This codification of ordinances by and for the City of Watertown,
Massachusetts, shall be designated as the Code of Watertown and may
be so cited.
Unless otherwise provided herein, or by law or implication required,
the same rules of construction, definition, and application shall
govern the interpretation of this code as those governing the interpretation
of state law.
All provisions of Title I compatible with future legislation,
shall apply to ordinances hereafter adopted amending or supplementing
this code unless otherwise specifically provided.
(A)
All bylaws passed by the City Council shall be termed "ordinances,"
and the enacting style shall be similar to: "Be it ordained by the
City Council of the City of Watertown as follows."
(B)
All the ordinances of the City shall be recorded by the City Clerk,
in a fair and legible hand or typewritten, without interlineation
or erasure, in the order in which they are passed, in a book to be
kept for that purpose, with proper margin and index, to be entitled
"The Ordinances of the Inhabitants of the City of Watertown," which
book shall be preserved in the office of the City Clerk, subject to
the inspection of the citizens.
(C)
All the ordinances of the City and such resolutions and orders as
the City Council may direct shall be published by causing the same
to be inserted once in one or more newspapers printed and published
in the City as the City Council shall from time to time designate;
but whenever the City shall make a general revision of all of its
ordinances, no publication of such revised ordinances shall be required
in any newspaper.
Headings and captions used in this code other than the title,
chapter, and section numbers are employed for reference purposes only
and shall not be deemed a part of the text of any section.
[1982 Code, Ch. I, § 5]
(A)
Words and phrases shall be taken in their plain, or ordinary and
usual sense. However, technical words and phrases having a peculiar
and appropriate meaning in law shall be understood according to their
technical import.
(B)
CITY
CODE, THIS CODE or THIS CODE OF ORDINANCES
COMPUTATION OF TIME
CORPORATE OR CITY LIMITS
COUNTY
DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY
JOINT AUTHORITY
MAY
MONTH
OATH
OFFICERS, OFFICE, EMPLOYEE, COMMISSION, or DEPARTMENT
OWNER or OCCUPANT
PERSON
PERSONAL PROPERTY
PRECEDING or FOLLOWING
PUBLIC WAY
REAL PROPERTY
REGISTERED MAIL
SHALL
SIGNATURE or SUBSCRIPTION
STATE
STREET
SUBCHAPTER
TENANT or OCCUPANT
CITY
CITY COUNCIL
WHOLESALE, WHOLESALER or WHOLESALE DEALER
WRITTEN
YEAR
For the purpose of this code, the following definitions shall apply
unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
The City of Watertown, Massachusetts.
This municipal code as modified by amendment, revision, and
adoption of new titles, chapters, or sections.
When time is to be reckoned from a day, date, act done, or
the time of an act done, either by force of law, or by virtue of a
contract made, such day, date, or the day when such act is done shall
not be included in the computation.
The legal boundaries of the City of Watertown, Massachusetts.
Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
Whenever a provision appears requiring the head of a department
or some other City officer to do some act or perform some duty, it
is to be construed to authorize the head of the department or other
officer to designate, delegate, and authorize subordinates to perform
the required act or perform the duty unless the terms of the provisions
of the section specify otherwise.
All words purporting to give a joint authority to three or
more persons or officers shall be construed as giving such authority
to a majority of such persons or officers, unless otherwise expressly
declared.
The act referred to is permissive.
A calendar month.
An affirmation in all cases in which, by law, an affirmation
may be substituted for an oath, and in such cases the words "swear"
and "sworn" shall be equivalent to the words "affirm" and "affirmed."
An officer, office, employee, commission, or department of
this municipality unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
Any sole owner or occupant and any joint tenant and tenant
in common of the whole or any part of a building or lot of land.
Extends to and includes person, persons, firm, corporation,
copartnership, trustee, lessee, or receiver. Whenever used in any
clause prescribing and imposing a penalty, the terms "person" or "whoever"
as applied to any unincorporated entity shall mean the partners or
members thereof, and as applied to corporations, the officers or agents
thereof.
