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Listed. — The Council shall have the power to
pass all such ordinances not contrary to the Constitution and laws
of the State of Maryland or this Charter as it may deem necessary
for the good government of the Town; for the protection and preservation
of the Town's property, rights, and privileges; for the preservation
of peace and good order, for securing persons and property from violence,
danger, or destruction; and for the protection and promotion of the
health, safety, comfort, convenience, welfare, and happiness of the
residents of the Town and visitors of the Town.
The Council shall have, in addition, the power to pass ordinances
not contrary to the laws and Constitution of this State, for the specific
purposes provided in the remaining subsections of this section.
(1) Administrative. To create, change or abolish offices and departments
and to assign additional functions to offices and abolish offices
and departments and to assign additional functions to offices and
abolish or discontinue any office or department or to transfer any
function of an office or department established by this charter.
(2) Advertising. To provide for advertising for the purposes of the Town,
for printing and publishing statements as to the business of the Town.
(3) Aisles. To regulate and prevent the obstruction of aisles in public
halls, churches, and places of amusement, and to regulate the construction
and operation of the doors and means of egress therefrom.
(4) Amusements. To provide in the interest of the public welfare for
licensing, regulating, or restraining theatrical or other public amusements.
(5) Appropriations. To appropriate municipal monies for any purpose within
the powers of the Council.
(6) Auctioneers. To regulate the sale of all kinds of property at auction
within the Town and to license auctioneers.
(7) Band. To establish a municipal band, symphony orchestra or other
musical organization, and to regulate by ordinance the conduct and
policies thereof.
(8) Billboards and signs. To license, tax and regulate, restrain or prohibit
the erection or maintenance of billboards within the city, the placing
of signs, bills and posters of every kind and description on any building,
fence, post, billboard, pole, or other place within the Town.
(9) Bridges. To erect and maintain bridges.
(10) Buildings. To make reasonable regulations in regard to buildings
and signs to be erected, constructed, or reconstructed in the Town,
and to grant building permits for 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 authorize and require the inspection of all buildings
and structures and to authorize the condemnation thereof in whole
or in part when dangerous or insecure, and to require that such buildings
and structures be made safe or be taken down.
(11) Cemeteries. To regulate or prohibit the interment of bodies within
the municipality and to regulate cemeteries.
(12) Codification. To provide for the codification of all ordinances which
have been or may hereafter be passed.
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(13) Community services. To provide, maintain, and operate community and
social services for the preservation and promotion of the health,
recreation, welfare, and enlightenment of the inhabitants of the Town.
(14) Cooperative activities. To make arrangements with other municipalities,
counties, districts, bureaus, commissions, and governmental authorities
for the joint performance of or for cooperation in the performance
of any governmental functions.
(15) Curfew. To prohibit the youth of the Town from being in the streets,
lanes, alleys, or public places at unreasonable hours of the night.
(16) Dangerous conditions. To compel persons about to undertake dangerous
improvements to execute bonds with sufficient sureties conditioned
that the owner or contractor will pay all damages resulting from such
work which may be sustained by any persons or property.
(17) Disorderly houses. To suppress bawdy houses, disorderly houses and
houses of ill fame.
(18) Dogs. To regulate the keeping of dogs in the Town and to provide,
wherever the county does not license or tax dogs, for the licensing
and taxing of the same; to provide for the disposition of homeless
dogs and dogs on which no license fee or taxes are paid.
(19) Elevators. To require the inspection and licensing of elevators and
to prohibit their use when unsafe or dangerous or without a license.
(20) Explosives. To regulate or prevent the storage of gunpowder, oil,
or any other explosive or combustible matter; to regulate or prevent
the use of firearms, fireworks, bonfires, explosives, or any other
similar things which may endanger persons or property.
(21) Filth. To compel the occupant of any premises, building or outhouse
situated in the Town, when the same has become filthy or unwholesome,
to abate or cleanse the conditions; and after reasonable notice to
the owners of occupants to authorize such work to be done by the proper
officers and to assess the expense thereof against such property,
making it collectible by taxes or against the occupant or occupants.
