The Mayor and Aldermen shall constitute the Common Council thereof. The first meeting in January after the election in each year shall be called the annual meeting of the Common Council. [§ 50, L. 1911, c. 870; amended by L.L. No. 5-1937; L.L. No. 3-1962; L.L. No. 4-1970]
The Common Council shall hold stated meetings at least twice in each month, and the Mayor, or any three Aldermen, may call special meetings, by notice in writing, to be signed by him or them and filed with the City Clerk, which shall be served personally upon the other members of the Common Council or be left at their several residences or usual places of business. [§ 51, L. 1911, c. 870]
The sittings of the Common Council shall be public, except when the public interest requires secrecy. Minutes of its proceedings shall be kept by the Clerk, and the same shall at all times be open to public inspection. [§ 52, L. 1911, c. 870]
In the proceedings of the Common Council, each Alderman shall have one vote. The Mayor may, when present, preside at all meetings of the Common Council, and shall have a casting vote when the votes of the other members are tied. [§ 53, L. 1911, c. 870]
A majority of the Common Council shall be a quorum for the transaction of business, but no tax or assessment shall be ordered, or resolution authorizing the appropriation, expenditure or payment of money, or ordinance be passed or adopted, except by a concurring vote of a majority of all the members of the Common Council in office, which vote shall be by yeas and nays, and a record thereof be entered at large in the minutes. [§ 54, L. 1911, c. 870]
Upon the demand of any member thereof, the vote upon any resolution or question shall be taken by the yeas and nays of all the members present, and a record thereof be entered at large in the minutes. [§ 55, L. 1911, c. 870]
Except as herein otherwise provided, the Common Council shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, and be the judge of the election and qualification of its members, and have power to compel the attendance of absent members, by fine or otherwise, and to adjourn its meetings to such time and place within said city as it may deem proper; to determine the proper number of its regular or standing committees and the number of members of which each shall be composed, and to prescribe the duties of said committees. [§ 56, L. 1911, c. 870]
The Mayor shall appoint, and at his pleasure remove, a member of the Common Council as President of the Common Council, who shall preside during his absence or inability to attend any meeting of the Common Council and be vested with all the powers of the Mayor, excepting that of appointment. In case of the inability of the Mayor to attend to his duties, either by absence from the City or other cause, the President of the Common Council shall act in his stead and be vested with all the authority, duties and powers of the Mayor, excepting that of appointment. In the case of a vacancy in the office of Mayor caused by the Mayor's resignation, removal, death or permanent inability to discharge all such powers and duties of the Office of Mayor, all such powers and duties shall devolve upon the President of the Common Council who shall fill the vacancy in the Office of the Mayor on an acting basis until the commencement of the political year next succeeding the first annual election after the happening of the vacancy at which a Mayor shall, pursuant to law, be elected for the balance of the term. Upon commencement of the term of Office of the Mayor so elected, the President of the Common Council then acting as Mayor, shall complete the term of his or her office, if any remains. The Acting Mayor shall not exercise any powers or duties of Alderman during such time of service as Acting Mayor. The Acting Mayor may appoint an Acting Alderman to serve in his or her office as Alderman during such time as he or she serves as Acting Mayor with like powers and duties. In case of the inability of the President to preside and fulfill the duties of his office, the Mayor may make a temporary appointment of another member of the Common Council, with like powers and duties. The appointment of the President of the Common Council shall be made in writing to the City Clerk at the next regular meeting of the Common Council following the enactment of this act and at the first regular meeting in January in each year thereafter. [§ 57, L. 1911, c. 870; amended 3-16-2016 by L.L. No. 1-2016[1]]
[1]
Editor’s Note: This local law passed at referendum 11-8-2016.