Includes every species of property except real property,
as herein described.
Next before or next after, respectively.
Any highway, townway, road, bridge, street, avenue, boulevard,
roadway, parkway, lane, sidewalk or square.
Lands, tenements, and hereditaments.
When used in connection with the requirement for notice by
mail shall mean either registered mail or certified mail.
The act referred to is mandatory.
Includes a mark when the person cannot write.
The State of Massachusetts.
Includes streets, avenues, boulevards, roads, alleys, lanes,
viaducts, and all other public ways in the City, and shall include
all areas thereof embraced between the property lines and dedicated
to the public use.
A division of a chapter, designated in this code by a heading
in the chapter analysis and a capitalized heading in the body of the
chapter, setting apart a group of sections related by the subject
matter of the heading. Not all chapters have subchapters.
Applied to a building or land, shall include any person holding
a written or oral lease or who occupies the whole or part of such
buildings or land, either alone or with others.
The City of Watertown, Massachusetts.
The City Council of Watertown, Massachusetts.
In all cases where the words "wholesale," "wholesaler" or
"wholesale dealer" are used in this code, unless otherwise specifically
defined, they shall be understood and held to relate to the sale of
goods, merchandise, articles or things in quantity to persons who
purchase for purposes of resale, as distinguished from a retail dealer
who sells in smaller quantities direct to the consumer.
Any representation of words, letters, or figures, whether
by printing or otherwise.
A calendar year, unless otherwise expressed.
The construction of all ordinances of this municipality shall
be by the following rules, unless such construction is plainly repugnant
to the intent of the legislative body or of the context of the same
ordinance:
(A)
"And" or "or." Either conjunction shall include the other as if written
"and/or," if the sense requires it.
(B)
Acts by assistants. When a statute or ordinance requires an act to
be done which, by law, an agent or deputy as well may do as the principal,
such requisition shall be satisfied by the performance of such act
by an authorized agent or deputy.
(C)
Gender; singular and plural; tenses. Words denoting the masculine
gender shall be deemed to include the feminine and neuter genders;
words in the singular shall include the plural, and words in the plural
shall include the singular; the use of a verb in the present tense
shall include the future, if applicable.
(D)
General term. A general term following specific enumeration of terms
is not to be limited to the class enumerated unless expressly so limited.
If any provision of this code as now or later amended or its
application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity
does not affect other provisions that can be given effect without
the invalid provision or application.
Whenever in one section reference is made to another section
hereof, such reference shall extend and apply to the section referred
to as subsequently amended, revised, recodified, or renumbered unless
the subject matter is changed or materially altered by the amendment
or revision.
Reference to a public office or officer shall be deemed to apply
to any office, officer, or employee of this municipality exercising
the powers, duties, or functions contemplated in the provision, irrespective
of any transfer of functions or change in the official title of the
functionary.
If a manifest error is discovered, consisting of the misspelling
of any words; the omission of any word or words necessary to express
the intention of the provisions affected; the use of a word or words
to which no meaning can be attached; or the use of a word or words
when another word or words was clearly intended to express such intent,
such spelling shall be corrected and such word or words supplied,
omitted, or substituted as will conform with the manifest intention,
and the provisions shall have the same effect as though the correct
words were contained in the text as originally published. No alteration
shall be made or permitted if any question exists regarding the nature
or extent of such error.
The official time, as established by applicable state/federal
laws, shall be the official time within this municipality for the
transaction of all municipal business.
(A)
In all cases where an ordinance requires an act to be done in a reasonable
time or requires reasonable notice to be given, reasonable time or
notice shall be deemed to mean the time which is necessary for a prompt
performance of such act or the giving of such notice.
(B)
The time within which an act is to be done, as herein provided, shall
be computed by excluding the first day and including the last. If
the last day be Sunday, it shall be excluded.
