The Council shall have the general 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 thereto and sojourners therein.
The Council shall have, in addition, the power to pass ordinances
not contrary to the laws and Constitution of this state, for the following
specific purposes:
Section 402.1.
Advertising. To provide for advertising
for the purposes of the Town, for printing and publishing statements
as to the business of the Town.
Section 402.2.
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.
Section 402.3.
Amusements. To provide in the interest
of the public welfare for licensing, regulating, or restraining theatrical
or other public amusements.
Section 402.4.
Appropriations. To appropriate municipal
monies for any purpose within the powers of the Council.
Section 402.5.
Auctioneers. To regulate the sale of
all kinds of property at auction within the Town and to license auctioneers.
Section 402.6.
Band. To establish a municipal band,
symphony orchestra or other musical organization, and to regulate
the conduct and policies thereof.
Section 402.7.
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 to appoint a Building 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.
Section 402.8.
Codification. To provide for the codification
of all ordinances which have been or may hereafter be passed.
Section 402.9.
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.
Section 402.10.
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.
Section 402.11.
Curfew. To prohibit the youth of the
Town from being in the streets, lanes, alleys, or public places at
unreasonable hours of the night.
Section 402.12.
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.
Section 402.13.
Disorderly houses. To suppress bawdy
houses, disorderly houses and houses of ill fame.
Section 402.14.
Dogs and cats. To regulate the keeping
of dogs and cats in the Town and to provide, wherever the County does
not license or tax dogs and cats, for the licensing and taxing of
the same; to provide for the disposition of homeless dogs and cats
on which no license fee or taxes are paid.
Section 402.15.
Elevators. To require the inspection
and licensing of elevators and to prohibit their use when unsafe or
dangerous or without a license.
Section 402.16.
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.
Section 402.17.
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 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 such property, making it collectible by taxes or against
the occupant or occupants.
Section 402.18.
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.
Section 402.19.
Fire. To suppress fires and prevent
the dangers thereof; 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; and to take all other measures necessary to control and prevent
fires in the Town.
Section 402.20.
Gambling. To restrain and prohibit
gambling.
Section 402.21.
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.
Section 402.22.
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.
Section 402.23.
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.
Section 402.24.
Health. To protect and preserve the
health of the Town and its inhabitants; 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
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the County Health Department,
or any public general or local law relating to the subject of health.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Amended during codification.
Section 402.25.
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.
Section 402.26.
Liens. To provide that any valid charges,
taxes or assessment made against any real or personal property within
the Town shall be liens upon such property, to be collected as municipal
taxes are collected. Taxes which are liens on personal property are
also liens on real property of the same taxpayer within the Town boundaries.
Section 402.27.
Lights. To provide for the lighting
of the Town.
Section 402.28.
Livestock. To regulate and prohibit
the running at large of cattle, horses, swine, fowl, sheep, goats,
dogs, rabbits, cats, pigeons, 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.
Section 402.29.
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.
Section 402.30.
Noise. To regulate or prohibit unreasonable
ringing of bells, crying of goods or sounding of whistles and horns
or any other offensive noises.
Section 402.31.
Nuisances. To prevent or abate by appropriate
ordinances 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.
Section 402.32.
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 Town.
Section 402.33.
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.
Section 402.34.
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 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 said State Administration.
Section 402.35.
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.
Section 402.36.
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.
Section 402.37.
Police powers. To prohibit, suppress,
and punish within the Town all vice, prostitution and solicitation
therefor and the keeping of bawdy houses and houses of ill fame; all
disorder, disturbances, annoyances, disorderly conduct, obscenity,
public profanity and drunkenness.
Section 402.38.
Property. To acquire by conveyance,
purchase or gift, real 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 least
20 days' public notice of the proposed conveyance; to control, protect
and maintain public buildings, grounds and property of the Town.
Section 402.39.
Regulations. To adopt by ordinance
and enforce within the corporate limits: police, health, sanitary,
fire, building, traffic, speed, parking, and other similar regulations
not in conflict with the laws of the State of Maryland or with this
Charter.
Section 402.40.
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 obstructions; to prescribe hours for cleaning sidewalks.
Section 402.41.
Sweepings. To regulate or prevent the
throwing or depositing of sweepings, dust, ashes, offal, garbage,
paper handbills, dirty liquids, or other unwholesome materials or
debris into any public way or onto any public or private property
in the Town.
Section 402.42.
Vehicles. To regulate and license wagons
and other vehicles not subject to the licensing powers of the State
of Maryland.
Section 402.43.
Voting machines. To purchase, lease,
borrow, install, and maintain voting machines for use in Town elections.
Section 402.45.
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 article
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.
No ordinance shall be passed at the meeting at which it is introduced.
At any regular or special meeting of the Council held no less than
six nor more than 60 days after the meeting at which any ordinance
was introduced, it shall be passed or passed as amended, or rejected,
or its consideration deferred to some specified future date. In cases
of emergency, the provisions that an ordinance may not be passed at
the meeting at which it is introduced may be suspended by the affirmative
vote of three members of the Council. Every ordinance, unless it be
passed as an emergency ordinance, shall become effective at the expiration
of 30 calendar days following passage by the Council. A reasonable
summary of each ordinance shall be published in a newspaper or newspapers
having general circulation in the Town.
To meet a public emergency affecting life, health, property
or the public peace, the Council may adopt one or more emergency ordinances,
but such ordinances may not levy taxes, grant, renew or extend a franchise,
regulate the rate charged by any public utility for its services or
authorize the borrowing of money except as provided in Chapter 6.
An emergency ordinance shall be introduced in the form and manner
prescribed for ordinances generally, except that it shall be plainly
designated as an emergency ordinance and shall contain, after the
enacting clause, a declaration stating that an emergency exists and
describing it in clear and specific terms. An emergency ordinance
may be adopted with or without amendment or rejected at the meeting
at which it is introduced, but the affirmative vote of at least four
members shall be required for adoption. After its adoption, the ordinance
shall be published and printed as prescribed for other adopted ordinances.
It shall become effective upon the adoption or at such time as it
may specify. Every emergency ordinance shall automatically stand repealed
as of the 61st day following the date on which it was adopted, but
this shall not prevent re-enactment of the ordinance in the manner
specified in this section if the emergency still exists. An emergency
ordinance may also be repealed by adoption of a repealing ordinance
in the same manner specified in this section for adoption of emergency
ordinances.
No ordinances, except for an emergency ordinance adopted pursuant
to Section 405.0 of this Charter, passed by the Mayor and Town Council
shall go into effect until after the expiration of 30 days after its
passage, unless otherwise provided by the laws of this state. If within
30 days from the date of its passage a petition protesting against
it and signed by 50% of the registered voters of the Town shall be
filed with the Town Clerk, such ordinance shall be immediately suspended,
and the Mayor and Council shall submit it to a vote of the duly qualified
voters of said Town at the next election; provided, however, that
if the next election shall occur more than 90 days thereafter, the
Mayor and Town Council shall call a special election for the purpose
of deciding whether such proposed ordinance shall or shall not become
a law, and the same shall become operative or repealed by a majority
of the votes cast at this election.
[1]
Editor's Note: Amended during codification.