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(22) Finances. To levy, assess, and collect ad valorem property taxes;
to expend municipal funds for any public purpose; to have general
management and control of the finances of the Town; to appropriate
municipal monies for any purpose within the powers of the Mayor and
Council; to borrow money in accordance with the provisions of this
charter.
(23) Fire. To suppress fires and prevent the dangers thereof and to establish
and maintain a fire department; to contribute funds to volunteer fire
companies serving the Town; to inspect buildings for the purpose of
reducing fire hazards, to issue regulations concerning fire hazards,
and to forbid and prohibit the use of fire-hazardous buildings and
structures permanently or until the conditions of Town fire-hazard
regulations are met; to install and maintain fireplugs where and as
necessary, and to regulate their use; and to take all other measures
necessary to control and prevent fires in the Town.
(24) Food. To inspect and to require the condemnation of, if unwholesome,
and to regulate the sale of, any food products.
(25) Franchises. To grant and regulate franchises to water companies,
electric light companies, telegraph and telephone companies, transit
companies, taxicab companies, cable television systems (following
current FCC regulations) and any others which may be deemed advantageous
and beneficial to the Town, subject, however, to the limitations and
provisions of Article 23 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1957 Edition
as amended). No franchise shall be granted for a longer period than
fifty (50) years.
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(26) Gambling. To restrain and prohibit gambling.
(27) Garbage. To prevent the deposit of any unwholesome substance either
on private or public property, and to compel its removal to designated
points; to require slops, garbage, ashes and other waste or other
unwholesome materials to be removed to designated points, or to require
the occupants of the premises to place them conveniently for removal.
(28) Grants-in-aid. To accept gifts and grants of federal or of state
funds from the federal or state governments or any agency thereof,
and to expend the same for any lawful public purpose, agreeably to
the conditions under which the gifts or grants were made.
(29) Hawkers. To license, tax, regulate, suppress and prohibit hawkers
and itinerant dealers, peddlers, pawnbrokers and all other persons
selling any articles on the streets of the Town, and to revoke such
licenses for cause.
(30) Health. To protect and preserve the health of the Town and its inhabitants;
to appoint a public health officer, and to define and regulate the
powers and duties of the office; to prevent the introduction of contagious
diseases into the Town; to establish quarantine regulations, and to
authorize the removal and confinement of persons having contagious
or infectious diseases; to prevent and remove all nuisances; to inspect,
regulate, and abate any buildings, structures, or places which cause
or may cause unsanitary conditions or conditions detrimental to health;
provided, that nothing herein shall be construed to affect in any
manner any of the powers and duties of the State Board of Health,
the Kent County Board of Health, or any public general or local law
relating to the subject of health.
(31) 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 Town at the owner's expense,
such expense to constitute a lien upon the property collectible as
tax monies.
(32) Jail. To establish and regulate a station house or lockup for temporary
confinement of violators of the laws and ordinances of the Town or
to use the Kent County Detention Center for such purpose.
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(33) Licenses. Subject to any restrictions imposed by the public general
laws of the state, to license and regulate all persons beginning or
conducting transient or permanent business in the Town for the sale
of any goods, wares, merchandise, or services, to license and regulate
any business, occupation, trade, calling, or place of amusement or
business; to establish and collect fees and charges for all licenses
and permits issued under the authority of this Charter.
(34) Liens. To provide that any valid charges, taxes or assessments made
against any real property within the Town shall be liens upon such
property, to be collected as municipal or property taxes are collected.
(35) Lights. To provide for the lighting of the Town.
(36) Livestock. To regulate and prohibit the running at large of cattle,
horses, swine, fowl, sheep, goats, dogs or other animals; to authorize
the impounding, keeping, sale and redemption of such animals when
found in violation of the ordinance in such cases provided.
(37) Markets. To obtain by lease or rent, own, construct, purchase, operate,
and maintain public markets within the Town.
(38) Minor privileges. To regulate or prevent the use of public ways,
sidewalks, and public places, for signs, awnings, posts, steps, railings,
entrances, racks posting handbills and advertisements, and display
of goods, wares and merchandise.
(39) Noise. To regulate or prohibit unreasonable ringing of bells, crying
of goods or sounding of whistles and horns.