Subject to the provisions of this act, the Common Council shall have the power to declare and enforce the duties of the Aldermen and of all officers elected or appointed under this act, and not herein particularly provided for. The Aldermen shall receive under pay at the same time and in the same manner as other city officials and at the salary fixed as provided in § C-15 of the Charter of the City of Lockport, as amended. [§ 58, L. 1911, c. 870; amended by L.L. No. 1-1956]
In addition to the powers and duties conferred and imposed by the law upon aldermen of cities, it shall be the duty of every Alderman to attend the regular and special meetings of the Common Council, to act upon committees when thereupon appointed by the Mayor, to arrest or cause to be arrested all persons violating the ordinances, bylaws or police regulations of the city, to report to the Common Council all subordinate officers who are guilty of official misconduct or neglect of duty, and to aid in maintaining peace and good order. [§ 59, L. 1911, c. 870]
The Common Council may revoke, or cause to be revoked, any license granted under this act. No license for any purpose granted shall be valid until countersigned by the City Clerk, nor until the sum of money required therefor shall be fully paid, in advance, to the City Clerk; and it is hereby made the duty of the City Clerk to call upon the Chief of Police for a detail of one or more policemen to enforce the ordinances of said city in relation to all persons required to take out licenses, and he shall report to the City Attorney for prosecution all violations of said ordinances that may come to his knowledge. [§ 60, L. 1911, c. 870]
The Common Council shall have management and control of all real and personal property belonging to the City, and may make such orders concerning same and leases thereof, not to exceed 99 years, as it may deem best for the interest of the City, but the money of the City shall remain with the City Treasurer until duly disbursed by him. When the Common Council has determined and so declared that real or personal property owned by the City of Lockport, New York, should be sold or conveyed for the interest of the City, the City of Lockport may sell and/or convey such personal or real property, for a valuable consideration, at public sale or by a negotiated private sale. [§ 61, L. 1911, c. 870; amended by L.L. No. 2-1978; L.L. No. 3-2004]
The Common Council may make, continue, modify and repeal such ordinances, bylaws and regulations as may be necessary to carry into full effect any and all of the powers conferred upon said City by this act. Ordinances may be made by the Common Council for the following purposes, namely:
1. 
To prevent, restrain, remove and abate nuisances.
2. 
To prohibit the manufacture and regulate the carting, carrying, transportation, keeping and storing of gunpowder, dynamite, kerosene, petroleum and any other dangerous combustible or explosive material.
3. 
To prohibit, restrain and regulate the discharge and use of firearms, fireworks and the explosion and use of gunpowder and other explosive substances.
4. 
To provide for the inspection of steam engines and boilers used in the City, and to prohibit the use of such thereof as are unsafe, and for the examination of stationary engineers and the licensing of same.
5. 
To prohibit and restrain the running at large of horses, cattle, sheep, swine, dogs and other animals, and all geese, fowls and domestic poultry, and to authorize the distraining, impounding and sale of the same for any penalty incurred thereby, and all costs and proceedings in regard thereto.
6. 
To erect and establish one or more public pounds, and appoint a keeper or keepers thereof, and to prescribe the fees and duties of such keepers, and the mode and manner of impounding and selling animals, geese and other things impounded.
7. 
To prohibit and prevent the unnecessary obstruction of streets by railway motors, locomotives and cars, and to regulate and control their running and rate of speed, and the length of time they may be allowed continuously to stand or impede travel upon any street or crossing in said City.
8. 
To require and compel railroad companies to provide and keep flagmen or watchmen at such points or places, and to erect and maintain such proper hoisting or other gates or bars at dangerous street crossings, whether at street level or upon bridges over streets, and to place and maintain such iron or other screens or shields under its tracks and over sidewalks or streets as the Common Council may deem necessary for the public safety and convenience.
9. 
To regulate the use of lights in barns, stables, shops and other outbuildings.
10. 
To prohibit the erection or continuance of and to regulate and prescribe the location of slaughterhouses, and of all places where cattle, sheep or swine may be kept within said City, and to prohibit the slaughtering or keeping thereof in any place or places other than those so directed.
11. 
To preserve public peace and good order.
12. 
To prevent and punish fighting, threatening or challenging to fight, and quarreling.
13. 
To prevent any riot or loud noise, disturbance or disorderly assemblages; to suppress and prohibit disorderly houses, houses of ill fame or prostitution, gambling houses, gaming and fraudulent devices; to prevent and punish drunkenness and disorderly conduct in public streets and places; to restrain and punish vagrants, mendicants, street beggars, common prostitutes and disorderly persons.
14. 
To license, regulate, restrain or suppress the public use of billiard tables, bowling alleys and pistol and shooting galleries.
15. 
To prohibit, restrain, regulate and license the erection and maintenance of billboards.
