The City Council shall have power and authority to levy and collect taxes upon all taxable property, real, personal, and mixed, within the City, not exceeding 1/2% per annum upon the assessed value thereof, which value shall be ascertained by the Assessor of said City; to provide, by ordinance, the time for taking such assessment; when the same shall be returned to the City Clerk; and also provide for the assessing of property that may have been omitted or overlooked, or otherwise not returned by said Assessor; also, the time when said Clerk shall make out and deliver to the Marshal of said City a copy of said assessment, together with the tax due or assessed, which said copy shall be sealed with the common seal of said City, with warrant for the collection of the taxes so assessed, signed by the Mayor and Clerk of said City. The City Council shall have power to correct or equalize any erroneous or injudicious assessment. The Marshal shall be the collector of all taxes assessed as aforesaid; he shall, upon receiving a copy of such assessment and warrant, as aforesaid make personal demand of every resident charged with tax, if to be found within said City, or leave a written notice of the amount of such tax at his or her place of abode, and shall put up at least one written notice in each ward of said City, that, if the taxes are not paid within 20 days thereafter, the same will be collected by sale of property of delinquents; at the expiration of which 20 days said Marshal may, and he is hereby authorized, by distress and sale of personal property of such delinquent or delinquents, as constables on executions, to collect said tax; or, he may, after the expiration of the said 20 days, if said tax shall remain unpaid, give notice by publication in one of the newspapers published in said City, for six consecutive weeks, stating the amount of tax, costs, and printer's fee, and the number of the lot, or the description of the piece of land or property on which the same are due, and the owner's name, if known, and that the said lot, piece of land, or property, will be sold on the day and at the place to be mentioned in said notice, unless payment be made of the taxes, costs, and printer's fee on or before said day of sale; and if such payment should not be made according to said notice, then said Marshal shall proceed and sell the same in accordance with said notice, for said amount due, to the bidder who will take the least quantity of the lot or piece of land, or property, off from the side which said Marshal shall designate, or the whole, if no bid for a less quantity; and he shall give to the purchaser thereof a certificate stating the description of the piece of land, or the number of the lot, or the portion thereof, or the property purchased, and price paid therefor, and the day of sale; and, at the expiration of two years thereafter, if the owner or claimant shall not redeem the same by paying the amount for which the same was sold, together with 25% per annum to the purchaser, or to the City Treasurer for said purchaser's benefit, said purchaser, or his heirs or assigns, shall be entitled to a deed therefor, and the Mayor of said City shall, on demand and the presentation of said certificate, make, execute, and deliver to the holder or owner of such certificate a deed for said property in the said certificate mentioned, which, when acknowledged or proven and recorded, as other deeds are acknowledged and proven, shall be good and valid in law and equity, to pass a valid title to such lot, piece, ground, or property, and shall be prima facie evidence, in all courts, that all things have been complied with; nor shall the same ever be inquired into, until the amount for which said property or real estate, together with the interest aforesaid, shall have been tendered to the holder thereof, or deposited in the City treasury for his or their benefit.
The City Council shall have power to provide by ordinance, from time to time, for the election of a Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor, Marshal, and one or more Street Commissioners, by the electors of said town, by causing one or more polls to be opened in said City for said purpose; and they may appoint such other officers as they may deem necessary, or provide for their election by the voters of said City at the same time and place that the above officers are elected; their tenure of office shall be one year, and said City Council, before the election or appointment of any officer aforesaid, shall have power to require of any, or all of them, bonds, with penalty and security, for the faithful performance of their respective duties, as may be deemed expedient, and to take an oath for the faithful performance of the duties required of them in their respective offices, before entering upon the discharge of the same; to establish, support, and regulate common schools; to appropriate money, and provide for the payment of the debts and expenses of the City; to borrow money on the credit of the City, to be used for such purposes as they may think conducive to the welfare thereof. In all cases where the City Council may borrow money, they shall provide for the payment of the interest thereof by setting a part a portion of the ordinance revenue and collecting it for that purpose. The question of borrowing money shall be submitted and approved by a majority of the tax-payers of said City; provided, that no debt shall be contracted that the interest per annum, in any one year, due thereon shall exceed one-half the revenue derived from tax on the real estate and personal property within said City. To make regulations to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases into the City, to make quarantine laws for that purpose, and enforce the same within five miles of the City; to establish hospitals, and make regulations for the government of the same; to make regulations to secure the general health of the inhabitants; to declare what shall be a nuisance, and to prevent, remove, or abate the same; to tax dogs, or prevent them going at large; to provide the City with water; to erect hydrants and pumps in the streets for the convenience of the inhabitants; to open, alter, abolish, widen, extend, establish, grade, pave, or otherwise improve and keep in repair streets, avenues, lanes, and alleys; to establish, erect, and keep in repair bridges; to divide the City into wards, alter the boundaries thereof, and erect additional wards as the occasion may require; to provide for lighting the streets and erecting lamp-posts; to establish, support, and regulate night-watches; to erect market houses, to establish markets and market places, and to provide for the government and regulation thereof; to provide for the erection of all needful buildings for the use of the City; to provide for the enclosing, improving, and regulating all public grounds belonging to the City; to improve and preserve the navigation of Mississippi river within the limits of the City; to erect, repair and regulate public wharves and docks; to regulate the erection and repair of private wharves, and the rates of warfage thereat; to license, tax and regulate auctioneers, transient merchants, retailers, and