(40) Nuisances. To prevent or abate by appropriate ordinance all nuisances
in the Town which are so defined at common law, by this Charter, or
by the laws of the State of Maryland, whether the same be herein specifically
named or not; to regulate, to prohibit, to control the location of,
or to require the removal from the Town of all trading in, handling
of, or manufacture of any commodity which is or may become offensive,
obnoxious, or injurious to the public comfort or health. In this connection
the Town may regulate, prohibit, control the location of or require
the removal from the Town of such things as stockyards, slaughterhouses,
cattle or hog pens, tanneries, and renderies. This listing is by way
of enumeration, not limitation.
(41) Obstructions. To remove all nuisances and obstructions from the streets,
lanes and alleys from any lots adjoining thereto, or any other places
within the limits of the Town.
(42) Parking facilities. To license and regulate and to establish, obtain
by purchase, by lease or by rent, own, construct, operate, and maintain
parking lots and other facilities for off-street parking.
(43) Parking meters. To install parking meters on the streets and public
places of the Town in such places as they shall by ordinance determine,
and by ordinance to prescribe rates and provisions for the use thereof,
except that the installation of parking meters on any street or road
maintained by the State Highway Administration of Maryland must first
be approved by the administration.
(44) Parks and recreation. To establish and maintain public parks, gardens,
playgrounds, and other recreational facilities and programs to promote
the health, welfare, and enjoyment of the inhabitants of the Town.
(45) Planning and zoning. To exercise the power as to planning and zoning,
conferred upon municipal corporations generally in the Land Use Article
of the Annotated Code of Maryland (as amended); subject, however,
to the provisions and limitations of said article.
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(46) Police force. To establish, operate, and maintain a police force.
All Town policemen shall, within the municipality, have the powers
and authority of constables in this state.
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(47) Police powers. To prohibit, suppress, and punish within the Town
all vice, gambling, and games of chance; prostitution and solicitation
therefor and the keeping of bawdy houses and houses of ill fame; all
tramps and vagrants; all disorder, disturbances, annoyances, disorderly
conduct, obscenity, public profanity, and drunkenness.
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(48) Property. To acquire by conveyance, purchase or gift, real or leasable
property for any public purposes; to erect buildings and structures
thereon for the benefit of the Town and its inhabitants; and to convey
any real or leasehold property when no longer needed for the public
use, after having given at lease twenty (20) days' public notice
of the proposed conveyance; to control, protect and maintain public
buildings, grounds and property of the Town.
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(49) Quarantine. To establish quarantine regulations in the interest of
the public health.
(50) Regulations. To adopt by ordinance and enforce within the corporate
limits police, health, sanitary, fire, building, plumbing, traffic,
speed, parking, and other similar regulations not in conflict with
the laws of the State of Maryland or with this Charter.
(51) Sidewalks. To regulate the use of sidewalks and all structures in,
under or above the same; to require the owner or occupant of premises
to keep the sidewalks in front thereof free from snow or other obstruction;
to prescribe hours for cleaning sidewalks.
(52) Streets. To construct, maintain and improve the streets and to control
the public ways of the Town.
(53) Sweepings. To regulate or prevent the throwing or depositing of sweepings,
dust, ashes, offal, garbage, paper, handbills, dirty liquids, or other
unwholesome materials into any public way or onto any public or private
property in the Town.
(54) Taxicabs. To license, tax and regulate public hackmen, taxicab men,
draymen, drivers, cabmen, porters and expressmen, and all other persons
pursuing like occupations.
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(55) Vehicles. To regulate and license wagons and other vehicles not subject
to the licensing power of the State of Maryland.
(56) Voting machines. To purchase, lease, borrow, install, and maintain
voting machines for use in Town elections.
(57) Saving clause. The enumeration of powers in this section is not to
be construed as limiting the powers of the Town to the several subjects
mentioned.
For the purpose of carrying out the powers granted in this subtitle
or elsewhere in this Charter, the Council may pass all necessary ordinances.
All the powers of the Town shall be exercised in the manner prescribed
by this Charter, or, if the manner be not prescribed, then in such
manner as may be prescribed by ordinance.