The municipal corporation now existing and known as the "City of Oneida" shall continue to be a municipal corporation under the same name and with the same boundaries.
This Charter and all amendments hereto shall constitute the form of government for the City of Oneida and shall be known and cited as the "Oneida City Charter."
The City of Oneida shall be a body politic and corporate and shall have perpetual succession, may use a corporate seal, may sue and be sued, may acquire property within and without its boundaries for any municipal purpose in fee simple or any lesser interest or estate by purchase, gift, devise, lease or condemnation and may sell, lease, hold, manage and control such property as its interest may require. The City of Oneida shall have all municipal powers, functions, rights, privileges and immunities of every name and nature wheresoever conferred on cities by the Constitution of the State of New York and conferred or imposed on it by general or special law.
[Amended 12-19-2000 by L.L. No. 6-2000]
The enumeration of particular powers in this Charter shall not be deemed to be exclusive, but in addition to the powers enumerated or implied herein or appropriate to the exercise of such powers, the City of Oneida shall have and may exercise all powers which under the Constitution of the State of New York it would be competent for this Charter specifically to enumerate, and all powers necessarily incident or fairly to be implied, not inconsistent with the provisions hereof. All powers of the City of Oneida, whether expressed or implied, shall be exercised in the manner specifically provided in this Charter, or if not so provided, then in the manner provided by local law, ordinance or resolution of the Common Council or as otherwise provided by law.
The territory comprised within the following limits shall constitute the City of Oneida:
All that land situated in the County of Madison and State of New York, bounded and described as follows:
Beginning at a point south eighty-four degrees three minutes east six-hundred-ninety-four feet from the intersection of the centers of the roads known as Allen's Four Corners; thence north four degrees fifty minutes east about five and one-half (5 1/2) miles, and parallel with the west line of the Town of Lenox in the County of Madison to the Oneida Creek on the boundary line between the Counties of Oneida and Madison; thence southeasterly along the center of said creek, as it winds and turns to the northerly line of the Town of Stockbridge; thence north eighty-five degrees west along the northerly line of said Town of Stockbridge to the northwest corner of the Town of Stockbridge; thence northwesterly in a straight line about three miles to the place of beginning; all as shown on a map now on file with the County Clerk of Madison County; and also being and intended to be the same tract or parcel of land described in Section 1 of Chapter 352 of the Laws of 1896 of the State of New York.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1979; 9-15-2015 by L.L. No. 2-2015[1]]
A. 
Division by wards. The City of Oneida shall be divided into six wards.
B. 
Official Ward Map. The map of the City of Oneida’s six ward boundaries adopted by the Common Council pursuant to Local Law No. 2 of 2015 shall be the official map of the six ward boundaries of the City of Oneida. A copy of the official ward map is filed and available for inspection in the City Clerk’s office.
[1]
Editor's Note: This local law was subject to mandatory referendum and approved by the electors of the City of Oneida 11-3-2015.
If any clause, sentence, paragraph, word, section or part of this Charter shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.
The provisions of this Charter shall be liberally construed to effectuate the objectives and purposes for which this Charter and the articles contained herein are enacted.
The municipal year of the City of Oneida shall begin on the first day of January. The terms of all officers, departments, boards, bureaus, commissions and agencies appointed as provided in this Charter for a year or series of years shall be computed by municipal years. For the purpose of determining when a term of office shall end, the municipal year in which an officer, department, board, bureau, commission or agency shall take office shall be deemed to be the entire year, although such officer, board or commission may not have taken office until after the municipal year shall have begun, so that the terms of office of all such officers, departments, boards, bureaus, commissions and agencies shall terminate at the end of the municipal year. This provision shall not apply to the terms of office of the Civil Service Commission.
[Amended by L.L. No. 5-1974; L.L. No. 3-1975]
Whenever used in this Charter, unless otherwise expressly stated or unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires:
1. 
"Charter" shall mean the "Oneida City Charter."
2. 
"City" shall mean the "City of Oneida."
3. 
"Common Council" shall mean the elective governing body of the City of Oneida.
4. 