16. 
To prohibit, restrain and regulate all public theatrical or circus performances, shows of wax figures, wild or tame animals, mountebanks, and other public exhibitions or performances for money, shown or performed by common showmen, and all places of public amusement for which an entrance or other fee is charged; and to require, fix the amount and to provide for the collection of license fees therefor; but the Common Council may in its discretion issue and grant to the proprietor of any public hall or other place of public amusement in said city, a license by the year, or for such period of time as it deems proper, for such sum as to it shall seem just, which license shall cover and authorize all exhibitions and entertainments which during such period of time may take place in such public hall or place of public amusement without other or further license; provided, however, that said Common Council may at any time prohibit any exhibition or entertainment in such hall or place of public amusement which in its judgment shall be of an indecent character.
17. 
To compel the owner or occupant of any building, ditch, pond or place to cleanse the same from time to time as often as may be necessary for the health or comfort of the public, or to remove, abate or discontinue the same.
18. 
To prohibit the bringing or depositing within the limits of said city of the putrid carcass of any animal or any unwholesome thing or substance detrimental to the public health or comfort.
19. 
To require the removal of any putrid carcass, meat, fish, hides, skins or any decaying substance.
20. 
To prohibit persons collecting, standing upon or occupying the streets, alleys, sidewalks, bridges, hallways, entrances, passages or stairways.
21. 
To prevent the encumbering of the roadways, squares, parks, sidewalks, crosswalks, lanes and alleys, with teams, carriages, carts, sleighs, wheelbarrows, boxes, lumber, timber, firewood, building material or any substance or material whatever.
22. 
To compel all persons to make, maintain at proper grade and repair sidewalks in front of premises owned or occupied by them, and to remove snow, ice and dirt therefrom, and to remove snow and ice from off the roofs and sides of buildings owned or occupied by them.
23. 
To compel all persons to remove from that portion of the street lying in front of or bordering upon premises owned or occupied by them, any stones, dirt, rubbish, snow or ice accumulating thereon between the sidewalk and center of the street.
24. 
To require the owner or occupants of lots fronting on streets or traveled ways to erect barriers or safeguards along the lines thereof at dangerous places.
25. 
To regulate bathing suits, and determine the time and place of bathing in any exposed place in the canal, or in any creek, basin, raceway or other public place in said city.
26. 
To keep open and preserve the course of the 18 Mile Creek in and through said city; to prevent and punish encroachments upon the floating waters thereof; to prevent the casting therein of any dead animal, offal, filth or any foul or offensive substance or thing, or any earth, stones or rubbish of any kind.
27. 
To regulate, restrain and prohibit the ringing of bells, the crying of goods, wares or merchandise, or other commodities in the streets.
28. 
To license auction stores, auctions or public sales of merchandise and all personal or chattel property, and to demand and require for such license not exceeding $25 for each day; and to regulate the time, mode, manner and place or places of holding such sales, and to regulate, license or prohibit such sales.
29. 
To regulate, license and restrain hawking and peddling in the streets, and to regulate and license brokers and pawnbrokers.
30. 
To establish, maintain, preserve and protect steam and other engines, force and other pumps, wheels and other machinery connected with the water supply in said city or the property of said city, and the mains, pipes, valves and apparatus connected therewith, also public reservoirs, pumps, wells, hydrants, fountains and watering troughs, and regulate the use thereof, subject to the provisions of this act.
31. 
To provide for the care, use and protection of public buildings, including the buildings or parts of buildings occupied by the Fire Department, the Common Council, City Clerk, Water Board, Police Justice, Police Department or other city officials, whether owned or leased by said city.
32. 
To establish, maintain and regulate public markets; to determine whether any proposed public market will be detrimental to the public interests, and at discretion to grant or refuse permission therefor.
33. 
To license and prescribe numbers for horses, mules, automobiles, motorcycles, hackmen, cartmen, omnibus drivers and porters, and to fix the fees therefor; to fix and regulate their compensation for services, and to designate their stands.
34. 
To require persons driving horses with sleighs or cutters to carry ringing bells, either upon the horses, sleighs or cutters.
35. 
To establish such police stations and watchhouses within said city as may be necessary; make all necessary regulations concerning the same and the custody and keeping thereof; to appoint a keeper or keepers thereof and prescribe their duties.
