Wicomico County, MD General Powers

[1959 Code, sec. 310. 1951, ch. 534, sec. 29] [Amended 9-8-1958 by Ord. No. 781]

The City of Salisbury shall have the power:

Aisles. To regulate and prevent the obstruction of aisles in public halls, churches and places of amusement.

Amusements. To provide for the restraining of theatrical or other public amusements of an immoral or indecent nature within the city.

(3)

Auctioneers. To regulate and license auctioneers who cry any public sales within the corporate limits of the city.

(4)

Bawdy houses. To suppress streetwalkers and to prohibit or restrain the keeping of bawdy houses or houses of ill fame within the limits of the city.

(5)

Buildings. To make reasonable regulations in regard to buildings to be erected in the city and to grant building permits for the same; 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 regulate and restrict the height, number of stories, and size of buildings and other structures, the size of yards, courts and open spaces; and the location and use of buildings, structures and land for trade, industry or residence or tanks, pumps or other fixtures; to establish the distance buildings or any part thereof, fences or walls shall be erected from inner curb of street line; to direct in what part of the city wooden buildings shall not be erected or constructed; 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 taken down.

(6)

Contracts. To contract with any corporation, firm or person for the energy and water requirements of the city or a part thereof, by such means as may be deemed proper, provided that no contract so entered into shall be for a longer period than 20 years.

[Amended 2-23-2015 by Res. No. 2015-2]

(7)

Codification. To provide for the codification of all ordinances which have been or may hereafter be passed.

(8)

Disorder. To restrain all disorder, disturbances, annoyances, disorderly conduct and drunkenness.

(9)

Dogs. To regulate the keeping of dogs in the city and to provide for the licensing and taxing of the same; to provide for disposition of homeless dogs and dogs on which no license or taxes are paid.

(10)

Exits. To regulate the construction and maintenance of exits from places of amusements and all public buildings.

(11)

Explosives. To prevent and regulate the storage of gunpowder, oil or other combustible matter in such quantities and in such places as may be deemed proper; to prevent firing of guns, cannons, pistols, rifles, slingshots, firecrackers or other fireworks or other explosives within the city.

(12)

Fire. To suppress fires and prevent the dangers thereof and to establish and maintain a Fire Department; 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 city fire hazard regulations are met; and to take all other measures necessary to control and prevent fires in the city.

(13)

Food. To inspect and require the condemnation, if unwholesome, and to regulate the sale of meats, poultry, fish, butter, oleomargarine, cheese, lard, vegetables and all other food products.

(14)

Franchises. To grant franchises to electric, gas, telephone, telegraph, street railway, taxicab, bus water, heating, sewer or drain companies and to any others which may be deemed advantageous and beneficial to the city, and the city, not withstanding anything that may be set out in any such franchise, shall not have the power to divest itself of its police power to regulate and control the use of the streets, alleys, highways and other public places of the city under any franchise that may be so granted by it; all franchises so granted by the city under this Charter power shall be for a definite term of years, not exceeding twenty-five, and shall be renewable at the discretion of the city, and such franchises shall specifically set out the nature, right and duration of the same, and no power or right not expressed in such franchises shall pass thereunder; and for any franchises hereafter granted by the city under this Charter power the city may make an original, and thereafter an annual, charge for using the streets, alleys, highways and other public places of the city; provided, however, that none of the terms and provisions of this Subsection A(14) shall be applicable or affect any franchises, rights and privileges heretofore or hereafter originating under any public general or public local law of this state, or to any franchises, rights and privileges heretofore granted by the city or otherwise existing on the date of enactment hereof, for the use of the streets, highways, alleys and other public places of the city.

(15)

Gambling. To prevent gambling and games of chance.

(16)

Garbage. To provide for the collection and removal of filth, garbage or any matter or thing that is or may become injurious to the health or comfort of the inhabitants of Salisbury and to contract for the collection and removal of same or to have same removed or any nuisance abated by the city; to provide whether the expense, if any, shall be borne by individual property owners or tenants or shall be paid for in whole or in part by the city.

(17)

Grants-in-aid. To accept gifts and grants of federal or state funds from the federal or state governments or any agency thereof, and to expend the same for any lawful public purpose, agreeable to the conditions under which the gift or grant was made.

(18)

Hawkers. To regulate and provide for the issuing of licenses or permits for hawking, peddling and vending of wares and merchandise of every description upon the public ways of the city and to regulate and provide for the issuing of licenses or permits to all persons who may go from house to house to vend or sell any wares or merchandise; to regulate and provide for the issuing of licenses to all traveling persons who dispense medicines or medical advice.

(19)

House numbers. To regulate the numbering of houses and lots and to compel owners to renumber the same, or in default thereof, to authorize and require the same to be done by the city, at the owner's expense, such expense to constitute a lien upon the property and to be enforceable as provided in the ordinance.

(20)

Jail. To establish and regulate a station house or lockup for temporary confinement of violators of the laws and ordinances of the city.

(21)

Licenses. To issue licenses to any and all persons entering into or beginning transient business in the city for the sale of any goods, wares or merchandise; to regulate and license all restaurants, barbershops, pawnbrokers, junk dealers, fire and slaughter sales and auction sales: to regulate and license all nine and ten-pin alleys, skating rinks, pool and billiard tables, theaters, moving-picture shows, boxing and sparring matches and wrestling contests and also exhibitions of every kind; to license or regulate any other business or calling.

(22)

Merit system. To establish and maintain a merit and pension system; all city employees, except heads of offices, departments and agencies, and members of boards and commissions shall be included in the classified service under such merit and pension system.

