A.
General powers outlined. 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 City; for the protection and preservation of
the City'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 City and visitors thereto and sojourners therein.
B.
Specific powers. The Council shall have, in addition, the power to
pass ordinances or resolutions not contrary to the laws and Constitution
of this State, for the following specific purposes:
(1)
Advertising. To provide for advertising for the purposes of the City
for printing and publishing statements as to the business of the City.
(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 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 City and to license auctioneers.
(6)
Band. To establish a municipal band, symphony orchestra or other
musical organization, and to regulate by ordinance or resolution the
conduct and policies thereof.
(7)
Billboards. To license, tax and regulate, restrain or prohibit the
erection or maintenance of billboards within the City, the placing
of signs, bills and posters of every kind and description on any building,
fence, post, billboard, pole, or other place within the City.
(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 City,
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 taken down.
(10)
Cemeteries. To regulate or prohibit the interment of bodies within
the City 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 City.
(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. A curfew can be established for the safety of the City.
[Amended 6-3-2019 by Res.
No. 520]
(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.
(18)
Domestic animals. To regulate the keeping of domestic animals in
the City and to provide, wherever the county does not license or tax
domestic animals, for the licensing and taxing of the same; to provide
for the disposition of homeless domestic animals and domestic animals
on which no license fee or taxes are paid.
[Amended 6-3-2019 by Res.
No. 520]
(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 City, 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 purpose; to have general
management and control of the finances of the City.
(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 City; 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 City 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 City.
(24)
Food. To inspect and to 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 City, 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
fifty (50) years.
(26)
Gambling. To comply with State and County laws regarding gambling.
[Amended 6-3-2019 by Res.
No. 520]
(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 City, and to revoke such
licenses for cause.
(30)
Health. To protect and preserve the health of the City and its inhabitants;
to appoint a public health officer, and to define and regulate the
powers and duties of the public health officer; to prevent the introduction
of contagious diseases into the City; 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.
[Amended 10-18-2021 by Res. No. 545]
(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 City 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 City or
use the County jail for such purpose.
(33)
Licenses. Subject to any restriction imposed by the public general
laws of the State, to license and regulate all persons beginning or
conducting transient or permanent business in the City 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 City shall be liens upon such
property, to be collected as municipal taxes are collected.
(35)
Lights. To provide for the lighting of the City.
(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 City.
(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 City 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 City 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 City may regulate, prohibit, control the location of, or require
the removal from the City of such things as stockyards, slaughterhouses,
cattle or hog pens, 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 City.
(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 City 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 Highway Administration of Maryland must first
be approved by the Administration.[2]
(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 City.
(45)
Police force. To establish, operate, and maintain a police force.
All City policemen shall, within the municipality, have the powers
and authority of constables in this State.
(46)
Police powers. To prohibit, suppress, and punish within the City
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 City and its inhabitants; and to convey
any real or leasehold property when no longer needed for the public
use, after having given at least twenty days' public notice of the
proposed conveyance; to control, protect and maintain public buildings,
grounds and property of the City.
(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 for 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 City.
(52)
Taxicabs. To license, tax and regulate public hackmen, taxicab men,
draymen, drivers, cabmen, porters and expressman, 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 City 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, and such other legislation as the General Assembly
of Maryland has passed or may subsequently pass.
(56)
Indemnification. To provide for the defense and indemnification of
municipal officials and employees against claims and legal actions
arising out of or relating to their official duties or employment
for or on behalf of the City.
[Added 1-3-1979 by Res.
No. 98, approved 1-3-1979]
C.
Saving clause. The enumeration of powers in this section is not to
be construed as limiting the powers of the City to the several subjects
mentioned.
For the purpose of carrying out the powers granted in this Title
or elsewhere in this Charter, the Council may pass all necessary ordinances
and resolutions. All the powers of the City 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 City, the
Council shall have the power to provide that violation thereof shall
be a misdemeanor or municipal infraction and shall have the power
to affix thereto penalties of a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars
($1,000.) and/or imprisonment for up to six (6) months for misdemeanors.
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 ten days to the Circuit Court of the county
in which the fine, forfeiture, or penalty was imposed. The Council
may provide that, where 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 conviction.
