In addition to all other powers conferred by
law the City of Watervliet shall have power:
1.
To contract and be contracted with and to institute,
maintain and defend any action or proceeding in any court.
2.
To take, purchase, hold and lease real and personal
property within and without the limits of the city, and acquire by
condemnation real and personal property, within and without the limits
of the city, for any public or municipal purpose, and to sell and
convey the same, subject to the limitations and restrictions hereinafter
provided for.
3.
To take by gift, grant or devise and to hold and administer
real and personal property within the limits of the city, absolutely
or in trust for any public or municipal purpose, upon such terms and
conditions as may be prescribed by the grantor or donor and accepted
by the city.
4.
To levy and collect taxes on real and personal property
for the various purposes authorized by law.
5.
To pay or compromise claims equitably payable by the
city, though not constituting obligations legally binding on it, but
it shall have no power to waive the defense of the statute of limitations
or to grant extra compensation to any public officer, servant or contractor.
6.
To establish and maintain sinking funds for the liquidation
of principal and interest of any indebtedness.
7.
To lay out, establish, construct, maintain, continue,
operate, alter, extend and discontinue sewers and drainage systems,
water supply systems, and lighting systems for lighting streets, public
buildings and public places, and to continue, lay out, establish,
construct, contribute to, maintain and operate markets, parks, playgrounds
and public places, and upon the discontinuance thereof to sell and
convey the same subject to the limitations and restrictions hereinafter
provided for.
8.
To acquire, lay out, open, construct, extend, widen,
contract, alter, straighten, level, grade, pave, repair, surface,
resurface, improve, repair, maintain, care for, clean, oil, sprinkle,
flush and discontinue streets and to establish and alter the grade
thereof and of the sidewalks, and to either make the cost thereof
in whole or in part against the property determined by the council
to be benefited thereby.
9.
To construct, flag, surface, alter, repair, maintain,
care for and clean sidewalks, gutters and curbs in the public streets,
and to regulate the grade, width, materials and construction thereof;
and to either make the cost thereof a general charge against the city,
or to assess the cost thereof against the owners of the abutting property
in whole or in part; or in its discretion to permit the owners of
abutting property to carry out the requirements of the city at their
own expense under the direction and supervision of the city.
10.
To establish, maintain, operate and regulate docks,
piers, wharves, warehouses and all adjuncts and facilities for navigation
and commerce and for the utilization of the water front and waterways
and adjacent property.
11.
To establish, construct, and maintain, operate, alter
and discontinue bridges and tunnels and approaches thereto.
12.
To grant franchise or rights to use the streets, waters,
water front, public ways and public places of the city.
13.
To construct and maintain public buildings, public
works and public improvements, including local improvements, to determine
the property benefited thereby, and to assess and levy upon the property
benefited thereby the cost thereof, in whole or in part.
14.
To prevent and extinguish fires and to protect the
inhabitants of the city and property within the city from loss or
damage by fire or other casualty. To establish, discontinue, continue,
alter and maintain a fire department of volunteer members, or wholly
of paid employees. To regulate such fire department as to operation,
discipline, organization, equipment, number and compensation of employees,
duties and local powers. To purchase and provide apparatus, equipment
and appliances for such fire department.
15.
To continue, alter and maintain a police department
and to regulate the same as to operation, discipline, organization,
equipment, number and compensation of employees, duties and local
powers. To purchase and provide apparatus, equipment, and appliances
for such police department.
16.
To maintain order, enforce the law, protect the property
and preserve and care for the safety, health, comfort, and general
welfare of the inhabitants of the city and visitors thereto; and for
any of said purposes to regulate and license occupations, business
and public exhibitions.
17.
To establish, maintain, manage and administer hospitals,
sanitaria, dispensaries, public baths, almhouses, workhouses, jails
and other charitable and correctional institutions; to relieve, instruct,
and care for children and poor, sick, infirm, defective, insane or
inebriate persons; to provide for the burial of indigent persons;
to contribute to or supervise charitable, eleemosynary, correctional
or reformatory institutions for the benefit or relief of inhabitants
of the city, which are wholly or partly under private control.
18.
To establish and maintain such institutions and instrumentalities
for the instruction, enlightenment, improvement, entertainment, recreating
and welfare of its inhabitants as it may deem appropriate or necessary
for the public interest or advantage.
19.
To determine and regulate the number, designations,
terms of employment, qualifications, powers, duties and compensation
of all employees of the city, and the relations of such employees
to the officers of the city and to each other.
20.
To create a municipal civil service; to make rules
for the classification of the offices and employments in the city
service, for appointments, promotions and examinations, and for the
registration and selection of laborers.
21.
To regulate the manner of transacting the city's business
and affairs and the reporting of and accounting for all transactions
of or concerning the city.
22.
To designate streets by name or number and to change
such designation. To designate by number lots and buildings, to change
such designation, and to compel the owners or occupants of any lots
or buildings to place its designated number in a prominent place thereon.
23.
