[1964 Charter Laws, § 3-1; L.L. No. 2-1960, § 3; L.L. No. 3-1993, § 2]
The Common Council consists of nine Council members and the
President of the Common Council. Commencing with the General Election
of 1995, three Council members shall be elected by the electors of
the City and six Council members shall be elected each by the electors
of the Councilmanic district in which the Council member resides.
[1964 Charter Laws, § 3-2; N.Y. Laws 1862, ch.
18, § 32; N.Y. Laws 1870, ch. 28, § 4; N.Y. Laws
1890, ch. 14, § 2; N.Y. Laws 1893, ch. 13, § 6; L.L. No. 2-1960, §§ 1,
3]
The Common Council shall hold regular meetings at times determined
by it, and special meetings when called by the Mayor, the President
of the Common Council or a majority of the Council members upon notice
being given to each Council member in person or by mail at least 24
hours before the time stated in the notice for holding the meeting.
The majority of its members constitutes a quorum for the transaction
of business, but when there is in office less than a quorum, a majority
of the Council members in office or the Mayor shall order special
elections to fill the vacancies in the office of Council member.
[1964 Charter Laws, § 3-3; N.Y. Laws 1923, ch.
658, art. III, § 6]
Whenever the Common Council shall, by reason of the absence
of a quorum, or from any other cause, fail to meet, the Common Council
may transact any business under any notice required to be published
by this Charter, or in any proceedings or matter whatever, at its
next regular meeting, with the same force and effect as if such business
had been transacted at the time fixed therefor.
[1964 Charter Laws, § 3-4; N.Y. Laws 1862, ch.
18, § 29; N.Y. Laws 1876, ch. 371, § 8; N.Y. Laws
1893, ch. 13, § 5; L.L.
No. 2-1960, §§ 1, 3]
No person shall hold any other City office while holding the
office of Council member.
[1964 Charter Laws, § 3-4; N.Y. Laws 1862, ch.
18, § 29; N.Y. Laws 1876, ch. 371, § 8; N.Y. Laws
1893, ch. 13, § 5; L.L.
No. 2-1960, §§ 1, 3]
The Common Council may fill any vacancy of less than one year
in the office of Council member that occurs for reasons other than
expiration of the term of office or failure of election. The appointment
shall be for the remainder of the unexpired term. The person appointed
to serve must be an elector from the same Councilmanic district and
be a member of the same political party as the individual who vacated
the office.
[1964 Charter Laws, § 3-5; N.Y. Laws 1862, ch.
18, § 33]
The Common Council shall determine the rules of its own proceedings,
and be the judge of the election and qualifications of its own members,
and may compel their attendance. The Common Council shall have power
to prescribe the duties of all the officers and persons appointed
by it.
[1964 Charter Laws, §§ 3-7—3-9; N.Y.
Laws 1862, ch. 18, §§ 35, 116; N.Y. Laws 1870, ch.
28, § 6; N.Y. Laws 1872, ch. 625, § 4; N.Y. Laws
1876, ch. 371, §§ 19, 20; N.Y. Laws 1886, ch. 508,
§ 1; N.Y. Laws 1893, ch. 451, § 1; N.Y. Laws 1902,
ch. 465, § 1; N.Y. Laws 1903, ch. 2, § 1; N.Y.
Laws 1923, ch. 658, art. III, §§ 1, 4, 5; N.Y. Laws
1953, ch. 878, §§ 302, 325(2), Sch. A]
(a)
The Common Council shall have the care, management and control of
the property of the City and its finances. It shall have power to
ordain, alter, modify and repeal ordinances not repugnant to the Constitution
and laws of this state for the good government of the City, the preservation
of peace and good order, the suppression of vice and immorality, the
benefit of trade and commerce, and the health of the inhabitants thereof,
and such other ordinances, rules and regulations as may be necessary
to carry such power into effect. The Common Council may enact ordinances
for the following purposes:
(1)
To restrain and regulate the solicitation of passengers for
any means of public conveyance.
(2)
To license and regulate vehicles used to carry passengers or
baggage for hire.
(3)
To restrain and regulate all exhibitions of natural or artificial
curiosities or animals, all theatrical or other shows, exhibitions
or performances for money.
(4)
To enact such ordinances, rules and regulations as may be necessary
for the improvement, care and preservation of parks.
(5)
To regulate or prevent the running at large of dogs, and to
destroy them, and to impose a tax upon the owners or possessors of
dogs.
(6)
To ascertain, establish and settle the boundaries of the City
and all streets, alleys, and highways therein, and to remove and prevent
all encroachments thereon.
(7)
To regulate and prevent the carrying on of manufacturing that
is dangerous or may cause or promote fires, or produce disagreeable
or unwholesome odors.
