(1)
General powers. The Council of Commissioners shall have the power
to pass all such ordinances not contrary to the Constitution and laws
of the State of Maryland or this Charter as it may deem necessary
for the good government of the town; for the protection and preservation
of the town's property, rights and privileges; for the preservation
of peace and good order; for securing persons and property from violence,
danger or destruction; and for the protection and promotion of the
health, safety, comfort, convenience, welfare and happiness of the
residents of and visitors in the town.
(2)
Specific powers. The Council of Commissioners shall have, in addition,
the power to pass ordinances not contrary to the laws and Constitution
of this state, for the specific purposes provided in the remaining
subsections of this section.
(3)
The Council of Commissioners shall consider and approve or reject
all appointments made by the President of the Commissioners.
(4)
Advertising. To provide for advertising for the purposes of the town,
for printing and publishing statements as to the business of the town.
(5)
Aisles and doors. To regulate and prevent the obstruction of aisles
in public halls, churches and places of amusement, and to regulate
the construction and operation of the doors and means of egress therefrom.
(6)
Amusements. To provide in the interest of the public welfare for
licensing, regulating or restraining theatrical or other public amusements.
(7)
Appropriations. To appropriate municipal moneys for any purpose within
the powers of the Council.
(8)
Auctioneers. To regulate the sale of all kinds of property at auction
within the town and to license auctioneers.
(9)
Band. To establish a municipal band, symphony orchestra or other
musical organization, and to regulate by ordinance the conduct and
policies thereof.
(10)
Billboards. To license, tax and regulate, restrain or prohibit the
erection or maintenance of billboards within the town, the placing
of signs, bills and posters of every kind and description on any building,
fence, post, billboard, pole or other place within the town.
(11)
Bridges. To erect and maintain bridges.
(12)
Buildings. To make reasonable regulations in regard to buildings
and signs to be erected, constructed or reconstructed in the town,
and to grant building permits for them; to formulate a building code
and a plumbing code and to appoint a building inspector and a plumbing
inspector, and to require reasonable charges for permits and inspections;
to authorize and require the inspection of all buildings and structures
and to authorize the condemnation thereof in whole or in part when
dangerous or insecure, and to require that such buildings and structures
be made safe or be taken down.
(13)
Cemeteries. To regulate or prohibit the interment of bodies within
the municipality and to regulate cemeteries.
(14)
Codification of ordinances. To provide for the codification of all
ordinances.
(15)
Community services. To provide, maintain and operate community and
social services for the preservation and promotion of the health,
recreation, welfare and enlightenment of the inhabitants of the town.
(16)
Cooperative activities. To make agreements with other municipalities,
counties, districts, bureaus, commissions and governmental authorities
for the joint performance of or for cooperation in the performance
of any governmental functions.
(17)
Curfew. To prohibit the youth of the town from being in the streets,
lanes, alleys or public places at unreasonable hours of the night.
(18)
Dangerous improvements. To compel persons about to undertake dangerous
improvements to execute bonds with sufficient sureties conditioned
that the owner or contractor will pay all damages resulting from such
work which may be sustained by any persons or property.
(19)
Departments. To create, change and abolish offices, departments or
agencies, other than the offices, departments and agencies established
by this Charter; to assign additional functions or duties to offices,
departments or agencies established by this Charter, but not including
the power to discontinue or assign to any other office, department
or agency any function or duty assigned by this Charter to a particular
office, department or agency.
(20)
(21)
Elevators. To require the inspection and licensing of elevators and
escalators and to prohibit their use when unsafe or dangerous or without
a license.
(22)
Explosives and combustibles. To regulate or prevent the storage of
gunpowder, oil or any other explosive or combustible matter; to regulate
or prevent the use of firearms, fireworks, bonfires, explosives or
any other similar things which may endanger persons or property.
(23)
Filty.[3] To compel the occupant of any premises, building or outhouse
situated in the town, if it has become filthy or unwholesome, to abate
or cleanse the condition; and after reasonable notice to the owners
or occupants thereof to authorize such work to be done by the proper
officers and to assess the expense thereof against the property, making
it collectible by taxes or against the occupant or occupants.
[3]
Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should read "Filth."
(24)
Finances. To levy, assess and collect ad valorem property taxes;
to expend municipal funds for any public purpose; to have general
management and control of the finances of the town.
(25)
Fire. To suppress fires and prevent the dangers thereof and to establish
and maintain a Fire Department; to contribute funds to volunteer fire
companies serving the town; to inspect buildings for the purpose of
reducing fire hazards, to issue regulations concerning fire hazards
and to forbid and prohibit the use of fire-hazardous buildings and
structures permanently or until the conditions of the town fire-hazard
regulations are met; to install and maintain fireplugs where and as
necessary, and to regulate their use; and to take all other measures
necessary to control and prevent fires in the town.