To regulate the use of streets, sidewalks and public
places by pedestrians, animals or vehicles; to regulate parades and
public assemblages in the public places of the city. To regulate and
control the opening of street surfaces; to regulate and prevent the
depositing of ashes, garbage, rubbish or filth of any kind upon the
streets; to regulate the use of streets for lights, signs, awnings,
horse troughs, urinals, posts, poles, and wires; to regulate public
criers, advertising and noise in the streets; to regulate the exhibition
of advertising of handbills of on the streets; and to make such regulations
in reference to the running of stages, omnibuses, trucks, taxicabs,
trolley cars, and other vehicles as may be necessary for the safe
or convenient use of the streets, piers, wharves or stations.
24.
Subject to the constitution and general laws of the
state, to provide for licensing and otherwise regulating auctioneers,
pawn brokers, junk dealers, dealers in secondhand articles, hawkers,
vendors, peddlers, public cartmen, truckmen, hackmen, cabmen, expressman,
car drivers, bootblacks, porters, scavengers, sweepers, theaters,
bowling alleys, shooting galleries, billiard parlors, skating rinks,
circuses, menageries, public exhibitions, and other places of amusement
and common shows, bone boiling, fat rendering, slaughtering, and other
noxious business.
25.
To regulate the rates of fares to be taken by owners
or drivers of stages, hackney coaches, cabs, carriages, taxicabs,
omnibuses, and other vehicles for public hire.
26.
To license, regulate or prohibit within the limits
of the city the manufacture, sale, transportation, storage, preparation
or use of gunpowder, dynamite, nitroglycerin, and other explosives,
kerosene, petroleum, gasoline, and other combustible and dangerous
materials, and to prohibit within the limits of the city the carrying
on of any noxious businesses.
27.
To regulate or prohibit the emission of smoke, noxious
gases, deposits or other pollution from buildings, locomotives, engines,
boats and other sources.
28.
To regulate building and construction, and to prohibit
the erection, construction or repair of buildings, docks, walls, piers,
billboards, or other structures within the city except in compliance
with such regulations.
29.
To fix, extend, contract and alter the limits of fire
districts, and to prohibit the erection or construction therein of
buildings except in compliance with such regulations as to construction
and materials, as may be prescribed.
30.
To regulate the use of all buildings, used for the
purposes of public assemblies; to prohibit the use of such buildings
except in compliance with its requirements for the safety, security
and health of persons therein; to raze or demolish any buildings or
erections which by reason of fire; faulty construction or from any
other cause may be dangerous to human life or health.
31.
To provide for the collection, removal and disposal
of garbage, ashes, dead animals and rubbish.
32.
To regulate or prohibit coasting on the streets of
the city.
33.
To establish and regulate public pounds, and to restrain
the running at large of animals and poultry in the streets of the
city under penalty, and to authorize the distraining, impounding and
sale of the same for the penalty incurred, and costs of keeping and
proceeding.
34.
To regulate by ordinance any matters within the powers
of the city; and to provide for the enforcement of ordinances by legal
proceedings to compel compliance therewith, and by penalties, forfeitures,
and imprisonment to punish violations thereof.
35.
To appropriate and raise by tax money for any purpose
herein specified, and generally to exercise all powers necessary and
proper for carrying into execution the powers granted by the city.
36.
To determine whether improvements made by virtue of
any of the powers hereby granted are general improvements or local
improvements, and where any such improvements are determined to be
local improvements to determine the property benefited thereby and
to assess the cost of such improvement either in whole or in part
against the property benefited. (Ord. No. 5-C, 1920; L. 1943, c. 710)
All of the legislative powers of the city, however conferred upon or possessed by it, are vested in the Council of the City of Watervliet, to be composed of the mayor and the two councilmen. It shall be for all purposes the common council of the city. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462,§ 25; as renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920)
The mayor shall preside at all meetings of the council and shall have the same power as a councilman to vote upon all matters coming before the council. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462, § 27; as renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920)
The city clerk shall attend the meetings of
the council, keep a journal of its proceedings, and discharge such
other duties as may be prescribed by law or ordinance. The clerk shall
have the custody of the city seal and shall have the power of a commissioner
of deeds within the city. The city clerk, before entering upon the
duties of his office, shall execute and file with the chamberlain[1] an official undertaking in such penal sum as may be prescribed by the council. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462, § 28; as renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920)
[1]
Editor's Note: The office of Chamberlain was
abolished by Ord. No. 6, 1920, and the powers of the office of Chamberlain
were vested in the Director of Finance.
