The City Assessor, the City Engineer and the City Attorney shall
compose a Board to be called the "Board of Local Assessors," which
Board shall make all local assessments and perform all the duties
required by this Charter to be performed in regard to the making of
local assessments and without extra compensation thereof. The City
Assessor shall be Chairman of the Board of Local Assessors and shall
prepare all rolls and copies of rolls of said local assessments. All
local assessments of the expense, or any portion thereof, of any improvements
authorized by this Charter to be made shall be made by the Board of
Local Assessors or a majority thereof.
Said Board of Local Assessors shall meet at the office of the
Assessor as soon as practicable after any local assessment is ordered,
and may, if necessary, adjourn from time to time. They shall make
an assessment roll of said local assessments in which they shall set
down, in separate columns and according to the best information obtainable
by them, the names of all the owners or occupants of the land assessed,
the number of the block and lot and the number of the great lot, if
any, or the Assessor's subdivision thereof on which the land
described and to be assessed is situated; a brief description of the
land to be taxed to each person, giving the quantity thereof where
the land is farming land and also, where practicable, the street and
the number of any building thereon; but if the land be vacant or the
building thereon not numbered, then the name of the street or streets
on which it fronts shall be given and the amount of the expense of
such local improvement assessed on each piece of property apportioned
as equitably as may be. When such roll is finished, they shall publish
a notice in the official paper for five days of a time when they will
meet, at the expiration of said five days, to review such assessment,
and shall designate the Assessors' office as the place where
such review will be made and where said roll may be seen and examined
by any person interested therein. They shall have the same power to
make corrections in such assessment rolls as the Assessor has in the
case of the assessment of the general tax. After such review of said
assessment roll, they shall complete the same and shall deliver a
correct copy of the roll, duly certified, signed by all or a majority
of said Board to the City Clerk within 20 days after their first meeting.
Any person interested may appeal to the Common Council for the
correction of such assessment. Such appeal shall be in writing, stating
in detail the grounds for such appeal and shall be delivered to the
Clerk of the City within 10 days after the corrected copy of said
assessment roll is delivered to the City Clerk. If there is no appeal,
the assessment roll shall be confirmed by the Common Council. In case
of an appeal, the Common Council shall appoint a time within 10 days
thereafter for a hearing of such appeal and shall cause a notice thereof
to be published in the official paper for three successive times prior
to the date of such hearing. After such hearing, the Common Council
shall have power to correct such assessment or to annul the same and
direct a new assessment to be made in the manner hereinbefore directed,
which shall be final and conclusive on all parties interested, in
case the Common Council confirms the same. If the Common Council shall
set aside the last aforesaid assessment, all the proceedings in the
matter shall be null and void. A second assessment shall be made,
and an appeal thereon may be taken in the same manner as on the first
assessment. If no appeal be taken from any such assessment, it shall
be confirmed.
As soon as the Common Council has confirmed an assessment roll
for any local assessment, it shall cause a warrant to be annexed under
the hand and seal of the Mayor commanding the City Chamberlain to
collect from the several persons named or property described in said
assessment roll the several sums levied in said roll, and said roll,
with the warrant so annexed, shall be delivered to the City Chamberlain.
The City Chamberlain shall thereupon proceed to collect the several
sums levied and assessed in said local assessment roll in the same
manner as in the case of the general city assessment rolls. All of
the provisions of this Charter relative to the collecting of the general
city assessments and the sale of lands for nonpayment of such assessments
shall apply to any such local assessment roll, except so far as the
same are modified by the provisions of this Charter.
Two-thirds of the entire cost of paving, repaving, surfacing
and/or resurfacing any streets or section of a street or highway shall
be assessed upon all the real estate fronting thereupon in proportion
to the frontage of the respective parcels thereof, and the remaining
1/3 of such cost shall be borne by the city and shall be defrayed
by a general tax.
Before ordering any local improvement subject to local assessment,
the Department of Public Works shall give public notice that application
has been made to it for such local improvement, or that it proposes
to order the same, by publication for five (5) days in the official
papers, fixing a day after the last publication of said notice for
hearing objections to such improvement. On the day fixed for such
hearing, persons interested in such improvement may appear before
said Department and present objections thereto.