(26)
Food. To inspect and to require the condemnation of, if unwholesome,
and to regulate the sale of, any food products.
(27)
Franchises. To grant and regulate franchises to electric light companies,
gas companies, telegraph and telephone companies, transit companies,
taxicab companies and any others which may be deemed advantageous
and beneficial to the town, subject to the limitations and provisions
of Article 23 of the Annotated Code of Maryland. No franchise shall
be granted for a longer period than fifty (50) years.
(28)
Garbage. To prevent the deposit of any unwholesome substance either
on private or public property and to compel its removal to designated
points; to require slops, garbage, ashes and other waste or other
unwholesome materials to be removed to designated points, or to require
the occupants of the premises to place them conveniently for removal.
(29)
Grants-in-aid. To accept gifts and grants of federal or of state
funds from the federal or state governments or any agency thereof,
and to expend the funds for any lawful purpose, agreeably to the conditions
under which the gifts or grants were made.
(30)
Hawkers. To license, tax, regulate, suppress and prohibit hawkers
and itinerant dealers, peddlers, pawnbrokers and all other persons
selling any articles on the streets of the town, and to revoke such
licenses for any action or threat of action by such a licensee in
the course of his occupation which causes or threatens harm or injury
to inhabitants of the town or to their welfare or happiness.
(31)
Health. To protect and preserve the health of the town and its inhabitants;
to appoint a public health officer, and to define and regulate his
powers and duties: to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases
into the town; to establish quarantine regulations, and to authorize
the removal and confinement of persons having contagious or infectious
diseases; to prevent and remove all nuisances; to inspect, regulate
and abate any buildings, structures or places which cause or may cause
unsanitary conditions or conditions detrimental to health; but nothing
herein shall be construed to affect in any manner any of the powers
and duties of the State Board of Health, the County Board of Health,
or any public general or local law relating to the subject of health.
(32)
House numbers. To regulate the numbering of houses and lots and to
compel owners to renumber them or, in default thereof, to authorize
and require the work to be done by the town at the owner's expense,
such expense to constitute a lien upon the property collectible as
tax moneys.
(34)
Licenses. Subject to any restrictions imposed by the public general
laws of the state, to license and regulate all persons beginning or
conducting transient or permanent business in the town for the sale
of any goods, wares, merchandise or services; to license and regulate
any business, occupation, trade, calling or place of amusement or
business; to establish and collect fees and charges for all licenses
and permits issued under the authority of this Charter.
(35)
Liens. To provide that any valid charges, taxes or assessments made
against any real property within the town shall be liens upon the
property, to be collected as municipal taxes are collected.
(36)
Lights. To provide for the lighting of the town.
(37)
Livestock. To regulate and prohibit the running at large of cattle,
horses, swine, fowl, sheep, goats, dogs or other animals; to authorize
the impounding, keeping, sale and redemption of such animals when
found in violation of the ordinance in such cases provided.
(38)
Markets. To obtain by lease or rent, own, construct, purchase, operate
and maintain public markets within the town.
(39)
Minor privileges. To regulate or prevent the use of public ways,
sidewalks and public places for signs, awnings, posts, steps, railings,
entrances, racks, posting handbills and advertisements and display
of goods, wares and merchandise.
(40)
Noise. To regulate or prohibit unreasonable ringing of bells, crying
of goods or sounding of whistles and horns.
(41)
Nuisances. To prevent or abate by appropriate ordinance all nuisances
in the town which are so defined at common law, by this Charter or
by the laws of the State of Maryland, whether they be herein specifically
named or not; to regulate, to prohibit, to control the location of
or to require the removal from the town of all trading in, handling
of or manufacture of any commodity which is or may become offensive,
obnoxious or injurious, to the public comfort or health. In this connection
the town may regulate, prohibit, control the location of or require
the removal from the town of such things as stockyards, slaughterhouses,
cattle or hog pens, tanneries and renderies. This listing is by way
of enumeration, not limitation.
(42)
Obstructions. To remove all nuisances and obstructions from the streets,
lanes and alleys and from any lots adjoining thereto, or any other
places within the limits of the town.
(43)
Parking facilities. To license and regulate and to establish, obtain
by purchase, by lease or by rent, own, construct, operate and maintain
parking lots and other facilities for off-street parking.
(44)
Parking meters. To install parking meters on the streets and public
places of the town in such places as by ordinance they determine and
by ordinance to prescribe rates and provisions for the use thereof;
but the installation of parking meters on any street or raod[5] maintained by the State Highway Administration must first
be approved by the Administration.
[5]
Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should read "road."