"Corporate tax district" shall be all that portion of the City compromised within the following limits, namely:
Beginning in the center of Oneida Creek in the easterly bounds of the County of Madison at a point where the said Oneida Creek is intersected by the northerly line of New York State Route 5, formerly called the Seneca Turnpike; thence northerly down the center of said Oneida Creek as it winds and turns to the point opposite the northeast corner of Lot Number 83 of the "Oneida Creek Tract"; thence westerly along the northerly line of Lot Number 83 and the northerly line of Lot Number 82, thence southerly along the westerly line of said Lot Number 82 to the southerly line of the "Oneida Creek Tract"; thence westerly along the southerly line of said tract to the northwest corner of Lot Number 3 of the "First Oneida Purchase of 1829"; thence southerly along the west line of Lot Number 3, continuing on said line to the intersection point of said line extended with the southerly line of New York State Route 5, thence westerly along the south line of New York State Route 5 a distance of 296.60 feet, more or less, to a point being the northwest corner of Lot Number 3 of the Oneida Heights Subdivision South Section "A" as shown on a map prepared by Fredric C. Burton dated February 10, 1967; thence southerly along the west line of said Lot 3 to a point being the northeast corner of Lot Number 2 of the said Oneida Heights Subdivision; thence westerly along the northerly line of said Lot Number 2 to a point being the northwest corner of said Lot Number 2; thence southerly along the westerly line of Lot 2 to a point being the southwest corner of said Lot 2, this point being on the northerly line of Foxwood Terrace, a City street; thence westerly along the northerly line of Foxwood Terrace to a point being the southeast corner of lot number one of the Oneida Heights Subdivision; thence northerly along the east line of said Lot 1 to the northeast corner of said Lot 1; thence westerly along the northerly line of said Lot Number 1 extended to a point on the easterly boundary of the Oneida Heights Subdivision South Section "A", said point being approximately three hundred thirty (330) feet easterly, measured at right angles from the easterly line of Lot Number 1 of the Second Oneida Purchase of 1829; thence southerly along the westerly boundary of the Oneida Heights tract a distance of one-thousand-four-hundred-fifty-five feet more or less to a point, said point being the intersection of said westerly line of the Oneida Heights Subdivision with the southerly line of the Baker Reservoir properly extended; thence easterly on a line parallel to New York State Route 5 to a point on the center line of Seneca Street extended; thence northerly along said center line of Seneca Street to a point one-thousand-ten feet southerly of the south line of New York State Route 5;
thence easterly on a line parallel to New York State Route 5 to the point of intersection with the center line of Oneida Creek; thence northerly along the center line of Oneida Creek as it winds and turns to the place of beginning, and in addition, all of the real property included in the so-called "Cooley Subdivision" (as shown in the Final Plat, Phases I, II and III, dated 9-3-1998); and the "Field of Dreams Subdivision" (as shown in the Preliminary Major Subdivision Plat, dated 7-6-1997, as amended 8-20-1997, 2-13-1998 and 9-28-1998; and as further identified currently by Tax Map parcel number 37.00-2-39); and the Tax Map parcels numbered 37.00-2-32, 37.00-2-33, 37.00-2-34, 37.00-2-40 and 37.00-2-41; shall all be deemed to be within the Corporate (inside) Tax District, and no portion of such subdivisions or Tax Map parcels shall be within the Outside Tax District.
[Amended by L.L. No. 2-2001]
5. 
"Law" shall mean a state statute, charter, local law, ordinance or resolution.
6. 
"Local law" shall mean a law adopted pursuant to the Municipal Home Rule Law or to other authorization of a state statute or this Charter by the Common Council, or proposed by a Charter Commission or by petition, and ratified by a popular vote, as provided in article IV of the Municipal Home Rule Law, or as provided in a state statute, this Charter or local law; but shall not mean or include an ordinance, resolution or other similar act of the Common Council or of any other board or body of this City.
7. 
"Ordinance" shall mean a legislative act of the Common Council which is permanent in nature unless specifically self-limiting, general in its application and may or may not contain penal provisions for its violation and must be in written form. It shall be enacted in accordance with the provisions hereinafter provided.
8. 
"Outside district" shall mean and refer to that portion of the City situated outside the corporation tax district.
9. 
"Resolution" shall mean a legislative act of the Common Council which is limited in its application or of a temporary nature, or both, or as otherwise provided by law. Unless specifically provided, it need not be in writing.
10. 
"Councilmen." Those members of the Common Council exclusive of the Mayor.