No person shall be eligible to any of the offices
of the city government except Superintendent of Schools, City Solicitor
and City Engineer unless he is a citizen and has been a resident of
the city at least two years.
[1]
Editor’s Note: Chapter 95, Acts of 2005, added the City
Solicitor to the list of excepted positions.
Each officer who is elected by the City Council
or appointed by the Mayor shall be notified by the City Clerk of his
election or appointment, and shall within seven days after receiving
such notice file with the City Clerk his acceptance in writing, subject
to the statutes of the commonwealth and the ordinances of the city,
and take and subscribe an oath for the faithful discharge of the duties
of the office, and any officer failing so to do shall be deemed to
have declined the office.
Whenever any officer shall be removed by the
Mayor or by any board a certificate of such removal, stating the reason
therefor, shall be filed with the City Clerk, there to remain on file
for public inspection; and whenever any officer shall be removed by
the City Council the reason therefor shall be expressed in the vote
of removal and the same shall be written at length upon the records
of the Council. The City Clerk, upon receipt of any order of removal,
or upon the passage of any vote of removal by the City Council, shall
cause a copy thereof to be served forthwith upon the officer so removed,
personally or by leaving the same at his last and usual place of abode,
and the office shall be deemed to be vacant from the time of the service
of such notice.
Any office established under and by virtue of
this act, excluding the Superintendent of Schools, the City Solicitor
and City Engineer, shall become vacant if the incumbent shall cease
to be a resident of the city. The conviction of the incumbent of any
such office of a crime punishable by imprisonment shall operate to
create a vacancy in the office held by him.
[1]
Editor’s Note: Chapter 95, Acts of 2005, added the Superintendent
of Schools, the City Solicitor and the City Engineer as exceptions
to the provisions of this section.
Vacancies which may at any time occur in any
office which is filled by election by the City Council or by appointment
by the Mayor may be filled for the unexpired term by election or appointment,
in the same manner as the officer whose place is vacant was elected
or appointed.
The administrative officers and boards above-named
shall annually on or before the first Monday in January furnish to
the Mayor an itemized and detailed estimate of the moneys required
for their respective departments or offices during the ensuing financial
year. The Mayor, President of the City Council, and the City Treasurer,
shall examine such estimates and shall submit the same with their
recommendations for appropriations in itemized and detailed apportionment
to the City Council on or before the first day of March.
[1]
Editor's Note: Chapter 473, Acts of 1941 (MGL
c. 44) changed the manner and date of making appropriations.
No sum appropriated for a specific purpose shall
be expended for any other purpose, and no expenditure shall be made
nor liability incurred by or in behalf of the city until an appropriation
has been duly voted by the City Council, sufficient to meet such expenditure
or liability, together with all prior unpaid liabilities which are
payable out of such appropriation, except in accordance with the written
recommendation of the Mayor to the City Council, approved by the yea
and nay vote of two thirds of the Council; provided, however, that
after the expiration of the financial year and until the passage of
the regular annual appropriations, liabilities payable out of a regular
appropriation to be contained therein may be incurred to an amount
not exceeding one fourth of the total of such appropriation for the
preceding year. Every bill, payroll or other voucher covering an expenditure
of money shall be approved by the signatures on the back of such bill
or voucher of the officer or of the majority of the board or committee
having control of or incurring such expenditure, and after such approval
such bills, payrolls or vouchers shall be turned over to the Auditor.
The financial year shall begin with the first day of July in each
year, and all provisions of law relating to the assessment of taxes
and temporary loans in anticipation of taxes shall be construed to
apply to said financial year.
[1]
Editor's Note: Chapter 229, Acts of 1934,
changed the financial year; Chapter 473, Acts of 1941, changed the
manner of making appropriations; and Chapter 512, Acts of 2008, changed
the day on which the financial year begins.
Every administrative board, through its Chairman,
and every officer having charge of a department, shall at the request
of the City Council, appear before it and give such information as
it may require in relation to any matter, act or thing connected with
the discharge of the duties of such board or officer; and when so
requested to appear the officer who appears shall have the right to
speak upon all matters under consideration relating to his department.
