The Common Council shall be composed of the Council members.
The Mayor, when present, shall preside at all meetings of the Common
Council and shall be counted as a member thereof solely to constitute
a quorum, but he shall have no vote except in case of a tie arising
upon any question or resolution including appointments to office.
[L.L. No. 3-1967]
No member of the Common Council shall hold any other city or
ward office except by vote of the majority of the Common Council.
No member of the Common Council or other city officer, elected or
appointed, shall be in any manner, directly or indirectly, interested
in any contract in which the city shall be interested as a party or
otherwise; and all such contracts in which any officer may be or become
interested shall thereby and thereupon become void.
Each Council member present at any meeting of the Common Council
shall have a vote on every question brought before the Common Council
for its consideration except as herein otherwise provided; and no
Council member shall be excused from voting on any such question,
except by the concurring vote of two-thirds (2/3) of all the members
present. No person whose election as Council member shall be contested
shall be entitled to vote on any question connected with such contest.
A.
All meetings of the Common Council shall be public, except when,
in the judgment of the majority of those members thereof actually
present and voting, the same ought to be private, all in accordance
with § 100 et seq. of the Public Officers Law.
B.
Minutes of all proceedings of the Common Council shall be taken and
preserved by the Clerk in a book to be provided for that purpose by
the city, and such minutes shall be accessible at all times to any
elector of said city.
A quorum shall consist of a majority of the Common Council.
No tax or assessment shall be ordered nor any appointment to office
made, except by concurring vote of a majority of all members of the
Common Council in office; and no tax levy, assessment, order, resolution
or ordinance shall take effect until after the same shall have been
approved, in writing, by the Mayor, except as herein otherwise provided.
The Common Council shall hold regular meetings at least once
in each month; and the Mayor or, in his absence, any three (3) Council
members, may call a meeting by notice thereof, in writing, to be served
personally or by mail on all other members thereof.
The Common Council shall determine the rules of its proceedings;
be sole judge of the election and qualification of its members; have
power to compel the attendance of absent members; and to prescribe
the powers and duties of all officers appointed by it, subject to
the provisions of this Charter.
[L. 1916, c. 409; L. 1921, c. 153; L. 1943, c. 710; L.L.
No. 1-1972; L.L. No. 2-1973]
All accounts and claims against the city arising either ex contractu
or ex delicto or otherwise, including all accounts for claims and
services rendered or moneys expended by any officer, servant and employee
of said city, shall be itemized and shall be certified in a form prescribed
by the City Chamberlain instead of being verified, which requires
execution before a notary public, and shall be presented to the Common
Council or other department of the city government authorizing, creating
or contracting the same. When any such account or claim has been presented
to the Common Council, it shall be referred to a standing committee,
consisting of five (5) Council members from the City of Hornell, to
be called a Committee of Audit and to be appointed by the Mayor. It
shall be the duty of said Committee of Audit or of such other department
to whom any such claim or account has been so presented to inquire
into the justice of such accounts or claims, and such Committee of
Audit or such other department may send for and compel the attendance
and production of persons, books and papers, and may examine the claimant
and others on oath in relation thereto. Failure to duly present any
such claim or account or to appear and submit to examination as above
provided shall be a bar to any claim or action therefor against the
city. At least ten (10) days' notice of the time and place of
such examination or inquiry shall be given personally if the claimant
can be found with the exercise of reasonable diligence and inquiry
within the city. If after the exercise of reasonable diligence and
inquiry said claimant cannot be found with the city, then said notice
shall be given by mailing a copy thereof signed by the City Clerk
and enclosed in a securely closed postpaid wrapper addressed to the
claimant at his last known place of residence or business at least
fifteen (15) days before the date fixed in said notice. Said Committee
shall report to the Common Council favorably or unfavorably, in whole
or in part, all accounts referred to it and, if unfavorably, give
its reasons therefor; and the Common Council shall then pass upon
the same as a Board of Auditors and for that purpose shall possess
the powers and be subject to the duties of town auditors. All claims
against the city for damages for injuries to persons or property claimed
to have been caused or sustained by defects, want of repair or obstructions
from snow or ice or other causes in the highways, streets, sidewalks
or crosswalks of the city or because of the negligence of the city
as to highways, streets, sidewalks or crosswalks of the city shall
be presented, in writing, to the Mayor or Common Council within thirty
(30) days after said injury is received or has occurred. Such writing
shall describe the time, place and nature and extent of the injury
as far as then practicable, verified by the oath of the claimant to
the effect that the same is true. The omission to present said claim
as aforesaid within said thirty (30) days shall be a bar to any claim
or action therefor against the city, and no action on any such claim
shall be maintained against said city, and no action on any such claim
shall be maintained against said city unless such action shall have
been commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action accrued.