This code, from and after its effective date, shall contain
all of the provisions of a general nature pertaining to the subjects
herein enumerated and embraced. All prior ordinances pertaining to
the subjects treated by this code shall be deemed repealed from and
after the effective date of this code.
All ordinances of a temporary or special nature and all other
ordinances pertaining to subjects not embraced in this code shall
remain in full force and effect unless herein repealed expressly or
by necessary implication.
All ordinances passed by the legislative body requiring publication
shall take effect from and after the due publication thereof, unless
otherwise expressly provided. Ordinances not requiring publication
shall take effect from their passage, unless otherwise expressly provided.
(A)
Whenever any ordinance or part of an ordinance shall be repealed
or modified by a subsequent ordinance, the ordinance or part of an
ordinance thus repealed or modified shall continue in force until
the due publication of the ordinance repealing or modifying it when
publication is required to give effect thereto, unless otherwise expressly
provided.
(B)
No suit, proceedings, right, fine, forfeiture, or penalty instituted,
created, given, secured, or accrued under any ordinance previous to
its repeal shall in any way be affected, released, or discharged,
but may be prosecuted, enjoyed, and recovered as fully as if the ordinance
had continued in force unless it is otherwise expressly provided.
(C)
When any ordinance repealing a former ordinance, clause, or provision
shall be itself repealed, the repeal shall not be construed to revive
the former ordinance, clause, or provision, unless it is expressly
provided.
(A)
If the legislative body shall desire to amend any existing chapter
or section of this code, the chapter or section shall be specifically
repealed and a new chapter or section, containing the desired amendment,
substituted in its place.
(B)
Any ordinance which is proposed to add to the existing code a new
chapter or section shall indicate, with reference to the arrangement
of this code, the proper number of such chapter or section. In addition
to such indication thereof as may appear in the text of the proposed
ordinance, a caption or title shall be shown in concise form above
the ordinance.
[Ord. passed 5-13-1960; amended Ord. passed 1-1-1970; amended Ord. passed 1-1-1980; Ord. passed 1-17-1980; amended Ord.
passed 1-1-1985]
(A)
As histories for the code sections, the specific number and passage
date of the original ordinance, and the amending ordinances, if any,
are listed following the section title or affected subsection.
Example:
(B)
(1)
If a statutory cite is included in the history, this indicates
that the text of the section reads substantially the same as the statute.
Example: (Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 35, § 10)
(2)
If a statutory cite is set forth as a "statutory reference"
following the text of the section, this indicates that the reader
should refer to that statute for further information.
Example:
|
§ 39.01 PUBLIC RECORDS AVAILABLE.
|
This municipality shall make available to any person
for inspection or copying all public records, unless otherwise exempted
by state law.
|
Statutory reference:
|
For provisions concerning the inspection of public
records, see Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 66, §§ 1 et seq.
|
(C)
If a
section of this code is derived from the previous code of ordinances
of the City published in 1982 and subsequently amended, the 1982 code
chapter and section number shall be indicated in the history by "(1982
Code, Ch. __, § _____)."
[1982 Code, Ch. I, § 6; amended Ord. 31, passed 3-26-1991]
(A)
Any person violating any provision of this code, or any rule or regulation of any Watertown officer, board or department (including without limitation any sanitary code or regulations of the Board of Health issued pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 111, §§ 31 and 31B, and any Fire Safety Code issued by the Fire Chief pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 148, § 28), provided that the issuance or adoption of any such code, rule or regulation was the subject of a public notice prior to the effective date and that on the date of the alleged violation a confirmed copy of the current version of that code, rule or regulation was available in the City Clerk's office, including any mandate, requirement, prohibition, or proscription, shall be subject to the penalties set forth in division (B) of this section.
(B)
Except as set for in § 35.05 of this code, and unless controlled by Massachusetts General Laws and unless other fine or penalty is expressly stated in this code, violators of any provision of this code, rules or regulations shall forfeit and pay a fine not to exceed $300.
(C)
A separate offense shall be deemed committed upon each day during
which a violation occurs or continues and shall be subject to a separate
penalty.