Nothing herein contained shall effect the enforcement
of the provisions of chapter three hundred and twenty of the acts
of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-four, being, "An act to improve
the civil service of the commonwealth and the cities thereof," and
acts in amendment thereof and in addition thereto, or of the rules
made by the Commissioners appointed thereunder; and the City Council
shall make sufficient and proper appropriations for the carrying out
and enforcement of said acts and rules in said city.
All contracts made by any department of the
city shall, when the amount involved is two hundred dollars or more,
be in writing, and no such contract shall be deemed to have been made
or executed until the approval of the Mayor is affixed thereto. All
contracts, when the amount involved is one thousand dollars or more,
shall be accompanied by a bond, to an amount and with sureties satisfactory
to the Mayor, or by a deposit of money or other security for the faithful
performance of such contracts; and such bonds or other security shall
be deposited with the City Treasurer until the contract has been carried
out in all respects; and no such contract shall be altered except
by a written agreement of the contractor, the sureties on his bond,
and the officer or board making the contract, with the approval of
the Mayor affixed thereto.
Neither the Mayor nor any officer of the city,
nor any member of any city board, committee or commission having authority
to expend money or to incur indebtedness on account of the city shall
directly or indirectly contract with himself or with any other member
of the same board, committee or commission, for the rendering of services
to the city or the furnishing of materials or supplies to the city
or to any person for or on account of the city, unless authorized
to do so by vote of the City Council, with the approval of the Mayor,
and any contract made in violation of this section shall be void:
provided, that this section shall not apply to the payment of the
incidental and necessary expenses of such officer or board.
All salaries of city officers or heads of departments
shall, except as is herein otherwise provided, be established by ordinance
by the City Council, but no ordinance changing any such salary shall
take effect until the municipal year succeeding that in which the
ordinance is passed.
[1]
Editor's Note: Chapter 43, Acts of 1925 (MGL
c. 44) provided for the change in the time to take effect.
Nothing contained herein shall be construed
to affect the authority, powers, privileges, rights and obligations
created and given by any special act of the general court and now
vested in and exercised by the City of Chicopee, unless specially
mentioned in this act.
All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with
this act are hereby repealed, provided, however, that the repeal of
the said acts shall not affect any act done or any right accruing
or accrued or established, or any suit or proceeding had or commenced
in any civil case before the time when such repeal shall take effect;
and that no offence committed and no penalty or forfeiture incurred
under the acts hereby repealed, and before the time when such repeal
shall take effect, shall be affected by the repeal; and that no suit
or prosecution pending at the time of said repeal, for any offence
committed or for the recovery of any penalty or forfeiture incurred
under the acts hereby repealed, shall be affected by such repeal;
and provided, also, that all persons who at the time when the said
repeal shall take effect shall hold office under the said acts, shall
continue to hold the same according to the tenure thereof and provided,
also, that all the by-laws and ordinances of the City of Chicopee
which shall be in force at the time when the said repeal shall take
effect, and which are not inconsistent with the provisions of this
act, shall continue in force until the same are repealed by the City
Council, and all officers elected under such by-laws and ordinances
shall continue in office according to the tenure thereof.
No act which has been heretofore repealed shall
be revived by the repeal of the acts mentioned in the preceding section.
This act shall be submitted to the qualified
voters of the City of Chicopee for acceptance at a special election
to be held within sixty days from its passage. The vote shall be taken
by ballot in answer to the following question: "Shall an act passed
by the general court in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven,
entitled 'An act to revise the charter of the City of Chicopee', be
accepted?"
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Yes
No
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__________
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In case this act is not accepted by the voters
of said city at its first submission under this section it shall be
submitted a second time to said voters at the annual
state election in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and
the vote shall be taken by ballot in answer to the question above-stated.
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So much of this act as authorizes and directs
the submission of the question of its acceptance to the qualified
voters of said city, shall take effect upon its passage; so much hereof
as relates to elections hereunder shall apply to the annual municipal
election to be held on the second Tuesday of December in the year
eighteen hundred and ninety-seven if the larger number of votes upon
the question of its acceptance is in the affirmative; and if so accepted
this act shall take full effect on the first Monday in January next
ensuing.
