GENERAL POWERS
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 space and good order;
for securing persons and property from violence, danger, or destruction;
and for the protection and the promotion of the health, safety, comfort,
convenience, welfare, and happiness of the residents of, and visitors
to, the town.
SPECIFIC POWERS
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.
Advertising — To provide for advertising, for the purposes
of the town, for printing and publishing statements as to the business
of the town.
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 public
welfare for licensing, regulating, or restraining theatrical or other
public amusements.
4.
Appropriations — To appropriate municipal moneys
for any purpose within the powers of the Council.
5.
Auctioneers — To regulate the sale of all kinds of
property at auction within the town and to license auctioneers.
6.
Band — To establish a municipal band, symphony orchestra
or other musical organization and to regulate by ordinance the conduct
and policies thereof.
7.
Billboards — To license, tax and regulate, restrain
or prohibit the erection or maintenance of billboards within the town,
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.
8.
Bridges — To erect and maintain bridges.
9.
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.
10.
Cemeteries — To regulate or prohibit the interment
of bodies within the municipality and to regulate cemeteries.
11.
Codification — To provide for the codification of
all ordinances which have been or may hereafter be passed.
12.
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.
13.
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.
14.
Curfew — To prohibit the youth of the town from being
in the streets, lanes, alleys or public places at unreasonable hours
of the night.
15.
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.
16.
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.
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 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.
22.
Finances — To levy, assess and collect ad valorem
property taxes; to expend municipal funds for any public purposes;
to have general management and control of the finances of the town.
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,
if unwholesome, of food and to regulate the sale of any food products.
25.
Franchises — To grant and regulate franchises to
water companies, electric companies, gas companies, telegraph and
telephone companies, transit companies, taxicab companies and any
other 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. No franchise shall be granted for
a longer period than 50 years.
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 his powers and duties; 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 condition 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 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 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 moneys.
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 county jail for such purpose.
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 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, prohibit or 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, or control the
location of or require the removal from the town of such things as
stockyards, slaughterhouses, cattle or hogpens, 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 and 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 Roads Commission of
Maryland must first be approved by the Commission.
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.
Police Force — To establish, operate and maintain
a police force. All town policemen shall, within the municipality,
have the powers and authority of Deputy Sheriff in this state.
[Amended 12-5-1974]
46.
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.
47.
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 least 20 days'
public notice of the proposed conveyance; to control, protect and
maintain public buildings, grounds and property of the town.
48.
Quarantine — To establish quarantine regulations
in the interests of the public health.
49.
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.
50.
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 of cleaning sidewalks.
51.
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.
52.
Taxicabs — To license, tax and regulate public hackmen,
taxicab men, draymen, drivers, cabmen, porters and expressmen and
all other persons pursuing like occupations.
53.
Vehicles — To regulate and license wagons and other
vehicles not subject to the licensing powers of the State of Maryland.
54.
Voting Machines — To purchase, lease, borrow, install
and maintain voting machines for use in town elections.
55.
Zoning — To exercise the powers as to planning and
zoning conferred upon municipal corporations generally in Article
66B of the Annotated Code of Maryland, subject, however, to the limitations
and provisions of said Article.
56.
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.
ENFORCEMENT OF ORDINANCES
For the purpose of carrying out the powers granted 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.
To ensure the observance of the ordinances of the town, the
Council has the power to provide that violation thereof shall be a
misdemeanor and shall have the power to affix thereto penalties of
a fine not exceeding $500 or less than $5, or imprisonment for a period
not exceeding 90 days, or both such fine and imprisonment. Any person
subject to any fine, forfeiture or penalty by virtue of any ordinance
passed under the authority of this Charter shall have the right of
appeal within 10 days to the Circuit Court of Kent County, in which
the fine, forfeiture, or penalty was imposed. The Council may provide
that, if the violation is of a continuing nature and is persisted
in, a conviction for one violation shall not be a bar to a conviction
for a continuation of the offense subsequent to the first or any succeeding
convictions.
[Added 12-1-2014 by Charter Res. No. 2014-01]
The Council shall have complete supervision over the financial
administration of the town government. The Council shall supervise
the administration of the budget as adopted by the Council, shall
supervise the disbursement of all moneys and have control over all
expenditures to assure that budget appropriations are not exceeded.