If the Department shall finally determine, notwithstanding objections,
to order such improvement, it shall make an order accordingly, which
shall be entered at length in its proceedings, stating the estimated
cost and giving a general description of the proposed improvement
and shall certify the same to the Common Council, who shall order
said improvement to be made; provided, however, that no pavement shall
be so ordered if the owners of a majority of the frontage liable to
assessment therefor shall file a protest, in writing, against the
proposed improvement, unless and until the Common Council, by a vote
of at least a majority of its members, shall adopt a resolution favoring
the proposed improvement. The mortgagee, if any, on any property affected
by the proposed improvement shall be considered a party in interest
and must join with the mortgagor in affirmative or negative action,
both to be considered as one (1) interested party. Upon and in the
event that the Common Council shall adopt such resolution, the Department
shall have the power to order such improvement. The evidence of the
liability of the petitioners to be so assessed shall be the certificate
of the Assessor endorsed upon said petition. Upon the completion of
such improvement, the Department of Public Works shall certify to
the Common Council the whole cost thereof, which cost shall not include
any charge for the use of any city-owned machinery or equipment, but
shall include the cost of operation thereof, and of all labor, material
and supplies actually consumed in the construction of the proposed
improvement and the amount of cost to be paid by local assessment;
upon presentation of such certified order to the Common Council, it
shall be the duty of said Council and it shall, within thirty (30)
days from the receipt of such certified order, direct the Board of
Local Assessors to make a local assessment for the cost of said improvement
as certified, and the Assessor shall thereupon proceed to make such
local assessment as by this Charter prescribed.
The Department of Public Works may, at any time after the assessment
for any local improvement is confirmed by the Common Council, commence
the work on such proposed improvements. Said assessments, when finally
made, shall be confirmed by the Common Council, which confirmation
shall be presumptive evidence of the regulatory of all proceedings
taken thereon.
Neither the Department of Public Works nor the Common Council
shall order any local improvements when the cost thereof, as determined
by the Department of Public Works and the City Engineer, shall exceed
fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.), unless a majority of the owners
of the property liable to assessment therefor or the owners of one-half
(1/2) in value of the property affected thereby, shall petition, in
writing, to said Department of Public Works or the Common Council
for such local improvement or consent thereto, in writing. The mortgagee,
if any, on any property affected by the proposed improvement shall
be considered a party in interest and must join with the mortgagor
in affirmative or negative action both to be considered as one (1)
interested party. This section does not apply to any local improvement
ordered by the Department of Public Works or the Common Council, any
portion of the expense of which is to be defrayed from moneys raised
or to be raised by virtue of a special election, according to the
provisions of this Charter.
The grades of the several streets within said city determined
by the Department of Public Works are hereby declared to be the established
grades of said several streets respectively. Whenever the established
grade of any street, lane, alley or other highway shall be altered
by the Department of Public Works under the provisions of this Charter,
the owner of any lot or house upon such street, lane, alley or other
highway may claim damages therefor and present his claim to the Common
Council, and the Common Council shall thereupon direct the Board of
Local Assessors to ascertain such damages and assess the same as herein
provided upon the real estate benefited by said alteration.
Whenever the Board of Local Assessors shall be of the opinion
that any owner or owners of land on any street, lane, alley or highway
to be graded or leveled will sustain damages over and above the benefit
which may accrue to said owner or owners of such land by such improvements,
they may assess such an amount as they may deem a reasonable recompense
to such owner or owners thereof upon the real estate benefited by
such improvement, in proportion to the benefit resulting thereto,
as nearly as may be, and said assessors may add said amount to the
assessment roll which they are hereby required to make and certify
the same amount to the Common Council at the time of delivering their
roll to the City Clerk, as aforesaid.
In case any assessment shall prove insufficient to defray the
expenses of be improvement for which it was made, the Common Council
may direct the Board of Local Assessors to make a further assessment
for the amount of the deficiency; such further assessment shall be
founded on the first roll and the like proceedings shall be had thereon
as though it were an original assessment. If, on any assessment, too
large an amount shall be raised, the excess shall be refunded ratably
to those from whom it was collected.
Any and all property within the City of Oswego shall bear its
proportionate share of all taxes levied, including those for local
improvements, except when specifically exempted by law.
The Common Council may, when ordering any local assessment pursuant
to this Charter or at any time thereafter and before the issue of
the warrant to the Chamberlain for the collection thereof, order the
whole of such assessment to be collected at one (1) time or it may
order such assessment to be collected in equal annual installments,
with interest added as follows: any assessment for a sewer or sewers,
sidewalk, macadamized road or curbing, when the latter is not laid
with a pavement, in or upon any of the streets, highways, alleys,
lanes, walks or avenues of the city may be extended and levied and
collected in not to exceed ten (10) equal annual installments, as
herein provided, and any assessment for paving or repaving any of
the streets, highways, lane, crosswalks or avenues of the city, including
all curbing or other structures incident to such paving and laid at
the same time therewith, when such pavement is not macadam, may be
extended, levied and collected in not to exceed ten (10) equal annual
installments, as herein provided. The first installment of any such
extended local assessment, the warrant for the collection of which
has been delivered to the Chamberlain on or before the last day of
December in any year, shall become due and payable the first day of
September following and subject to the same fees, interest and penalties
as the city tax; and all subsequent annual installments on such assessment
shall become due and payable on said first day of September, one (1)
in each succeeding year and subject to the same fees, interest and
penalties as the city tax; until all the installments of any such
extended tax with fees and interest thereon are fully paid. Any person
against whom any local assessment may be levied and taxed may pay
any part of any such assessment or installment thereof at any time
prior to the due date thereof to the City Chamberlain and receive
a receipt therefor and failure to pay any balance of a local assessment
or installment thereof when due shall be a default within the meaning
of the term as herein provided. Upon default of payment of any installment
of any such extended assessment when the same is due and payable as
above provided, the same proceedings on said installment, including
the sale of the real estate upon which such assessment is levied,
shall be taken as though said assessment had not be extended. The
whole or any part of any such extended tax or assessment may be paid
at any time with interest and fees thereon to the date of payment,
as above provided.
