The town shall have the power to adopt all such ordinances,
resolutions, rules, and regulations 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.
(Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 59-17.)
The town shall have, in addition to its general powers, the
power to adopt ordinances, resolutions, regulations, and rules not
contrary to the Constitution and laws of the State of Maryland, for
the following specific purposes:
(1) Advertisment [Advertisement] and publication. To provide for advertisement
and publication for the purposes of the town, for printing and publishing
statements as to the business of the town, and for publishing a Somerset
Town Journal.
(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) Appropriations. To appropriate town moneys for any purpose within
the powers of the town.
(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 town band, symphony orchestra, or other musical
organization, and to regulate by ordinance the conduct and policies
thereof.
(7) Billboards and signs. To license, tax, regulate, restrain, or prohibit
the erection, placing, or maintenance of billboards, 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, structures and improvements. To make reasonable regulations
in regard to buildings, structures, and other improvements 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, heating,
and electrical code, to appoint inspectors, and to require reasonable
charges for permits and inspections; to authorize and require the
inspection of all buildings, structures, and other improvements, and
to authorize the condemnation thereof in whole or in part when dangerous
or insecure, and to require that such buildings, structures, and other
improvements be made safe or be taken down or removed.
(10) Cemeteries. To regulate and prohibit the interment of bodies within
the town 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) Cooperation with other bodies. 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 or proprietary 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 nonelective offices,
departments, or agencies of the town government, including the nonelective
offices, departments, and agencies established by this Charter; and
to assign additional functions or duties to offices, departments,
or agencies.
(17) Dogs and cats. To regulate, license, or prohibit the keeping or presence
of dogs or cats in the town, and to provide for their disposition
or removal from the town.
(18) Elevators. To require the inspection and licensing of elevators and
to prohibit their use when unsafe or dangerous or without a license.
(19) Expenses of officials. To provide by resolution for reimbursing the
mayor, councilmen, and other officials of the town for reasonable
expenses incurred, and compensating them for time lost from their
regular employment, in carrying out the necessary business of the
town.
(20) Explosives and dangerous weapons. To regulate or prevent the storage
of gunpowder, oil, or any other explosive or combustible matter, to
regulate or prevent the use or possession of firearms, air guns or
other dangerous weapons, projectiles, fireworks, bonfires, explosives,
or any other similar things which may endanger persons or property.
(21) Filth. To compel the owners or occupants of any premises or buildings
in the town, when the same have 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
and special benefit assessments; to expend town funds for any public
purpose; to have general management and control of the finances of
the town; and to borrow necessary funds for any public purpose.
(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 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 town.
(24) Food. To inspect and 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, gas companies, telegraph and telephone companies,
transit companies, taxicab companies and any others which may be deemed
advantageous and beneficial to the town, subject, however, to the
limitations and provisions of the Constitution and laws of the State
of Maryland. No franchise shall be granted for a longer period than
fifty 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;
to make contracts for the removal of garbage and rubbish.
(28) 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 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 or services 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 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 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 moneys.
(32) Insurance. To obtain hazard and liability insurance of such kinds
and in such amounts as the council may determine.
(33) Jail. To establish and regulate a station house or lock-up for temporary
confinement of violators of the laws and ordinances of the town or
to use the county jail for such purpose.
(34) Land and building regulations. To provide for the preparation and
revision of a plat of said town upon which shall be shown all streets,
roads, and public ways, whether projected or already laid out, and
by which all lots and real property in said town may be thereafter
described, said plat to be prepared and recorded in plat books in
the office of the clerk of the circuit court for Montgomery County
and of the county surveyor of said county; to control the subdivision
or resubdivision of all land and real property within the corporate
limits of said town and to make reasonable regulations in regard to
buildings to be erected in said town, and to grant permits for same.
(35) Licenses. Subject to any restrictions imposed by the laws of the
State of Maryland, 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.
(36) 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.
(37) Lights. To provide for the lighting of the town.
(38) Livestock. To regulate or prohibit the keeping 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 such regulations or prohibitions.
(39) Maintenance of private property. To require all owners or occupants
to maintain their properties in decent, clean, and presentable condition.
(40) Markets. To obtain by lease or rent, own, construct, purchase, operate,
and maintain public markets within the town.
(41) 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.
(42) Noise. To regulate or prohibit unreasonable noises.
(43) Nuisances. To prevent or abate 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.
(44) 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.
(45) Parking facilities. To license and regulate, and to establish, obtain
by purchase, condemnation, or lease, own, construct, operate, and
maintain parking lots and other facilities for off-street parking.
(46) Parking meters. To install parking meters on the streets and public
places of the town in such places as the council shall determine,
and 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 as part of the state road
system must first be approved by the commission.
(47) 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.
(48) Planning and zoning. To exercise all powers of planning, zoning,
and the control of subdivision or resubdivision which are not contrary
to the Constitution and laws of the State of Maryland.
(49) Police force and marshals. To establish, operate, and maintain a
police force or appoint a town marshal and deputy marshal. All town
policemen, the marshal and deputy marshals shall, within the town,
have the powers and authority of constables in this state.
(50) Police powers. To prohibit, suppress, and punish within the town
all vice, gambling, and games of chance; prostitution and solicitation
therefore 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. To enforce
all ordinances relating to disorderly conduct and the suppression
of nuisances equally within the limits of the town and beyond those
limits for one-half mile, or for so much of this distance as does
not conflict with the powers of another municipal corporation.
(51) Property. To acquire by purchase, condemnation, gift, bequest, devise,
lease, or otherwise real, personal, or mixed property, within or without
the corporate limits of the town, for any public purposes; to erect
and equip buildings, and structures and make other improvements thereon
for the benefit of the town and its inhabitants; to regulate their
use; to convey or lease any property when no longer needed for the
public use, after having given at least twenty days' public notice
to the proposed conveyance or lease; and to control, protect and maintain
public buildings, grounds, and property of the town.
(52) Quarantine. To establish quarantine regulations in the interest of
the public health.
(53) Regulations. To adopt and enforce within the corporate limits police,
health, sanitary, fire, building, plumbing, heating, electrical, traffic,
speed, parking, and other similar regulations not in conflict with
the laws of the State of Maryland or with this Charter.
(54) Rubbish. To regulate or prevent the throwing or depositing of rubbish,
lawn, garden, or tree refuse, 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.
(55) 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 ice, snow, dirt,
and other obstructions.
(56) Taxicabs. To license, tax, and regulate public hackmen, taxicab men,
draymen, drivers, cabmen, porters, and expressmen, and all other persons
pursuing like occupations.
(57) Trees, shrubs and grass. To protect, enhance, and maintain the natural
beauty of the town property, and to conserve the trees, shrubs, and
grass on the public ways.
(58) Vehicles. To regulate the use, operation, speed, weight, direction
of travel, parking, or keeping of vehicles of every kind, including
but not limited to automobiles, trucks, tractors, trailers, wagons,
motorcycles, scooters, and bicycles, to the extent that such regulation
by the town is not contrary to the Constitution and laws of the State
of Maryland.
(59) Voting machines. To purchase, lease, borrow, install, and maintain,
voting machines for use in town elections.
The enumeration of powers in this section and in section 83-17
of this Charter is not to be construed as limiting the powers of the
town to the several subjects mentioned.
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(Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 59-18.)
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For the purpose of carrying out the powers granted to the town
in this Charter, the council may adopt all necessary ordinances, resolutions,
rules, or regulations. 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,
resolution, rule, or regulation. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 59-19.)