(45)
Parks and recreation. To establish and maintain public parks, gardens,
playgrounds and other recreational facilities and programs to promote
the health, welfare and enjoyment of the inhabitants of the town.
(46)
Police force. To establish, operate and maintain a police force.
All town policemen within the municipality shall have the powers and
authority of constables in this state.
(47)
Police powers. To prohibit, suppress and punish within the town all
vice, gambling and games of chance; prostitution and solicitation
therefor and the keeping of bawdy houses and houses of ill fame; all
tramps and vagrants; all disorder, disturbances, annoyances, disorderly
conduct, obscenity, public profanity and drunkenness.
(48)
Property. To acquire, by conveyance, purchase or gift, real or leasable
property for any public purposes; to erect buildings and structures
thereon for the benefit of the town and its inhabitants; and to convey
any real or leasehold property when no longer needed for the public
use, after having given at least twenty (20) days' public notice
of the proposed conveyance; to control, protect and maintain public
buildings, grounds and property of the town.
(49)
Quarantine. To establish quarantine regulations in the interests
of the public health.
(50)
Regulations. To adopt by ordinance and enforce within the corporate
limits police, health, sanitary, fire, building, plumbing, traffic,
speed, parking and other similar regulations not in conflict with
the laws of the State of Maryland or with this Charter.
(51)
Sidewalks. To regulate the use of sidewalks and all structures in,
under or above them; to reqire[6] the owner or occupant of premises to keep the sidewalks
in front thereof free from snow or other obstructions; to prescribe
hours for cleaning sidewalks.
[6]
Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should read "require."
(52)
Sweepings. To regulate or prevent the throwing or depositing of sweepings,
dust, ashes, offal, garbage, paper, handbills, dirty liquids or other
unwholesome materials into any public way or on any public or private
property in the town.
(53)
Taxicabs. To license, tax and regulate public hackmen, taxicabmen,
draymen, drivers, cabmen, porters and expressmen, and all other persons
pursuing like occupations.
(54)
Vehicles. To regulate and license wagons and other vehicles not subject
to the licensing powers of the State of Maryland.
(55)
Voting machines. To purchase, lease, borrow, install and maintain
voting machines for use in town elections.
(56)
Zoning. To exercise the powers as to planning and zoning, conferred
upon municipal corporations generally in Article 66B of the Annotated
Code of Maryland, subject to the limitations and provisions of said
Article.
(57)
Saving clause. The enumeration of powers in this section is not to
be construed as limiting the powers of the town to the several subjects
mentioned.
For the purpose of carrying out the powers granted in this Charter,
the Council may pass all necessary ordinances. All the powers of the
town shall be exercised in the manner prescribed by this Charter or,
if the manner be not prescribed, then in such manner as may be prescribed
by ordinance.
A.
To assure the observances of the ordinances of the town, the Council
of Commissioners has the power to provide that violation thereof shall
be either a misdemeanor or a municipal infraction as the ordinance
shall provide, and has the power to affix penalties of either as a
misdemeanor or a municipal infraction up to the limits permitted to
municipalities by state law for either fine or imprisonment or both.
B.
Any person charged with a violation of a municipal ordinance shall
be entitled to such rights of trial and appeal as shall be provided
by state law or the Constitution of Maryland or the municipal ordinance
if not inconsistent therewith. The Council may provide that, if the
violation is of a repeated or continuing nature and is persisted in,
additional penalties may be imposed, and in the event of trial before
the District Court of Maryland or the Circuit Court on appeal, that
each day during which the violatin[1] is persisted in may be an additional violation, and conviction
of one violation shall not be a bar for a continuation of the offense
subsequent to the first or any succeeding conviction.
[1]
Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should read "violation."
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Res. No. 1-83]
Every person who is a citizen of the United States, is at least
eighteen (18) years of age, is a bona fide resident of the town and
is registered to vote on the registration books of the Town of Pittsville
shall be entitled to vote at all town elections.
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Res. No. 1-83]
There shall be a Board of Supervisors of Elections, consisting
of three 3) members appointed by the President of the Commissioners,
with the approval of the Council, on or before the first Monday in
March in every second odd-numbered year beginning in 1981. The terms
of members of the Board of Supervisors of Elections begin on the first
Monday in March in the year in which they are appointed and run for
four (4) years. Members of the Board of Supervisors of Elections shall
be qualified voters of the town and shall not hold or be candidates
for any elective office during their term of office. The Board shall
appoint one (1) of its members as Chairman. Vacancies on the Board
shall be fined by the President with the approval of the Council for
the remainder of the unexpired term. The compensation of the members
of the Board shall be determined by the Council and included in the
budget. The Town Clerk shall also act as Clerk to the Board of Supervisors
of Elections and shall perform such duties as the Board may provide.