36. 
To order and compel the owner or occupant of any building, fence, billboard, sign, flagstaff or structure of any kind, or any tree, which shall be deemed dangerous or likely to fall down whereby persons or property may be endangered, to take down, remove or properly repair the same; and pending the execution of the order of the Common Council, to close said building or structure, or the premises whereon the same, or such fence, billboard, sign or flagstaff, or either thereof, is situate, to the public, or order the same properly fenced off and placarded so that the public be warned of danger, said order to be immediate or on such time as may be reasonable in the special case. In case the owner or occupant shall fail or neglect properly to comply with any order of the Common Council in the premises upon being served with a copy thereof by the City Clerk, the Common Council may cause such building, fence, billboard, sign, flagstaff or structure to be taken down or removed and the expense thereof shall be a lien upon the lot or premises whereon the same shall be situate, to be recovered by action in the name of the city.
37. 
To prevent the throwing of glass, nails or any other sharp, pointed or dangerous substance in the street.
38. 
To give names to streets, alleys, lanes, highways, public grounds and marketplaces, and numbers to the lots, tenements and buildings in said city, and to change the same, and to compel the inhabitants of said city to number or renumber their residences, buildings or places of business, according to such plan as the Common Council has adopted and may from time to time adopt, and to prescribe the size, style and material of and the place and manner of affixing such numbers and figures thereof.
39. 
To prevent persons riding or driving immoderately through any of the streets of said city; to regulate the speed at which persons may ride or drive, and at which automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, tricycles, velocipedes, steam engines, threshing machines, horsepowers, cutters, sleighs, wagons, carriages or other machines, implements or vehicles, whether on wheels or runners, may be taken, propelled, moved, driven or run through, in or upon any of the public streets or bridges of said city; and to prohibit and prevent the taking, moving or propelling through, in or upon any of the streets, bridges or public places of said city of any steam or other engine, threshing machine, horse-power or other machine, implement or vehicle of such kind or construction as in the opinion of the Common Council is or shall be likely to frighten horses, whether such engine, machine, power, implement or vehicle shall be propelled or moved by steam, animal or other power.
40. 
To regulate and prevent ball playing in the streets or public grounds in said city, coasting or any practices therein having a tendency to frighten horses or annoy passengers, travelers or citizens.
41. 
To regulate the place and manner of weighing and selling hay, and to establish one or more hay scales in the city.
42. 
To regulate the selling of wood, coal and lime, and to define the place or places of selling the same; also, to regulate the weight of bread sold in said city.
43. 
To require the erection of fire escapes upon buildings and prescribe the materials and mode of construction thereof.
44. 
To control, regulate and restrain the setting of poles and stringing of wires and cables by telegraph, telephone and electric power companies, electric light and electric street railroad companies, associations, corporations and individuals, in the streets, alleys and public places of said city, and the placing of said wires or any part thereof underground.
45. 
And generally the said Common Council may from time to time make and establish such other and further ordinances, regulations and bylaws as may be necessary and proper for carrying into effect any of the purposes of this act, and such as may concern the health, safety, advantage and good government of said city, the preservation of the peace and good order therein, the suppression of vice and the benefits of the business and health thereof, as it may deem expedient; provided, however, that none thereof be repugnant to the general laws of this state or of the United States. [§ 62, L. 1911, c. 870]
The Common Council may, by ordinance or resolution:
1. 
Create the office of Inspector of Buildings and establish a building code and necessary ordinances in connection therewith, not inconsistent with this Charter or with the laws of the state. Said Inspector of Buildings shall be appointed by the Mayor; his term of office and compensation shall be fixed by the Common Council.
2. 
Authorize the Board of Health to contract with the Pasteur Institute or other institute, firm, corporation or individual for supplies and materials necessary for the preservation and protection of the public health, and the establishment of a city tuberculosis dispensary and a visiting tuberculosis nurse.
3. 
Create an Industrial Commission, and fix and prescribe its powers and duties, the compensation of its employees and the amount to be expended in the performance of its duties. Its members shall be appointed by the Mayor and shall serve without compensation.
4. 
Create and establish a Harbor Commission with all the necessary power and authority to perform the acts required and authorized by law. The members shall number five, be appointed by the Mayor, and act with the consent and by the authority of the Common Council.