grocers, taverns, ordinaries, hawkers, peddlers, brokers, pawnbrokers and money-changers; to license, tax, and regulate hackney-carriages, wagons, carts, and drays, and fix the rates to be charged for the carriage of persons, and for the wagonage, cartage, and drayage of property; to license and regulate porters, and fix the rates of porterage; to license, tax, and regulate theatrical and other exhibitions, shows, and amusements; to tax billiard tables, restrain, prohibit, and suppress tippling houses, dram shops, gaming houses, bawdy and other disorderly houses; to provide for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and to organize and establish fire companies; to regulate or prohibit the erection of wooden buildings in any part of the City: to regulate the fixing of chimneys, and fix the flues thereof: to regulate the storage of gunpowder, tar, pitch, resin, and other combustible materials; to regulate and order parapet walls and fences; to establish standard weights and measures, and to regulate the weights and measures to be used in the City, in all cases not otherwise provided for by law; to provide for the inspection and measurement of lumber, and other building materials, and for the measurement of all kinds of mechanical works; to provide for the inspection and weighing of hay and stone-coal, the measuring of charcoal, fire-wood, and other fuel to be sold or used in the City; to provide for and regulate the inspection of tobacco, beef, pork, flour, meal, and whiskey in barrels; to regulate the weight, quality and price of bread to be sold and used in the City; to provide for taking the enumeration of the inhabitants of the City; to regulate the election of City officers, and to provide for the removing from office any person holding an office created by ordinance; to fix the compensation of all City officers, and regulate the fees of jurors, witnesses, and others, for services rendered under this act or ordinance; to prohibit the discharging of firearms, and the racing and immoderate running or driving of horses, drays, carts, carriages, wagons, or other vehicles in said City; to regulate the police of the City; to impose fines forfeitures, and penalties for the breach of any ordinance, and provide for the recovery and appropriation of such fines and forfeitures, and the enforcement of such penalties: and the licensing and regulating retailers of spirituous and vinous liquors in said City. The City Council shall have power to provide for the punishment of offenders by imprisonment in the county jail, or workhouse, or City prison, in all cases where such offenders shall fail or refuse to pay the fines and forfeitures which may be recovered against he, she, or them. The City Council shall cause to be published or posted up in each ward of said City, annually, 20 days before each annual election for Mayor, a full and complete statement of all moneys received and expended by the corporation during the preceding year, and on what account received and expended; showing the entire indebtedness of said City, and also the amount of road work, from whom received, money paid instead of work, the disposition of said work and money. The City Council shall have power to provide by ordinance for filling of temporary vacancies in any subordinate office, where the same shall occur from sickness, absence from the City, or inability on the part of any officer, or sudden death, until the same can be filled as is provided by ordinance, or another elected.
The City Council shall have power to make all ordinances which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the power specified in this act, so that such ordinances be not repugnant to or inconsistent with, the constitution of the United States and of the state of Iowa.
The style of the ordinances of the City shall be: "Be it enacted by the City Council of the City of Davenport."
All ordinances passed by the City Council shall, within one month after they shall have been passed, be published in some newspaper published in said City, or a certified copy thereof, signed by the Clerk, posted up at one or more public places in each ward of said City, and shall not take effect until 10 days after publication or posting up as above provided for. All ordinances, by-laws, rules and regulations shall be recorded by the Clerk of the City, in a book to be kept for that purpose, with a certificate to each, that the same has been published in some newspaper published in said City, or a copy thereof posted in each ward thereof, and that the same is a correct copy of the original, as passed by the City Council; and the said book, or a copy of any by-law, ordinance, rule, or regulation, with the certificate of the Clerk of the publication aforesaid, certified by the said Clerk to be a true copy of such by-law, ordinance, rule, or regulation, shall be sufficient authentication to allow the same to be read or received in evidence in all actions and suits in any court in this state; or when said by-laws, ordinances, rules and regulations shall be published in book or pamphlet form, and purporting to be printed and published by authority of the corporation, the same shall be received in evidence in all courts and places, without further proof.
The Mayor and Clerk shall sign all by-laws and ordinances passed by said corporation, and the same shall be carefully filed and preserved by the Clerk. All bills, bonds, notes, drafts or contracts ordered by said corporation shall be signed by the Mayor and attested by the Clerk; and all bills, bonds, notes, drafts, or contracts so signed or attested — and in case of bonds or contracts under seal, sealed with their common seal - shall be valid and binding on said corporation in law and equity in every court in Iowa.
Amendment of 1855. — The debts heretofore created, and bonds issued, by the City of Davenport, amounting to the sum of $125,000, are hereby declared legal and binding upon the said City, and the City Council shall have the right to borrow money and issue bonds, which shall be binding upon the City; provided, that no debt shall be created, the yearly interest upon which together with the yearly interest upon any debt before created, shall exceed three- fourths of the ordinary yearly revenue, unless the contracting of said debt shall be approved by a majority of the voters of said City who may vote upon the question, to be submitted by the City Council in such manner as said City Council may direct.
Amendment of 1855. — Whenever there is a deficiency in the ordinary revenue of the City after the payment of the ordinary City expenses, to pay the semi-annual interest on the debt already created, the City Council shall levy a specific tax upon the assessment roll of the current year to pay said interest.
(The original charter — Article V., Sec. 2 - gives to the City Council unrestricted power to "abolish" streets, alleys, etc. By the amendatory act - Sec. 23 - of January 23, 1857, it is provided):
Sec. (23) 7. Nothing herein contained, or in the acts to which this is amendatory, shall authorize the City Council to discontinue or contract any street, lane, alley, or highway, or any part thereof, without the consent, in writing of all persons owning land adjoining said street, lane, alley, or highway.