Any member of the Board of Supervisors of Elections may be removed
for good cause by the Council if in the judgment of the Council the
member is not properly performing or will not properly perform the
duties of the position. Before removal, the member of the Board of
Supervisors of Elections to be removed shall be given a written copy
of the charges against him and shall have a public hearing on them
before the Council if he so requests within ten (10) days after receiving
the written copy of the charges.
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Res. No. 1-83]
The Board of Supervisors of Elections shall be in charge of
nominations and all Town elections and shall prepare and maintain
a registration book containing registration slips showing the names,
addresses and ages of all persons eligible to vote in town elections
and the record of whether or not they have voted. For the election
to be held in 1983, all persons who are bona fide residents of the
Town of Pittsville and on May 1, 1983, are registered to vote in state
and county elections shall be transferred to the registration book
for the town. Persons who are not, on May 1, 1983, registered to vote
in state and county elections shall be entitled to register at registration
days held in advance of the 1983 election, and thereafter, at least
one (1) registration day shall be held not less than three (3) weeks
in advance of any municipal election. Persons entitled to register
to vote in town elections may also register at the Town Hall during
hours when it is regularly open for business. The Supervisors of Elections
shall annually remove from the registration books the names of persons
who have died or moved out of town limits during the previous year.
The Board of Election Supervisors shall also notify by postcard with
a stamped and addressed return portion any person who has not voted
during the three (3) previous town elections that his or her name
will be removed from the registration book unless the return portion
of the card is received by the Board at least three (3) weeks prior
to the next ensuing election requesting that his or her name be kept
on the registration book.
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Res. No. 1-83]
The Board of Supervisors of Elections shall give at least two
(2) weeks' notice of the deadline for filing certificates of
candidacy, and also two (2) weeks' notice of every registraiton[1] day and of every election by an advertisement published
in a newspaper of general circulation in the town and by posting a
notice in the town office and in some other place or places in the
town. Such notices of registration and election shall specify the
place of registration and voting and the hours during which persons
may register and the hours during which the polls will be open.
[1]
Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should read "registration."
If any person is denied the right to vote by the action of the
Board of Supervisors of Elections, he shall be permitted to mark a
ballot which shall be then sealed in an envelope; the Commissioners
shall then determine at a special meeting before the date of qualification
of their successors whether the person's ballot shall be counted.
The seal of the envelope shall not be broken until action has been
taken by the Commissioners that the ballot shall be counted.
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Res. No. 1-83]
Persons may be nominated for elective office in the town by
filing a certificate of nomination at the office of the Board of Supervisors
of Elections on or before five (5) calendar weeks before the day of
election. No person shall file for nomination to more than one (1)
elective town public office or hold more than one (1) elective town
public office at any one time.
The town election shall be held on the fourth Monday in June
in odd-numbered years. Candidates' names shall be in alphabetical
order for the office sought on the ballots or voting machine labels,
with no party designation of any kind. The polls shall be open from
2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.
It is the duty of the Board of Supervisors of Elections to provide
a suitable place for voting and suitable ballots, ballot boxes or
voting machines. Booths shall be provided for voting privacy if voting
machines are not used. Ballots or voting machine tabulations shall
be kept by the Board of Supervisors of Elections for a period of six
(6) months following each election before they may be destroyed.
Within twelve (12) hours after the closing of the polls, the
Board of Supervisors of Elections shall determine the vote case[1] for each candidate and shall certify the results of the
election to the Town Clerk, who shall record the results in the minute
book of the Commissioners. The number of candidates to be elected
to each office receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared
elected. In the event of a tie vote, a runoff election shall be held
between the tied candidates to see which one shall be elected. Such
election shall be held two (2) weeks after the original election at
the same polling place and during the same hours. A notice of the
special election shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation
in the municipality which in addition to other information shall give
the names of the candidates.
[1]
Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should read "cast."
In case of vacancy on the Council of Commissioners for any reason,
the remaining members shall elect some qualified person to fill the
vacancy for the unexpired term. The vote of the remaining members
in filling the vacancy shall be recorded in the minutes of the Council.
[Added 3-21-1983 by Res. No. 1-83]
Any qualified voter registered to vote in town elections shall
have the opoprtunity[1] to vote by absentee ballot. A voter who wishes to vote
by absentee ballot must apply in person or by mail to the Town Clerk
and make an affidavit that he or she will not be able to get to the
polls on election day. The absentee ballot must be applied for no
later than two (2) weeks before the date of any regular or special
election and must be received by the Board of Supervisors of Elections
prior to the time the polls open on Election Day.
[1]
Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should read "opportunity."