(8)
To require police officers and other officers to enter all buildings
and enclosures at proper times to ascertain whether their arrangements
for fire or the preservation of ashes are dangerous, and to cause
such as are dangerous to be put in a safe condition.
(9)
To remove and abate nuisances and to exercise all such other
powers whenever a contagious disease shall appear in the City, as
in their judgment the circumstances of the case and the public good
shall require. The expense connected with the removal of nuisances
may be collected from the occupant of the premises from which removed,
or from the person who erected or maintained the nuisance, and the
expense of such removal shall be a lien upon the property from which
the same shall be removed, and may be assessed, levied and collected
as assessments for local improvements are assessed, levied and collected.
(10)
To prescribe limits in the City within which no building shall
hereafter be constructed, enlarged, repaired or rebuilt except of
brick, stone or iron with slate, gravel or metallic roofs, and to
make such other ordinances as may be necessary or proper to prevent
fires and the spread thereof, and to impose a penalty for the violation
of such ordinances. Such penalties shall be collectible of the person
offending in the same manner as the penalties for the violation of
other ordinances and also in civil action in any court of competent
jurisdiction. No wooden superstructure or building, wholly or in part
covered with iron, or veneered with brick, shall be deemed a building
constructed of iron or brick within the meaning of this paragraph.
(11)
To require all railroad companies or persons operating railroads
in any of the streets of the City to pave or repave the roadway of
the street between their tracks and at least two feet on each side
thereof.
(b)
In addition to all other powers conferred by law the Common Council
shall have power:
(1)
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,
watering and flushing the public streets, and acquiring all lands
or easements necessary for such purposes.
(2)
To provide for constructing, flagging, surfacing, altering,
repairing, maintaining, caring for and cleaning sidewalks, crosswalks,
drains, gutters and curbs in the public streets.
(3)
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 compel 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 telegraph, telephone or signal system within the City,
or to manufacture and supply electricity, for producing light, heat
or power.
(4)
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.
(5)
To give names to streets, and to change such names in the manner
and subject to the restrictions provided by law.
(6)
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.
(7)
Do any of the following:
1.
Regulate the use of streets and sidewalks by foot passengers,
animals or vehicles.
2.
Regulate processions or parades occupying or marching upon any
street.
3.
Prevent encroachments upon and obstructions to the streets and
authorize and require their removal by the proper officers.
4.
Regulate the opening of street surfaces for purposes authorized
by law.
5.
Regulate and control the laying, maintaining, alteration and
repair of subways, conduits, mains and pipes in and under the streets.
6.
Require cables and wires in the public streets to be placed
underground.
7.
Regulate and prevent the throwing or depositing of ashes, garbage
or other filth or rubbish of any kind upon the streets.
8.
Regulate the use of the streets for signs, signposts, awnings,
awning posts, posts for telegraph or other electric wires, and other
purposes.
9.
Regulate public criers, advertising, and noise in the streets.
10.
Regulate the exhibiting of banners, placards or flags in or
across the streets or from houses or other buildings.
11.
Regulate the exhibition and distribution of advertisements or
handbills along the streets.
12.
Make regulations in reference to the use of the streets and
of piers, wharves or stations.
(8)
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.
(9)
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.
(10)
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.
(11)
To provide for constructing, building, altering, rebuilding,
repairing, maintaining and caring for sewerage disposal plants within
or without the limits of the City.
(12)
To provide for constructing, building, rebuilding, repairing,
maintaining and caring for bridges, arches and culverts.
(13)
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.
(14)
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
same.
(15)
To provide for laying out, enlarging, opening, ornamenting,
equipping, improving, maintaining, caring for and regulating the use
of public squares, parks and playgrounds.
(16)
To provide for acquiring, constructing, maintaining and regulating
the use of public markets.
(17)
To provide for acquiring, constructing, building, altering,
enlarging, improving, repairing, equipping, furnishing, maintaining
and caring for buildings, libraries, hospitals, dispensaries, sanitariums,
public baths, firehouses, police stations, lockups, a City hall, and
for other City purposes, and acquiring sites therefor.
(18)
To provide for the leasing of buildings or parts of buildings
for City purposes.
(19)
To provide for acquiring, constructing, building, rebuilding,
altering, enlarging, improving, maintaining, caring for and regulating
the use of public piers, docks and wharves; and establish rates and
fees for wharfage or dockage.
(20)
To provide for lighting the public streets, squares, parks,
playgrounds, public piers, docks and wharves, and public buildings
of the City.
(21)
To provide for acquiring, developing, maintaining, operating,
extending, improving and repairing a waterworks system for the City;
acquiring and developing additional sources of water supply; building,
operating and maintaining reservoirs, water towers, aqueducts, pumping
stations, filtration beds and other appurtenances within or without
the limits of the City; and for acquiring the lands needed therefor
within or without the limits of the City; and to regulate the use
of water.