No action shall be commenced against said city on any duly presented
claim of any kind or nature until after the expiration of three (3)
months from the presentation thereof. At any time within said three
(3) months, said claimant may be required to appear before the Mayor
of said city, and, on receiving a notice signed by the Mayor requiring
such appearance at a time specified therein, not less than three (3)
days distant, he shall so appear and submit to examination on oath
concerning the facts and circumstances of any such claim for injuries
to persons or to property caused or sustained as aforesaid and concerning
the names and addresses of any person or persons who may be able to
give any information in regard thereto so far as said claimant knows
or has been informed; and when such appearance has been required as
herein specified, no action shall be commenced against said city until
ten (10) days shall have elapsed after examination shall have been
had thereunder. No debt or liability or contracts shall be or become
a valid charge against said city or corporation unless the same shall
have been created or contracted by authority of the Common Council
or the Finance Board or chief fiscal officer, as such terms are defined
in the Local Finance Law, or the Department of Public Safety or the
Department of Public Works. The city shall not be liable for any injury
caused by such highways, streets, alleys, sidewalks or crosswalks
being out of repair or dangerous from snow, ice or unlawful obstructions,
unless actual notice of the unsafe and dangerous condition thereon
has been given to the Mayor or the City Clerk of said city a reasonable
time before the happening of such injury.
[L. 1916, c. 409; L. 1934, c. 371; L.L. No. 4-1937; L. 1943,
c. 710; L.L. No. 1-1951; L.L. No. 4-1973]
A.
Any member of any committee of the Common Council shall have power
to administer oaths or affirmations to all persons who appear or who
are brought to testify in reference to any matter pending before such
committee. The Common Council shall exercise all the powers conferred
by this Charter and, except as otherwise provided by law or by this
Charter, shall have the control and management of the property, real
and personal, belonging to the corporation and all finances thereof.
B.
In addition to such other powers as may be by law or this Charter
conferred upon it, said Common Council shall have power:
(1)
To provide for the care, custody and preservation of the buildings,
other than those used by the Department of Public Safety and Department
of Public Works, property, books, records and papers belonging to
the city; to prevent and provide for the punishment of any injury
or trespass upon the same; to make all necessary repairs and improvements
thereon and to cause the same to be insured when deemed to be necessary
or advisable.
(2)
To prescribe and define such powers and duties of the officers of
said city that are not inconsistent with or specified by this Charter
and which it shall deem the best interests of the city require.
(3)
To prohibit the gathering or assembling of persons upon the streets
of said city or congregating upon the corners of the streets or sidewalks
thereof and to authorize and require the police officers of said city
to disperse all such gatherings, assemblages or congregations. Upon
refusal of persons so gathered, assembled or congregated to disperse
when commanded so to do by the Mayor or a duly appointed police officer,
said Mayor or policeman may make summary arrest, without process,
of all persons so refusing and to take them forthwith before the Recorder
of said city to be by him tried as disorderly persons and punished
as such, upon conviction; and all such offenders are hereby declared
to be disorderly persons.
(4)
To fix and change the salaries of all officers of the city not fixed
by this Charter or otherwise provided by law, but every such salary
shall not be diminished during the continuance of such term of office;
to see that they perform faithfully and correctly their several duties,
and that proper measures are taken to punish neglect of duty on the
part of any of them.
(5)
To audit all accounts and claims against the corporation, except
as herein otherwise provided; to order the payment of such as shall
be allowed and to make such rules and regulations in regard to the
form and manner in which such account and claims shall be made and
presented as it may deem necessary and proper; but, except as in this
Charter otherwise provided, no such account or claim shall be audited
or allowed unless verified by affidavit of the claimant to the effect
that the same is just and true; that the services or moneys therein
mentioned have been actually rendered or disbursed; that no payment
has been made thereon; and that no setoffs exist thereto except as
are stated therein.
(6)
To call special meetings of the inhabitants of said city, except
as otherwise provided in the Local Finance Law, whenever, in the judgment
of its members, public interest requires the same, and to carry into
effect all lawful resolutions adopted at any of said meetings or at
the annual election.
(7)
To examine the accounts of the Chamberlain from time to time, prescribe
the manner of paying out and accounting for moneys received by him
belonging to the city, in all cases not provided for in this Charter.
(8)
To exercise exclusively within the city the powers vested in justices
of the peace of towns by the second section of the first article of
the eighth title of the twentieth chapter of the first part of the
revised statutes, and subsequent amendments thereto and thereof, and
to prescribe the sum to be paid for the permission or license therein
mentioned.
(9)
To establish and regulate a public pound, subject to the provisions
of this Charter, and to restrain, regulate and prevent cattle, horses,
sheep, swine, dogs, geese and other animals and fowl from running
at large in said city, and to authorize the seizure, impounding and
sale of the same for the penalty incurred by such running at large
and the cost of keeping and proceedings; and to make regulations for
taxing, muzzling and confining dogs and for destroying such as may
be found running at large contrary to any ordinance.[1]
(10)
To prevent runners, hackmen, stage drivers and others from soliciting
persons to travel or ride in any stage, hack, omnibus or other conveyance
or upon any railroad or to go to any hotel or otherwise, except under
such regulations at it may prescribe.