5. 
The Common Council shall have the power and authority to employ competent help to audit and certify the accounts, vouchers, et cetera, of any city officer or department whatsoever, and to obtain all information requested as to methods of said officials or departments in the conduct of their respective duties. This shall apply to every city officer or department, notwithstanding any section of the Charter to the contrary. [§ 63, L. 1911, c. 870]
The Common Council may, by ordinance or resolution:
1. 
Create the Parks Board to consist of five members, who shall serve without salary. Such Board shall be established with authority to act on all matters pertaining to said Parks Board. At least three members of such Board shall be owners of residential property in the City of Lockport, and all five shall be residents of the City of Lockport. The members shall be appointed by the Mayor and shall serve as follows: The terms of the three members of the present Board shall remain unchanged; two additional members shall be appointed and shall serve terms which begin on the date of appointment and expire on December 31, 1964, and December 31, 1965, respectively. Beginning January 1, 1962, all new appointments or reappointments shall be for a term of five years. Not more than three of the Parks Board shall be members of the same political party. Such Board shall have control, authority and jurisdiction over all planting, preservation and removal of shade trees in and along the public highways, parks, thoroughfares and other places in the City of Lockport, along with all public parks and related recreational activities.
2. 
The Parks Board shall annually elect from its members a Chairman and a Secretary. Regular meetings shall be held at least once a month and three members shall constitute a quorum. Within the provisions of the City Charter and this act, and with the approval of the Common Council. Such Board shall make the proper and necessary rules to govern its procedure, to regulate work to be done on trees now standing consistent with Penal Ordinance No. 10. Such Board shall keep a complete and up-to-date tree census, which, together with all its records, shall be open to public inspection at all reasonable times. The Board shall cause to be fully published such regulations as it may adopt relative to tree culture, with the approval of the Common Council.
3. 
The Parks Board may, with the consent of the Common Council, after a suitable written examination, appoint a Superintendent of Parks, who shall be paid from funds appropriated for carrying on the work of the Parks Board, his salary to be fixed by the Common Council. His duties shall be to oversee the planting, treatment and removal of trees, the general pruning, where necessary, of all trees in the city, the surgical treatment of trees where such operations would preserve the tree and continue its life. The Superintendent of Parks shall also be charged with the supervision and maintenance of the city parks and the recreational activities therein. Such Superintendent of Parks shall be a person competent and trained in the care and cultivation of trees and shrubs and thoroughly efficient in the maintenance of parks and organization of recreational activities. Such Superintendent of Parks shall be vested with authority as a special policeman empowered to make arrest of offenders against the provisions of this act. [Added by L. 1917, c. 392; amended by L.L. No. 3-1961]
A person violating an ordinance of the Common Council shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. The Common Council may provide in any ordinance that a violation thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $100 or by imprisonment in the county jail or penitentiary for not more than six months, or by both fine and imprisonment. Such ordinance may provide, in lieu of such fine and imprisonment, that a person guilty of a violation thereof shall pay a penalty not exceeding $500, to be recovered in a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction, in the name of the city. The city may maintain an action in a court of competent jurisdiction to restrain by injunction the violation of an ordinance, notwithstanding that an ordinance may provide a fine and imprisonment, or a penalty, for the violation thereof. [§ 64, L. 1911, c. 870]
Every motion, resolution, ordinance or bylaw of the Common Council, except those relating to rules for its own government and the appointment of officers, shall, before it takes effect, be duly certified by the City Clerk and presented to the Mayor within 24 hours. If the Mayor approves of it, he shall sign it, and it shall thereupon take effect as prescribed by its terms. If he does not approve of it, he shall return it, with his objections, to the City Clerk, within five days after he shall have received it, and the City Clerk shall report the same to the Common Council at the next regular meeting thereof. The Common Council shall thereupon reconsider the same, and if 2/3 of all the Aldermen elected then vote to pass the same, it shall then take effect as if it had duly received the Mayor's signature. In every such case the vote shall be taken by the yeas and nays, and entered at large in the minutes of the meeting, and the objections of the Mayor shall also be entered therein at length by the City Clerk. [§ 65, L. 1911, c. 870]