The council shall hold regular meetings on the first and third Thursdays of each month at times to be determined by it from time to time by ordinance. Special meetings may be called by any member on three (3) days' notice, specifying the object of the meeting. All legislative sessions shall be open to the public and every matter coming before the council for disposition shall be put to a vote, wherein the ayes and nays shall be called and recorded. The journal of the proceedings of the council shall be open to the inspection of any elector of the city. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462, § 29; as renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920; L.L. No. 2-1978, § 1, 3-9-78)
The council shall determine the rules of its own proceedings and be the judge of the election, returns and qualifications of its members. A majority of the council shall constitute a quorum to do business. All legislative acts of the council shall be by ordinance, and on the passage of every ordinance, the ayes and nays of the members voting thereon shall be entered in full upon the journal. The passage of an ordinance shall require the affirmative vote of at least a majority of all of the members of the council. The vote required for the authorization of the issuance of obligations shall be governed by the Local Finance Law. No ordinance shall be passed by the council on the same day on which it is introduced except by unanimous consent. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462, §§ 30 and 31; as together renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920; as amended by L. 1943, c. 710)
No appropriation of money shall be made for any purpose except by ordinance specifying each item, the amount thereof, and the department or specific purpose for which the appropriation is made. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462, § 32; as renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920)
No ordinance shall be passed making or authorizing a sale or lease of the city's real estate or of any franchise or of any personal property belonging to or under the control of the city, except by unanimous vote of the council. In case of a proposed sale or lease of real estate or of a franchise, the ordinance must provide for a disposal of the same at public auction to the highest bidder, under proper regulations as to the giving of securities and after public notice to be published once a week for three weeks in the official paper or papers. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the city may sell or lease residential real estate to the owners of real estate adjacent to or abutting the real estate to be sold or leased without a public auction and without public notice being published in the official paper or papers. The owners of real estate abutting or adjacent to the real estate to be sold or leased shall be invited to submit written bids for the real estate and such real estate shall be sold or leased to the highest bidder, subject to unanimous approval by the council. No franchise shall be granted or be operated for a period longer than fifty years. The council may, however, grant to the owner or lessee of an existing franchise, under such operations or being actually carried on, such additional rights or extensions in the street or streets in which the said franchise exists, upon such terms as the interest of the city may require, with or without an advertisement, as the council may determine. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462, § 33; as renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920; L.L. No. 2-2022, § 1, 7-29-2021)
Every ordinance of the council shall immediately after its passage be spread at large upon the ordinance book of the city, and shall be attested by the city clerk and signed by the corporation counsel as to its form and approved by the mayor. The city clerk shall notify the mayor after the passage of every ordinance that the same has been transcribed and is ready for his signature. The original record of each ordinance or a certified copy thereof shall be presumptive evidence of the passage of the ordinances and of the facts certified. The original record of all ordinances for such year shall be kept in the custody of the city clerk. The council may by ordinance regulate the powers and duties of any city officer or department, and may investigate all city officers and departments. For the purpose of making such investigations the council shall have access to all records and papers kept by every city office or department, and has power to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of books, papers or other evidence at any meeting of the council or of any committee thereof, and for that purpose may issue subpoenas signed by the mayor. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462, §§ 34, 36; as together renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920)
Any person violating an ordinance of the council
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and the council may provide therefor
or by general ordinance, that any person guilty of such violation
shall be liable to fine, which shall not exceed $150 in amount, or
to imprisonment not exceeding 150 days or to both such fine and imprisonment,
or such ordinance may provide for a penalty not exceeding $500 to
be recovered by the city in a civil action. The city may maintain
an action or proceeding in all courts of competent jurisdiction to
compel compliance with or to restrain by injunction the violation
of any ordinance of the council, notwithstanding that the ordinance
may provide a penalty for such violation. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462,
§ 38; as renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920)
The council shall designate one or more newspapers having a general circulation within the City of Watervliet to be the official newspaper or newspapers of the city. Such official newspaper shall publish such matters and in such forms as shall be prescribed by statute or by general ordinance of the council. All bids and accounts for publication in official newspapers, and all city printing and advertising shall be a city charge. The council may, by general ordinance, prescribe the form in which the proceedings and reports of the city officials, boards and departments shall be issued, and the printing and binding of the same shall be performed under contract awarded as in the case of other city contracts. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462, § 39; as renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920; L.L. No. 1-1979, § 1, 1-18-1979)
Any member of the council who shall knowingly
or unlawfully disregard any provision of law applicable to the members
thereof, or who shall vote for any ordinance or measure in violation
of law, or any appropriations unauthorized by law or in excess of
the amount authorized by law, or for any illegal or injurious disposition
of corporate property, rights or privileges, shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor and liable to the punishment and penalty prescribed therefor,
and every member voting in favor thereof shall be individually liable
to refund the amount to the city at the suit of any taxpayer. (Formerly
L. 1918, c. 462, § 40; as renumbered and amended by Ord.
No. 5-C, 1920)
[1]
Editor's Note: Section 35, pertaining to borrowing on tax anticipation notes, was formerly§ 42 of the original Charter of the city, as adopted by L. 1918, c. 462. Subsequently,§ 42 was renumbered as§ 35 by Ord. No. 5-C in 1920. Upon the adoption of the Local Finance Law,§ 42 was repealed by L. 1945, c. 339, as begin superseded by the Local Finance Law. It appears that it was intended to repeal the renumbered§ 35, rather than§ 42 which did not exist at the time of the repeal.
The council shall appoint as many commissioners
of deeds as it shall deem necessary. Said commissioner of deeds shall
continue in office for a term of two years from the date of appointment
and shall possess within the City of Watervliet all the powers possessed
by a notary public in said city. (Formerly L. 1918, c. 462, § 43;
as renumbered and amended by Ord. No. 5-C, 1920)