(22)
To provide for maintaining a Fire Department, and acquiring
all the necessary apparatus for the use and equipment of the Department.
(23)
To provide for a Police Department, to preserve peace and good
order and to restrain, prevent, detect and punish vice, immorality
and all fraudulent devices and practices.
(24)
To restrain and prevent and to suppress disorderly and gambling
houses and rooms and all instruments for gaming.
(25)
To prevent any riot, noise or public disturbance and all disorderly
assemblies.
(26)
To authorize police officers, firefighters or other City officers
to enter any and all buildings and enclosures at proper times to make
examinations and recommendations for the prevention of fire or to
make inspections as to the safety of such buildings or enclosures.
(27)
To provide for licensing and otherwise regulating auctioneers,
pawnbrokers, junk dealers, dealers in secondhand articles, hawkers,
vendors, peddlers, scalpers in coal freights, dirt carts, public cartmen,
truckmen, hackmen, cabmen, expressmen, car drivers, bootblacks, porters,
scavengers, sweepers, theaters, bowling alleys, shooting galleries,
billiard saloons, skating rinks, circuses, menageries, and other places
of amusement and common shows; bone boiling, fat rendering and other
noxious businesses. The Common Council shall establish uniform fees
for licenses and shall prescribe the manner in which such licenses
shall be issued.
(28)
To prohibit the use within the City of steam boilers, except
upon such conditions and regulations regarding the 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;
and to provide for the licensing of steam engineers or persons managing
or operating steam engines or boilers.
(29)
To regulate or to prohibit the emission of smoke, noxious gas,
deposits or other pollution from buildings, engines, boats and from
all other sources.
(30)
To regulate and prescribe the manner of weighing and marketing
of commodities and to regulate the inspection and sealing of weights
and measures.
(31)
To cause to be made and to adopt a map of the City, subdivided
into wards or sections of wards, and to cause to be designated thereon
and to be numbered the different lots and parcels of land contained
in such sections, with the names of the owners thereof, as far as
can be ascertained.
(32)
To adopt building ordinances, and to prohibit the erection,
construction or repair of buildings, docks, wharves and piers 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 paragraph. All ordinances
in relation thereto shall be general ordinances which may be applied
throughout the whole City or throughout specified portions thereof.
(33)
To regulate the use of all buildings used for the purposes of
public assemblage, to prohibit the use of such buildings except in
compliance with its requirements for the safety and security of persons
therein; and 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.
(34)
To provide for the collection, removal and disposal of garbage,
ashes, dead animals and rubbish, provided that all contracts therefor
shall be made pursuant to Section 120 of the Second Class Cities Law,
and may not be for a period not to exceed five years.
(35)
To provide for the erection of crematories or other apparatus
for the burning and destruction of garbage, dead animals and other
substances, and acquiring sites therefor.
(36)
To determine what are nuisances and to prevent, abate and remove
them.
(37)
To regulate and prescribe what shall be sufficient and lawful
fences.
(38)
To compel all persons to remove snow, ice and dirt from sidewalks
in front of premises owned or occupied by them, and to punish those
responsible for the encumbering of streets and sidewalks with any
substance or material whatsoever.
(39)
To compel the owner or occupant of any market, grocery, cellar,
shop, soap factory, tannery, stable, slaughterhouse, barn, privy,
sewer or other nauseous building or place, to cleanse, remove or abate
the same, whenever and as often as it shall deem necessary for the
health, comfort and convenience of the inhabitants of the City.
(40)
To compel the owner or occupant of any building or wall that
is in a ruinous or unsafe condition, to render the same safe or to
remove the building or wall.
(41)
To require the removal or destruction of any dead carcass or
other unwholesome or offensive substance, or substance likely to become
unwholesome or offensive, from any street, lot or building, by the
owner or occupant thereof, but no dead carcass shall be thrown or
deposited in the Mohawk River or any other stream or upon the banks
of the Mohawk River or other stream.
(42)
To require any building, fence or other erection which may be
placed within or erected upon the line of any street or highway in
the City without authority, to be removed therefrom by the owner or
occupant; but the Common Council may permit the use and occupation
of streets, sidewalks or public places for such business or public
purpose as shall not interfere with the reasonable and substantial
uses of the same by the public, upon such terms and conditions as
it may deem proper and it may likewise permit steps, porches, show
windows, bow windows, columns, pilasters and ornamental portions of
any building to encroach upon any street to a specified extent, where
the same will not interfere with the reasonable and substantial use
thereof by the public.
