also, to regulate and control the speed of street cars upon any of the streets or public places of said City.
KK.
To punish the willful giving of a false alarm of fire.
LL.
To regulate or prevent the discharge of firearms, percussion or airguns, rockets, gunpowder or other explosives, or the making of bonfires.
MM.
To prohibit the pursuit or exercise, without a license, of any of the following trades or occupations within the City, to wit: The business of expressmen, carters, porters, and any hack, cab, truck, omnibus, and the use of all vehicles employed for hire in the transportation of passengers or merchandise, goods or articles of any kind, and to require the owners of such vehicles to mark the same in such manner as the Council may designate; to license or regulate common criers, hawkers, peddlers, solicitors, itinerant merchants, except farmers or truck gardeners who themselves or through their employees vend, sell or dispose of products of their own farm or gardens; to license or regulate pawnbrokers, auctioneers, auction sales, billposters, electric or kite advertisers, distributors of samples of medicines or merchandise, and scavengers to license circuses, theaters, moving picture shows or other exhibitions or performances, billiards and pool parlors, bowling alleys, shooting galleries and other places of amusement, for money or hire; to license the use of any public hall, theater or opera house, but such place shall not be licensed unless it complies with all the laws, ordinances, rules and regulations relating to fire; to authorize the City Clerk or the person acting as such, to issue all licenses authorized by this Act (Laws 1917, Ch. 668). If any such trade or occupation shall be prohibited without a license, the Council shall establish uniform fees for licenses therefor and shall prescribe the manner in which such license shall be issued.
[L.L. No. 4-1950, § 1]
NN.
To make and adopt a map of the City by wards or sections of wards and to designate thereon the different lots and parcels of land contained in such sections, with the names of the owners thereof, as far as can be ascertained, and to number the same; and also to locate streets on such portions of such territory as are not built upon, which location shall be observed by the owners thereof, and in case any building be erected within the lines of such streets after such location, the owners of such buildings shall not be entitled to compensation therefor when it shall be opened and improved.
OO.
To preserve the public peace and good order; to prevent and suppress vice, immorality, disorderly and gambling houses, and houses of ill fame, riots, tumultuous assemblages, unnecessary crowds upon the streets or in doorways and stairways adjacent thereto, or loitering about such places, and all disorderly, noisy, riotous or tumultuous conduct within the City, disturbing the peace and quiet of the City, or any meeting or assembly therein.
PP.
To permit and regulate public telephone booths and related facilities upon the streets and sidewalks and public grounds of the City.[2]
[L.L. No. 3-1962]
[2]
Editor's Note: Former Subsection PP, giving Council authority to construct, improve and equip school buildings or acquire or improve school sites, added by Laws 1921, Ch. 39; amended by Laws 1943, Ch. 71-0, was repealed by Laws 1953, Ch. 878, § 325(2), Schedule A.
QQ.
In addition to the authority vested in the Common Council by General City Law § 20 and Second Class Cities Law § 3, Council will have the power and authority to place conditions on conveyances of real property owned by the City, including, but not limited to, deed restrictions limiting the future use or development of the real property, performance guarantees for proposed improvements, requirements for owner occupancy for specified times, to provide for rights of reverter, recapture obligations, or other penalties or forfeitures in the event of a grantee's failure or refusal to comply with such conditions.
[8-21-2006 by Ord. No. 06-37]