(23)

Minor privileges. To regulate or prevent the use of streets, sidewalks and public places for signs, awnings, posts, steps, railings, entrances, racks, posting handbills and advertisements and display of goods, wards and merchandise.

(24)

Nuisances. To regulate, restrain or prohibit the running at large of all animals and fowl on any of the public ways of the city; to regulate all stockyards, cattle pens, hog pens and slaughterhouses within the city or provide for their removal from the corporate limits thereof; to regulate and control all offensive trades, manufacture and traffic in offensive fertilizer or other commodities within the city limits; to regulate or suppress slaughterhouses and smokehouses within the city and to regulate canning houses within the corporate limits; to abate by appropriate ordinance all nuisances in the city which are so defined at common law, by this Charter or by the laws of the State of Maryland, whether the same be herein specifically named or not; to prevent, remove and abate all nuisances or obstructions in or upon the public ways, drains or watercourses, or in or upon any lot adjacent thereto, or any other place within the limits of the city; to remove or cause to be removed houses or other structures that may be dangerous to persons passing along or over any of the public ways of the city.

(25)

Parking lots. To license, regulate, establish, operate, acquire, own and maintain parking lots.

(26)

Parks and playgrounds. To establish and maintain public parks and playgrounds.

(27)

Public property. To control and protect the public grounds and property of the city; to provide for protection of all public property, cemeteries and property of all public service companies or corporations.

(28)

Public utilities. To establish, own, control, operate, maintain and manage a wharf for the use of the city, a public market and a plant or plants and system or systems for supplying water to and for the city and the inhabitants thereof, and adjacent thereto, or any one (1) or more of them, and to exercise police power to regulate and control the use of the streets, alleys and highways and other public places of the city by electric, gas, telephone, telegraph, street railway, taxicab, bus, water, heating, sewer and drain companies, and to purchase or condemn, as hereafter provided, any property whatsoever, in fee simple or otherwise, for the purpose of establishing, owning, controlling, operating, maintaining or managing any such wharf or market or plant or plants and system or systems for water supply.

(29)

Railroads; safety appliances at and maintenance of grade crossings. To regulate the erection and maintenance of proper safety appliances by railroads at street crossings and to regulate the installation, repair and maintenance of all crossings by planking or otherwise for all public ways so that such crossing is adequate for traffic.

[Amended 10-24-1972 by Res. No. 161]

(30)

Rent control. To regulate and control the increase in rental fees charged by certain landlords and to regulate and define the legal rights, remedies, obligations and penalties of parties to any rental agreement and to provide both civil and criminal enforcement procedures for any violations.

[Added 6-9-1975 by Res. No. 187]

(31)

Sewers. To grant franchises and regulate the putting of sewers or drains on or under its public ways and the charges for entering same.

(32)

Sidewalks. To regulate the use of sidewalks and all structures on, under or above same and to require the owner or occupant of the premises to keep the sidewalks in front of the premises and the gutters thereof free from snow and other obstructions and to prescribe hours for cleaning same.

(33)

Sweepings. To regulate and prevent the throwing of sweepings, dust, ashes, offal, garbage, paper, handbills, dirty liquids or other materials into any public way or on any vacant lot in the city.

(34)

Transit system. To acquire, by purchase or lease, operate and maintain motor buses or other vehicles for the purpose of transporting persons for hire, both within the city and between the city and points located outside the corporate limits of the city.

[Added 9-8-1958 by Ord. No. 781]

(35)

Vagrants. To punish and suppress tramps and vagrants.

(36)

Vehicles. To regulate, license and tax carts, wagons, carriages, automobiles and other vehicles used in the city for transporting goods or persons for hire; to regulate the speed of horses, wheeled vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles and locomotives in the city limits.

(37)

Voting machines. To purchase, rent, install and maintain voting machines for use in elections.

(38)

Enforcement of ordinances.

[Added 1-10-1983 by Res. No. 247]

(a)

The Council has the power, pursuant to Local Government Article § 6-102 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, to provide that violations of ordinances and resolutions of the city shall be punishable as misdemeanors, unless otherwise specified as an infraction. No penalty for such violation shall exceed a fine of one thousand dollars ($1000.) and imprisonment for six (6) months or such other limits as may be established by subsequent amendments to Local Government Article § 6-102. Any person subject to any fine, forfeiture or penalty has the right of appeal as is provided under the general laws of the State. The Council may provide that, if the violation is of a continuing nature and is persisted in, a conviction for one (1) violation shall not be a bar to a conviction for a continuation of the offense subsequent to the first or any succeeding violation.

[Amended 2-26-1996 by Res. No. 522; amended 9-11-2017 by Res. No. 2017-3]

(b)

Municipal infractions.

[1]

The Council may provide that violations of any municipal ordinance shall be a municipal infraction unless that violation is declared to be a felony or musdemeanor[1] by the laws of the state of[2] other ordinance. For purposes of this section, a municipal infraction is a civil offense.

[1]

Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should read "misdemeanor."

[2]

Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should read "or."

[2]

A fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000.) may be imposed for each conviction of a municipal infraction. The fine is payable by the offender to the municipality within twenty (20) calendar days of receipt of a citation. Repeat offenders may be assessed a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000.) for each repeat offense, and each day a violation continues shall constitute a separate offense.

[Amended 2-26-1996 by Res. No. 523]

[3]

Any person receiving a citation for an infraction may elect to stand trial for the offense by notifying the city in writing of this intention at least five (5) days prior to the date set for payment of the fine. Failure to pay the fine or give notice of intent to stand trial may result in an additional fine or adjudication by the court.

[4]

Adjudication of a municipal infraction is not criminal conviction for any purpose, nor does it impose any of the civil disabilities ordinarily imposed by a criminal conviction.