City of Glenarden, MD GENERAL POWERS OF COUNCIL.

Specific powers. The Council shall have the following express ordinance-making powers.

Advertising. To provide for advertising for the purposes of the City and to print and publish statements as to the business of the City. The Council shall publish all official and legal business of the City in a newspaper of general circulation within the City.

(2)

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.

(3)

Amusements. To provide in the interest of the public welfare for licensing, regulating, or restraining theatrical or other public amusements.

(4)

Animals. To regulate the keeping of dogs, cats and other animals in the City and to provide, wherever the County does not license or tax dogs and cats, for the licensing and taxing of them and to provide for the disposition of homeless dogs and cats and dogs and cats on which no license fee or taxes are paid.

(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 City 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. 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 City.

(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 City, and to grant building permits for them, 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. Building permits for multiple-family dwellings, subdivisions, commercial and industrial construction shall not be granted without a majority vote of approval of the whole Council.

(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.

(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 City.

(14)

Cooperative activities. To make agreements 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 City 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)

Departments. To create, change, and abolish, offices, departments, or agencies, other than the offices, departments and agencies established by this Charter; to assign additional functions or duties to offices, departments or agencies established by this Charter, but not including the power to discontinue or assign to any other office, department, or agency any function or duty assigned by this Charter to a particular office, department, or agency.

(18)

Elevators. To require the inspection and licensing of elevators and to prohibit their use when unsafe, dangerous, or unlicensed.

(19)

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, explosive, or any other similar things which may endanger persons or property.

(20)

Filth. To compel the occupant of any premises or building situated in the City, if it has become filthy or unwholesome, to abate or cleanse the condition; and after reasonable notice to the owners or occupants to authorize such work to be done by the proper officers and to assess the expense thereof against the property making it collectible by taxes or against the occupant or occupants.

(21)

Finances. To levy, assess, and collect ad valorem property taxes; to expend municipal funds for any public purpose; and to have general management and control of the finances of the City.

(22)

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 City; to inspect building 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 permanent or until the conditions of City fire-hazard regulations are met; to install and maintain fire plugs where and as necessary, and to regulate their use; and to take all other measures necessary to control and prevent fires in the City.

(23)

Food. To inspect and to require the condemnation of food products, if unwholesome, and to regulate the sale of any food products.

(24)

Franchises. To grant and regulate franchises to water companies, electric light companies, gas companies, telephone companies, transit companies, taxicab companies, cable television companies, and all public communication systems which may be deemed advantageous and beneficial to the City, subject, to the limitations and provisions of Article 23 of the Annotated Code of Maryland. No franchise shall be granted for a longer period than 50 years.

(25)

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.

(26)

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

(27)

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 City, and to revoke such licenses for any action or threat of action by such a licensee in the course of his or her occupation which causes or threatens harm to inhabitants of the City or to their welfare or happiness.

(28)

Health. To protect and preserve the health of the City and its inhabitants; to appoint a public health officer, and to define and regulate his or her powers and duties; to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases into the City; 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; but nothing herein shall be construed to affect in any manner any of the powers and duties of the Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene, the County Board of Health or any public, general or local law relating to the subject of health.

(29)

House numbers. To regulate the numbering of houses and lots and to compel owners to renumber them or in default thereof to authorize and require the work to be done by the City at the owner's expense, such expense to constitute a lien upon the property collectible as tax monies.

(30)

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 City 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.

(31)

Liens. To provide that any valid charges, taxes or assessments made against any real property within the City shall be liens upon the property to be collected as municipal taxes are collected.

(32)

Lights. To provide for the lighting of the City.

(33)

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.

(34)

Markets. To obtain by lease or rent, own, construct, purchase, operate, and maintain public markets within the City.

(35)

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.

(36)

Noise. To regulate or prohibit unreasonable noise.

(37)

Nuisances. To prevent or abate by appropriate ordinance all nuisances in the City which are so defined by common law, by this Charter, or by the laws of the State of Maryland, whether they be herein specifically named or not; to regulate, to prohibit, to control the location of, or to require the removal from the City 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 City may regulate, prohibit, or require the removal from the City of such things as stockyards, slaughterhouses, cattle or hog pens, tanneries, and renderies. This listing is by way of enumeration, not limitation.

(38)

Obstructions. To remove all nuisances and obstructions from the streets, lanes and alleys and from any lots adjoining thereto, or any other places within the limits of the City.

(39)

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.

(40)

Parking meters. To install parking meters on the streets and public places of the City in such places as by ordinance they determine, and by ordinance prescribe rates and provisions for the use thereof.

(41)

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 City.

(42)

Police force. To establish, operate, and maintain a police force.

(43)

Police powers. To prohibit, suppress, and punish within the City 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.

(44)

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 City and its inhabitants; and to convey any real or leasehold property when no longer needed for the public use, after having given at least 20 days' public notice of the proposed conveyance; to control, protect and maintain public buildings, grounds and property of the City.

(45)

Public ways and sidewalks. To regulate the use of City streets, roads, alleys, and sidewalks and all structures in, under or above such public ways and sidewalks; to require the owner or occupant of premises to keep the sidewalks in front thereof free from snow or other obstructions and prescribe hours for cleaning sidewalks.

(46)

Quarantine. To establish quarantine regulations in the interest of the public health.

(47)

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.

(48)

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 on any public place or private property in the City.

(49)

Taxicabs. To license, tax and regulate public hackers, taxi cab drivers, drivers, porters, and all other persons pursuing like occupations.

(50)

Vehicles. To regulate and license vehicles not subject to the licensing power of the State of Maryland.

(51)

Voting machines. To purchase, lease, borrow, install, and maintain voting machines for use in City elections.

(b)

Enumeration not exclusive. The enumeration of powers in this section is not to be construed as limiting the powers of the City to the several subjects mentioned.