A.
Where an order is made by the Common Council to collect a local assessment by installments, as provided in § C17-13, any person liable to pay the same may, within thirty (30) days after the first publication by the City Chamberlain in the official paper of notice that the warrant for any such assessment roll is placed in his hands for collection, pay to the City Chamberlain the amount of such assessment without fee, percentage or interest thereon.
B.
If any obligations are issued to finance an improvement, all or part
of the expense of which is to be borne by the property benefited by
such improvement, the portion of such obligations which is to be redeemed
from such assessments shall be credited to the contingent fund of
the city. All moneys collected upon the payment of installments of
any such local assessments as herein provided in any year shall be
applied by the Chamberlain to the payment of the expense of such improvement
and to the redemption of the portion of such obligations, if any,
which shall have been credited to the contingent fund as provided
by this section.
All costs of bonding for any local assessments shall be included
in the sum total cost of said local assessments.
During the first thirty (30) days after the assessment roll
and warrant for the collection of any local assessments shall be delivered
to the City Chamberlain, every person, corporation or association
may pay his, her or its tax without any additional charges. During
the next succeeding thirty (30) days one-and-one-half-per-centum fees
shall be added to the tax and collected by the City Chamberlain; and
after the expiration of such last named period and during the next
sixty (60) days, two-and-one-half-per-centum fees shall be added to
the tax and collected by him; and after the expiration of said sixty
(60) days, the fees shall be six per centum aforesaid. The notice
required specifying the amount of the tax and the fees herein provided
for in relation to unpaid city taxes shall apply to all such local
assessments and shall be served as and in the same manner after the
expiration of the second period of thirty (30) days aforesaid, and
such notice shall require payment of such taxes as then remain unpaid
to be made before the expiration of the sixty (60) days during which
payment of two-and-one-half-per-centum fees are required, and it shall
not be necessary to make any other demand of payment of said taxes.
All local taxes and assessments imposed for any purpose by the
Common Council under any provision of this Charter shall be and remain
liens upon the real estate upon which they are assessed from the time
when the respective taxes or assessments shall have been confirmed
by the Common Council to the same extent and with the same effect
as the general annual tax of said city, viz., six (6) years. If any
such taxes or assessments or any part thereof shall be returned as
unpaid by any officer authorized to collect the same, such premises
assessed shall be sold in the manner provided in this Charter for
the sale of lands for unpaid city taxes. And in case any such taxes
or assessments are extended for a period of years in accordance with
the provisions of this Charter, the same shall be and remain a lien
upon the several parcels of real estate upon which such taxes or assessments
are made, for the amount due each year, for a period aforesaid, from
and after the time when each such portion of said taxes or assessment
are due and payable; provided, however, that in case default shall
be made in the payment of an installment of such taxes or assessments,
as the same becomes due, then and in that event all the unpaid balance
of said taxes or assessments shall be and become a lien from and after
the date of said default. The Common Council is hereby required to
add to the amount and include in the roll of any such local taxes
or assessments, as ascertained by them under their authority, the
fees which any officer shall be entitled to for making such, together
with the expense of posting and publication of any notices required
to be given in the proceedings thereon or prior thereto, and all such
further and other proceedings may be had for the collection of and
accounting for said taxes and assessments as are herein provided for
the collection and accounting for the general tax.
All taxes and assessments so levied by said Board of Local Assessors
hereunder shall be liens upon the property upon which assessed and
shall be collected in the manner provided for by this Charter for
the collection of local taxes and assessments and shall be payable
in as many equal annual payments, not exceeding five (5), as the Common
Council shall determine, with interest on the deferred payments until
paid at the rate of six per centum (6%) per annum from the time the
first payment shall be made payable, but such payments may, at the
election of any party in interest, be made at any time before they
shall fall due.