If any motion, resolution, ordinance or bylaw so presented to the Mayor for approval shall relate to separate and distinct matters, or one or more items of appropriation or payments of money, the Mayor may approve and sign it as to one or more of said matters or items, specifying which. In such case he shall annex to the motion, resolution, ordinance or bylaw a statement of the matters or items he does not approve, with his objections to each thereof, and none of such matters or items shall take effect unless separately reconsidered and passed by the Common Council in the same manner as in case of the Mayor refusing to approve an entire motion, resolution, ordinance or bylaw. [§ 66, L. 1911, c. 870]
If a motion, resolution, ordinance or bylaw be not returned by the Mayor to the City Clerk within five days after its receipt by him, it shall take effect in like manner as if he had signed it. [§ 67, L. 1911, c. 870]
[§ 68, L. 1911, c. 870; repealed by L.L. No. 1-1971]
Every law, ordinance, bylaw or regulation imposing any penalty or forfeiture for a violation of its provisions shall, after the passage or adoption thereof, take effect upon its enactment or adoption unless otherwise directed therein. The title or a brief description of the contents of every ordinance or regulation, the violation of the provisions of which is declared to be a misdemeanor, and of every ordinance or regulation imposing any penalty or forfeiture or imprisonment for a violation of its provisions, together with a statement that said ordinance or regulation is on record with the City Clerk, shall be published at least once in the official newspaper in the City of Lockport before the provisions of such ordinance or regulation shall be enforceable. It shall be not necessary to publish any ordinance, rule or regulation to be enforced within the city except as herein provided. In case of strike, insurrection, riot, conflagration or other necessity requiring immediate operation of said ordinance, bylaw, rule, resolution or regulation, it shall take effect as soon as proclamation thereof has been made by the Mayor and it, with such proclamation, has been posted in five conspicuous places in the City of Lockport. [Added by L.L. No. 1-1947]
At the first regular meeting of the Common Council in each municipal year, or at some subsequent meeting, and as soon thereafter as may be, it shall direct the Clerk to advertise for proposals in such manner as the Council shall direct, not less than three days, for printing the proceedings of the Common Council and furnishing printed copies of the same. All ordinances, notices and other matters required by law or by the Council shall be published in a daily newspaper published in said city with a bona fide paid circulation of not less than 1,000 copies per day. Every bid shall be in writing and accompanied by a written guaranty, signed by a responsible person or persons, to the effect that the bidder will enter into such contract, if awarded to him, them or it. Such bids and guaranty shall be enclosed in a sealed envelope and be delivered to the Clerk at or before the time designated in the advertisement for opening such proposals. All such bids shall be opened in the presence of the Common Council. The Common Council shall have the right to accept the lowest bid to do such printing and publishing of the proceedings of the Common Council, or reject all such bids. The person or persons or corporation whose bid shall be accepted shall enter into a written contract in accordance therewith, and shall furnish such security for the faithful performance thereof as shall be satisfactory to the Common Council. In case the Common Council rejects all bids, it may advertise for further proposals and continue so to do until some bid is accepted. Upon the execution of a contract the said daily newspaper having the required circulation in said city in which it is agreed to publish such ordinances and notices and other matters required by law shall thereupon become and be the official paper of said city for the period of one year, and to continue thereafter as such until another be designated as aforesaid. When a newspaper shall be so designated, the publication of all such matters as shall have been commenced in the paper that shall be superseded by such designation shall continue to be published in the paper so superseded until completed notwithstanding such change, with the same force and effect as if no change had been made. The present official paper of said city shall continue as such until another be designated, in accordance with the foregoing provisions. In case no newspaper shall be so designated, or for any other cause there shall at any time be no official paper of said city, all ordinances, notices or other matters required by law to be published in the official paper of said city shall be published by posting up in a conspicuous place in each ward of said city a written or printed copy thereof, for the same number of days that they are required to be published in the official paper, and such publication shall have the same force and effect and be in all respects as valid as if they had been duly published in the official paper. In case any paper designated as the official paper shall, during the term for which it has been designated as the official paper, cease to publish, the Common Council shall have the power to designate another paper as the official paper, in accordance with the foregoing provisions. [§ 69, L. 1911, c. 870; amended by L. 1912, c. 416]