(43)
To have and exercise full and complete supervision and control
over all slaughterhouses within the City, and to prevent the erection,
maintenance or operation of any slaughterhouse within the City limits.
The Common Council may order the removal of all slaughterhouses from
the City limits.
(44)
To cause the person owning or operating street railroads or
tracks to keep the part of the street occupied by them in good condition
and whenever in the opinion of the Common Council it is necessary
or proper, to cause any such company, companies or person having two
or more tracks laid through any street, to remove all tracks in excess
of one track. Whenever the Common Council determines to pave any street
in which a railroad track is laid, the Common Council may cause the
owners or operators of the track to move the same and to place the
track in such portion of the street as the Common Council may direct.
(45)
Members of the Common Council shall have the right to speak
at any meeting of the Planning Board and/or the Scenic and Historic
Commission on proposals in their district.
The council member shall be allotted time to be determined by
the members of the Planning Board and Scenic and Historic Commission.
The council member speaking does not represent the views of the Common
Council, nor will the council member attempt to engage in debate with
the members of the Planning Board or Scenic and Historic Commission.
Nothing herein shall be implied or affect the responsibility
of the Planning Board and Scenic and Historic Commission and its powers
to solely determine the matter before them in the manner provided
by law.
[Added 10-19-2022 by L.L. No. 4-2022]
[1964 Charter Laws, § 2-28; N.Y. Laws 1862, ch.
18, § 17; N.Y. Laws 1871, ch. 391, § 1; N.Y. Laws
1876, ch. 371, § 4; N.Y. Laws 1890, ch. 14, § 1; L.L. No. 2-1960, §§ 1,
3]
Every ordinance or resolution (excepting those prescribing rules
for the government of the Common Council and the appointment of its
officers) shall before it takes effect, be presented, duly certified
by the City Clerk, to the Mayor. If the Mayor approves of it the Mayor
shall sign it, in which case it shall take effect immediately thereafter,
unless otherwise ordered therein. If the Mayor does not approve of
it, the Mayor shall return it with objections in writing to the City
Clerk's office within six days after he has received it. The Council
may, within 20 days after the receipt of the Mayor's vote by the City
Clerk, repass the resolution or ordinance, by a two-thirds vote of
all the Council members serving on the Common Council and it shall
thereupon take effect. In every such case the vote shall be taken
by yeas and nays and entered on the journal, and the objections of
the Mayor shall also be entered by the Clerk with the other proceedings.
If an ordinance or resolution is not returned by the Mayor within
six days after receipt, it shall take effect in like manner as if
the Mayor had signed it.
[1964 Charter Laws, §§ 3-13, 3-14; N.Y. Laws
1923, Ch. 658, art. III, § 2; N.Y. Laws 1962, ch. 18, § 38; L.L. No. 3-1983, § 1]
(a)
When an ordinance imposes a penalty or forfeiture for violation of
its provisions, an abstract of the ordinance, concisely stating the
title, purpose and effect thereof, shall be prepared by the City Clerk
and published once in the official newspaper after the passage thereof.
The publication shall contain a statement to the effect that a copy
of the ordinance is available in the City Clerk's office for inspection
during regular office hours. The affidavit of the printer or publisher
of the newspaper or of the foreman of the publication thereof, taken
before any officer authorized to administer oath, and filed with the
City Clerk, or a copy of such affidavits certified by the Clerk under
the corporate seal, shall be conclusive proof of such publication
in all courts and places. Until publication, the ordinance shall not
become operative.
(b)
The Common Council may prescribe penalties for violations of ordinances,
resolutions, bylaws and regulations. Whenever the owner, occupant
or person in control of any real property neglects or refuses to do
any act required by statute or by ordinance, to be done by the owner,
occupant or person in control the City may cause the act to be done,
and in addition to any fine or penalty prescribed may recover by civil
action of such owner, occupant or person in control, the cost of doing
the act, or it may assess the same upon the real property. The assessment
shall be and constitute a lien thereon to be collected and recovered
in all respects as an assessment for a local improvement. The Common
Council shall by ordinance determine the proceedings and manner of
fixing and assessing costs.
[1964 Charter Laws, § 3-18; N.Y. Laws 1862, ch.
18, § 41]
The Common Council may by a vote of two-thirds of all the Council
members elected, and on the payment of all costs, and saving the City
harmless from all expenses, remit penalties or forfeitures imposed
by virtue of this Charter. If the defendant does not pay the costs
and expenses within 10 days after the passage of the legislation remitting
the penalty to pay such costs and expenses, the legislation remitting
the penalty shall cease to be operative, and the officer before whom
the penalty was recovered shall on the demand of the Corporation Counsel
or any police officer, or any member of the Common Council, issue
execution on the judgment for the penalty and costs. The execution
shall be enforced for the entire amount of the judgment.
