In addition to all the powers granted to the Council by this
Charter or any other provision of law, the Council may exercise any
power or perform any function which is not now or hereafter denied
to it by the Constitution of Maryland, this Charter or any applicable
law passed by the General Assembly of Maryland. The enumeration of
powers and functions in this Charter or elsewhere shall not be deemed
to limit the power and authority granted by this paragraph.
The powers of the Council to pass ordinances shall include,
but are not limited to the following purposes:
(1)
Advertising. To provide for advertising, printing and publication
of materials relating to the business of the Town, including financial
and legal notices required by law or this Charter.
(2)
Amusements. To provide, in the interest of the public welfare, for
the licensing or regulating of theatrical or other public amusements.
(3)
Appropriations. To appropriate municipal funds for any purpose within
the powers of the Council.
(4)
Band. To establish a municipal band, symphony orchestra or other
musical organization, and to regulate by ordinance the conduct and
policies thereof.
(5)
Boards, Commissions and Committees. To appoint such boards, commissions
and committees as may be necessary to the health, welfare and safety
of the citizens. The authority and responsibility for each such group
appointed shall be prescribed in the ordinance which creates it.
(6)
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 in addition to the permits required
by the County or other government entity having jurisdiction for the
same; 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.
(7)
Codification of Ordinances. To provide for the codification of all ordinances.
(8)
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.
(9)
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.
(10)
Curfew. To prohibit the youth of the Town from being in the streets,
lanes, alleys, or public places of the Town at unreasonable hours
of the night and at unreasonable hours of the day on school days.
(11)
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.
(12)
Departments. To create, change, and abolish Town 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.
(13)
Fees and Charges. To establish and collect fees and charges for all
franchises, licenses, and permits issued by the Town and for all governmental
or proprietary functions of the Town.
(14)
Filth. To compel the occupant of any premises or building in the
Town, when it 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.
(15)
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.
(16)
Franchises. To grant and regulate franchises to water companies,
electric light companies, gas companies, telegraph and telephone companies,
transit companies, taxicab companies, cable television companies,
telecommunications companies, and any others which may be deemed advantageous
and beneficial to the Town, subject to Maryland law.
(17)
Garbage. To prevent the deposit of any unwholesome substance on either
private or public property, and to compel its removal to designated
points; to require slop, garbage, ashes and other waste or unwholesome
materials to be removed to designated points, or to require the occupants
of the premises to place them conveniently for removal.
(18)
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.
(19)
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.
(20)
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
or her powers or duties; to inspect, regulate, and abate any buildings,
structures or places which cause or may cause unsanitary conditions
or conditions detrimental to health; but nothing herein shall be construed
to affect in any manner any of the powers and duties of the Secretary
of Health and Mental Hygiene, the County Board of Health, or any public,
general or local law relating to the subject of health.
(21)
Licenses. Subject to any restrictions imposed by the public general
laws of the State, to license and regulate all persons beginning or
conducting 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.
(22)
Liens. To provide that any valid charges, taxes or assessments made
against any real property within the Town shall be liens upon the
property to be collected as municipal taxes are collected.
(23)
Lights. To provide for the lighting of the Town.
(24)
Markets. To obtain by lease or rent, own, construct, purchase, operate,
and maintain public markets within the Town.
(25)
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 displays
of goods, wares, and merchandise.
(26)
Noise. To regulate or prohibit unreasonable noise.
(27)
Nuisances. To prevent, prohibit 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 or the Town.
(28)
Parades. To regulate the holding of meetings, processions and parades
in Town streets, parks, or other public places.
(29)
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.
(30)
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 to prescribe by ordinance rates and provisions for the use thereof.
(31)
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.
(32)
Police Force. To establish, operate, and maintain a police force
in order to maintain peace and order within the Town, including the
power to make arrests and restrain and detain persons who are in violation
of the ordinances of the Town or the laws of the State of Maryland.
(33)
Property. To acquire by conveyance, purchase, eminent domain, or
gift, real or leasehold property for any public purposes; to erect
buildings and structures thereon for the benefit of the Town and its
inhabitants; to convey any real or leasehold property when no longer
needed for the public use, after having given at least twenty (20)
days public notice of the proposed conveyance; and to control, maintain
and protect public buildings, grounds and property of the Town.
(34)
Public Ways and Sidewalks. To regulate the use of Town streets, roads,
alleys, and sidewalks, and all other structures in, under or above
the same and to require the owner or occupant of premises to keep
the sidewalks in front thereof free from snow, ice, debris and other
obstructions.
(35)
Regulations. To adopt and enforce within the corporate limits of
the Town police, health, sanitary, building, traffic, parking, and
other similar regulations not in conflict with the laws of the State
of Maryland or this Charter.
(36)
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.
(37)
Voting Systems. To purchase, lease, borrow, install and maintain
voting systems for use in Town elections.
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 is not prescribed, then in such
manner as may be prescribed by ordinance.
To ensure the observance of the ordinances of the Town, the
Council shall have the power to provide that violation thereof shall
be a misdemeanor or a municipal infraction and to affix thereto penalties
that do not exceed the maximum penalties prescribed by law.