There shall be levied and assessed by the Board of Local Assessors
of said City of Oswego by direct tax on assessment on the property
located or fronting on that portion of any street, road, lane or alley
through which any of the sanitary sewers herein provided for may be
laid or built, for each linear foot of sanitary sewers built within
said street, road, lane or alley, the sum of one dollar ($1.) per
linear foot of sewer so built or laid under the provisions of this
Charter, said tax to be assessed one-half (1/2) on property fronting
on each side of such streets, roads, lanes or alleys per linear foot
of said frontage, exempting from such tax or assessment property,
if any, so situated that it cannot connect with or use such sewers
for any of the purposes for which the same are built. Property situated
on street corners may be exempted from such direct tax or assessment
on one (1) side of the same, and the Board of Local Assessors shall
have power to determine and decide upon which side of the property
aforesaid the exemption shall be made and the extent of such exemption,
after notice and an opportunity to be heard in all respects as nearly
as may be in the manner prescribed in § C17-00 of this Charter,
but said Board shall not in any event exempt more than one (1) side
of such property so situated.
Said Board of Local Assessors shall also assess and levy upon
all other property which they shall deem more immediately benefited
by the construction of the sanitary sewers herein authorized, by direct
tax or assessment upon such property for each linear foot of frontage
upon any street, road, lane or alley, the sum of not exceeding six
cents ($0.06) per linear foot of such frontage, said tax to be assessed
one-half (1/2) on property fronting upon each side of such streets,
roads, lanes or alleys per linear foot of such frontage, but all streets
and highways in which there has heretofore been a sewer constructed
shall be exempt from the tax and assessment by this and the preceding
section authorized.
The City of Oswego is hereby empowered to acquire land, through
condemnation or purchase, and develop public off-street parking lots
and facilities, to declare any such improvement to be a local improvement
in whole or in part and to assess the cost of such acquisition and
development in whole or in part upon the property benefited by the
local improvement, or in whole or in part upon all the property in
the entire City of 0swego.
Following the passage of any resolution providing for the acquisition
or development of off-street parking facilities wherein any of the
cost is to be borne by local benefit assessment, the Common Council
shall cause to be published once within five (5) days after passage
a notice in the official newspaper of the city that, at a time and
place to be therein specified, it will meet and hold a hearing in
respect thereto. Such notice shall contain a brief description or
the location of said improvement, the type of facility proposed, a
description of the benefited area subject to local assessment, the
proposed measure of the assessment and an estimate of the total cost
and an estimate of the cost to be borne by the local assessment. Such
notice may, in lieu of the foregoing, contain a copy of the resolution.
Any person interested shall be entitled to be heard at such hearing.
The Common Council shall cause all necessary appraisals to be
made, and it shall adopt all necessary plans and specifications for
such improvement and decide upon the kind and quality of material
to be used in making such improvement and shall determine the probable
expense of making such improvement, including the cost of acquisition
of the lands, demolition of the buildings situated thereon, including
all necessary appraisals, searches, surveys, together with all necessary
expenses in making plans and specifications as aforesaid, publication
and all expenses incidental to the making of any such improvement,
and which shall be considered part of the expenses thereof.
If after the public hearing the Common Council shall determine
that such an improvement ought to be made, it shall by resolution
authorize and direct the City Attorney to proceed with the acquisition
of necessary lands. Said resolution shall describe the location of
such improvement with reasonable accuracy, specify the character and
extent of the improvements to be made thereon, set forth the estimated
total cost and a statement of the estimated amount to be borne by
the city, if any, and an amount to be borne by local assessment, describe
precisely the area to be benefited and to be subject to assessment
and provide for financing the cost of the improvement.
The Common Council shall apportion the cost to be borne by benefit
assessment against the taxable property deemed benefited in accordance
with any one (1) of the following methods: the linear front footage
of the property, the square foot area of the property or the total
assessment of the property for general tax purposes. It may create
separate zones of benefit in the benefited area and apportion the
cost in different percentages amongst zones.
When the contract for any local improvement as hereinbefore
provided has been let or the work specified in said contract be completed,
the Common Council shall within such time as may be reasonably done
assess the cost and expenses thereof, including appraisals, searches,
surveys, cost of acquisition of land, clearing sites, preparation
of plans and specifications, publications and all expenses incidental
to the making of any such improvement upon the property lying within
the district of local assessment, as provided in the resolution authorizing
the local improvement and local assessment, and direct the Board of
Local Assessors to prepare local assessment rolls as provided by § C17-00
of this Charter.
Not withstanding any other provision of this Charter, such local
assessment shall become due and be paid by the owner of the lots or
parcels of land within the assessment district in not more than twenty
annual payments, with interest at six per cent (6%) per annum.
