AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK. PASSED APRIL 7, 1830.-CH. 122. The People of the State of New-York, represented in tive power. 1. The legislative power of the Corporation of the City of New-York, shall be vested in a board of LegislaAldermen, and a board of Assistants, who together shall form the Common Council of the City. Each ward Aldermen 2. Each Ward of the City shall be entitled to elect one person to be denominated the Alderman of the entitled to Ward, and the persons so chosen, together shall form and Assisthe Board of Aldermen; and each Ward shall also be tants, entitled to elect one person to be denominated an Assistant Alderman; and the persons so chosen, together shall form the Board of Assistants. eligible. 3. The Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen shall be Who are chosen for one year; and no person shall be eligible to either office, who shall not at the time of his election, be a resident of the Ward for which he is chosen. The annual election for Charter Officers shall com Election of &c. First elec second mence on the second Tuesday in April, and the Officers elected shall be sworn into office on the second Tuesday in May thereafter; and all the provisions of law now in force in regard to the notification, duration and conduct of elections for Members of Assembly, and in regard to the appointment, powers and duties of the inspectors, holding the same, shall apply to the annual election of Charter Officers. 5. The first election for Charter Officers, after the tion on the passage of this law, shall take place on the second Tuesday Tuesday in April, one thousand eight hundred and of April, thirty-one; and all those persons who shall have been 1831. Power to cial election. elected under the former laws regulating the election of Charter Officers, and shall be in office at the time of the passage of this law, shall continue in office until the officers elected under this law shall be entitled to be sworn into office. 6. The Board of Aldermen shall have power to direct direct spe- a special election to be held, to supply the place of any Alderman whose seat shall become vacant by death, removal from the city, resignation, or otherwise; and the Board of Assistants shall also have power to direct a special election to supply any vacancy that may occur in the Board of Assistants; and in both cases, the person elected to supply the vacancy, shall hold his seat only for the residue of the term of office of his immediate predecessor. Meeting of the Board duties. 7. The boards shall meet in separate chambers, and and their a majority of each shall be a quorum to do business. Each board shall appoint a President from its own body, and shall also choose its Clerk and other officers, determine the rules of its own proceedings, and be the judge of the qualifications of its own members. Each board shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and the doors of each shall be kept open, except when the public welfare shall require secrecy; and all resolutions and reports of Committees which shall recommend any specific improvement involving the appropriation of public monies, or taxing or assessing the citizens of said city, shall be published immediately after the adjournment of the board, under the authority of the Common Council, in all the newspapers employed by the Corporation: and whenever a vote is taken in relation thereto, the ayes and noes shall be called and published in the same manner. 8. Each board shall have the authority to compel the attendance of absent members; to punish its members for disorderly behaviour, and to expel a member, with the concurrence of two-thirds of the members elected to the board; and the members so expelled, shall, by such expulsion, forfeit all his right and powers as an Alderman or Assistant Alderman. Power to expel. &c. 9. The stated and occasional meetings of each board of the Common Council, shall be regulated by its own Occasional meeting ordinances; and both boards may meet on the same or on different days as they may severally judge expedient. inances & 10. Any law, ordinance, or resolution of the Common Council may originate in either board, and when Laws ordit shall have passed one board, may be rejected or resolutions amended by the other. may originate in ei ther board. Prohibi tion of members office. 11. No member of either board shall, during the period for which he was elected, be appointed to, or be competent to hold any office, of which the emoluments are paid from the city treasury, or by fees, directed to to hold be paid by any ordinance or act of the Common Council,or be directly or indirectly interested in any contract, the expenses or consideration whereof are to be paid under any ordinance of the Common Council; but this section shall not be construed to deprive any Alderman or Assistant of any emoluments or fees which he is entitled to by virtue of his office. Mayor's veto meth 12. Every act, ordinance, or resolution, which shall od of pro- have passed the two boards of the Common Council, ceeding, before it shall take effect, shall be presented, duly cer &c. Prohibiti tified, to the Mayor of the city, for his approbation. If he approve, he shall sign it; if not, he shall return it with his objections to the board in which it originated, within ten days thereafter; or if such board be not then in session, at its next stated meeting. The board to which it shall be returned, shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and cause the same to be published in one or more of the public newspapers of the city. 13. The board to which such act, ordinance, or resolution, have been so returned, shall after the expiration of not less than ten days thereafter, proceed to reconsider the same. If after such reconsideration, a majority of the members elected to the board shall agree to pass the same, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other board, by which it shall be likewise re-considered; and if approved by a majority of all the members elected to such board, it shall take effect as an act or law of the Corporation. In all such cases the votes of both boards shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the passage of the measure re-considered, shall be entered on the journal of each board respectively. 14. If the Mayor shall not return any act, ordinance, or resolution so presented to him, within the time above limited for that purpose, it shall take effect in the same manner as if he had signed it. 15. Neither the Mayor nor Recorder, of the city of on of the New-York, shall be a member of the Common Council Mayor and Recorder. thereof, after the second Tuesday of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one. When the 16. Whenever there shall be a vacancy in the office President of Mayor, and whenever the Mayor shall be absent of the act as Ma from the city, or be prevented by sickness, or any other board shall cause, from attending to the duties of his office, the yor. President of the board of Aldermen shall act as Mayor and shall possess all the rights and powers of the Mayor, during the continuance of such vacancy, absence, or disability. 17. It shall be the duty of the Mayor, Mayor. FIRST. To communicate to the Common Council, Dutyofthe at least once a year, and oftener if he shall deem it expedient, a general statement of the situation and condition of the city, in relation to its government, finances, and improvements. SECOND. To recommend to the adoption of the Common Council all such measures connected with the police, security, health, cleanliness, and ornament of the city, and the improvement of its government, and finances, as he shall deem expedient. THIRD. To be vigilant and active in causing the laws and ordinances of the government of the city to be duly executed and enforced. FOURTH. To exercise a constant supervision and controul over the conduct and acts of all subordinate officers, and to receive and examine into all such complaints as may be preferred against any of them for violation or neglect of duty, and generally to perform all such duties as may be prescribed to him by the charter and city ordinances, and the Laws of this State and the United States. Appropri when 18. Annual and occasional appropriations shall be made by proper ordinances of the Common Council ation, for every branch and object of city expenditure, nor made. shall any money be drawn from the city treasury except the same shall have been previously appropriated to the purpose for which it was drawn. |