(14)
To regulate the burial of the dead and the management of all cemeteries
within the city, subject to the existing provisions of law.
(15)
To regulate or prohibit the exhibition of any circus, caravan, theater,
opera, curiosities, tricks or legerdemain and other shows and entertainments
in said city, and to license the same for such time, upon payment
of such fees and under such regulations as it may prescribe.[5]
(17)
To maintain gas, electric or other lights, lampposts and fixtures
on the streets, lanes, parks and public places of said city, and to
cause the same to be lighted at all proper hours throughout the year.
(18)
To prohibit, license or regulate the keeping, storing, use and sale
of gunpowder, kerosene or other combustible or explosive substance
or compound, and the conveyance and transportation of the same in
and through any part of the city.
(19)
To prosecute in the corporate name of the city upon any contract
or liability in which said city may be interested and for all fines,
penalties, costs and expenses imposed by this Charter or by any ordinance
or bylaws of the city, board or commission thereof and enforce the
collection thereof, except as herein otherwise provided.
(20)
To prohibit and make regulations for the prevention of every game,
practice, amusement and act in the public streets and elsewhere in
said city having a tendency to frighten teams or horses, to injure
or annoy persons or to endanger property.
(21)
To regulate the speed of locomotives, tenders, railroad and other
cars, and to prevent unnecessary and unreasonable obstructions of
streets by the same in any part of said city, and to prevent obstruction
of crosswalks by carts, wagons, sleighs, teams or otherwise.[7]
(22)
To regulate the stringing or setting of telephone or telegraph or
other wires and poles in said city, and to require that such wires
be placed in underground conduits whenever public safety or a due
regard for public convenience requires it.
(23)
To regulate the planting of shade or ornamental trees along the streets
and sidewalks of said city and the trimming and removal of the same,
and to prevent the injury or defacement of such trees and the injury
and defacement of fences, posts, walls and buildings in said city.
(24)
To provide a council room or rooms for the Common Council, a court
room for the Recorder, offices for the Clerk and Chamberlain, rooms
for other officers and necessary fuel, light, stationery and supplies
for their offices.
(26)
To prevent or regulate the sale and use of firecrackers, rockets,
squibs and other explosive compounds.
(27)
To prevent the discharge of firearms, rockets, fireworks, gunpowder
and other explosives in or near the streets of the city or in the
vicinity of any building.
(28)
To examine and correct the city assessment rolls in the same manner
as the Board of Supervisors may by law examine and correct the town
assessment rolls of this county, and the Common Council shall possess
all the powers in relation to such city, as to such assessment rolls
and the levying of city taxes, that Boards of Supervisors have by
statute with respect to town assessment rolls and the levying of state
and county taxes.
(29)
To provide for the defraying of the expenses of all elections in
said city, and to raise by tax the amount required to pay the same;
to create new election districts when necessary, and such districts
and inspectors shall be governed by the provisions of this Charter
and existing general laws applicable thereto.
(30)
To grant all licenses in said city, and to prescribe the fees to
be paid for the same. The Common Council may, by resolution, empower
the Mayor of said city to grant all or any licenses, which said Council
are by this Charter authorized to grant.
(31)
To contract for the printing in a daily newspaper, regularly published
in said city, of all proceedings of the Common Council and Department
of Public Works and of the Department of Public Safety, insofar as
such proceedings relate to the financial transaction of said Department,
and all official notices of the Common Council or any board, commission
or department herein authorized or of the Board of Health of said
city. The newspaper in which such printing is to be done shall be
known as the official newspaper of said city.
(32)
Except as in this Charter otherwise provided and for any or either
of the purposes aforesaid or in executing any power conferred upon
the Common Council or upon the city or any board or department thereof,
by this Charter or otherwise, said Common Council shall have full
power to make, establish, publish, modify, amend or repeal ordinances,
rules, regulations, bylaws and resolutions, except those of the Board
of Health, Department of Public Safety and Department of Public Works,
and fix the time for their taking effect and to prescribe and enforce
such penalties and fines as it may deem proper for their violation.
Every ordinance, rule, regulation, resolution and bylaw shall be recorded
by the Clerk in a book or books to be provided by the city and kept
for that purpose; and said record or a copy thereof, certified under
the Corporate Seal of said city by the Clerk to be a true copy of
such record, shall be presumptive evidence in all courts and places
and in all actions and proceedings of the due passage of such ordinance,
rule, regulation, bylaw or resolution.
(34)
To establish and maintain city lockups, station houses or workhouses,
which may be used instead of the county jail for the confinement of
offenders.
(35)
To acquire by purchase or by condemnation, in the manner provided
by the Eminent Domain Law, necessary lands, rights and easements,
both within and without the limits of the city, but in the County
of Steuben, for the construction, maintenance and operation of a city
water system, including also a reservoir or reservoirs, and the protection
of such system from pollution.
(36)
To maintain or employ a band for musical purposes for the entertainment
of the public at an annual expense of not exceeding seven hundred
fifty dollars ($750.).
