§ 38. Supervisors. The supervisors provided for by this act shall have the same powers and duties as supervisors of any town in the county of Jefferson except as otherwise provided by this act, and the said supervisors shall be members of the board of supervisors of the county of Jefferson, and shall be entitled to the same compensation and be paid in the same manner as other members of said board. § 39. The board of audit. The mayor, city manager and city clerk shall constitute the board of audit, and the mayor shall be the chairman thereof. Every pecuniary claim or demand arising upon contract against the city shall in the first instance be filed with the city clerk and shall contain the items of the claims and be sworn to by the claimant or his duly authorized agent. All such claims, if disputed, and all claims for injuries or damage resulting from the alleged negligence of the city or any of its officers, shall be referred to the board of audit. The board of audit shall examine into such disputed claim or claims for damage resulting from the alleged negligence as speedily as practicable, and the said board shall have power to allow or disallow said claim or claims, and in case the claim or claims be allowed to direct payment of the same. The board of audit shall have power to investigate and audit the accounts of every officer and board of the city, shall have access to books and accounts kept by any official or board of the city, and may compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of papers before it by subpoena, issued over the signature of the mayor and the seal of the city, attested by the city clerk. Noncompliance with such subpoena shall be subject to such penalty as the council may prescribe. Each member of said board of audit may administer oaths to witnesses and intentional false swearing as to any material fact by any witness under examination by the board of audit shall be perjury. No disputed bill or claim for injuries or damages resulting from alleged negligence shall be paid or allowed before the board of audit shall have taken action thereupon. and no action. shall be brought thereon until forty days after the presentation. thereof to the city clerk. § 40. The board of review. The mayor, the city manager, the corporation counsel, the assessor and one councilman, to be selected by the mayor, shall constitute the board of review of all assessments and shall have all the powers conferred upon and be subject to all the duties imposed by law upon town assessors sitting in review of their assessments. interested contracts, nor re § 41. No officer of the city or of any board thereof shall in any officers manner be interested, directly or indirectly in any contract to not to b which the city or any board thereof shall be a party, which he in certain as such officer has taken or shall take part in authorizing, for the purchase or hire of any property, furnishing materials, or for ceive fee furnishing or performing any work, labor or service except in salary. respect of his own compensation from the city or any board thereof or in granting any franchise or privilege; and no officer elected or appointed shall receive any perquisite, emolument, fee except Bonds of certain officers. Additional powers and duties or compensation except his salary or pay from the city or any board thereof for any act done or service rendered by him in his official capacity, nor shall he accept or receive any sum of money or other valuable thing, fee or commission upon, or derive any advantage from the sale or hiring of any property to or by the city or any board thereof. The violation of any provision of this section shall be a misdemeanor. § 42. The city clerk, city judge, the city treasurer, constables. and any other officer required so to do by the council, shall severally before assuming their offices execute a bond to the city in such sums as the council shall direct, and with such sureties as the council shall approve conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties of their respective offices and that they will properly apply and account for all moneys and other property received by them respectively. All bonds given by such officers shall be filed and recorded in the office of the city clerk in a book to be kept for that purpose. The neglect to execute and file an official bond as above provided by any officer required so to do prior to his assuming the duties of his office, and in case such bond shall be required by the council after the commencement of his term of office within ten days after such requirement, shall create a vacancy in such office. In all cases in which a bond is required from any officer by the provisions of this act the sureties therein shall justify in an amount which shall be in the aggregate twice the penalty of such bond. § 43. The respective city officers shall have such powers and duties in addition to those enumerated in this title as are conof officers. ferred or imposed by law or by this act or which may be conferred or imposed by ordinance enacted pursuant to any provision of law. TITLE V. Department to include what. Powers of council. § 44. The departments of the city shall be: 1. Public works department. 2. Water, light and power department. 3. Public safety department. 4. Health department. 5. Charities department. § 45. The city manager shall be the administrative head of each department subject however to ordinances enacted and rules. and regulations adopted and promulgated by the council. TITLE VI. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS. § 46. The department of public works shall include all streets, highways, bridges, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, sewers, subways, parks, playgrounds and all public lands, buildings and works. § 47. The council shall in and for the city have all the powers and perform all the duties of commissioners of highways in towns. The said council is vested with the charge of bridges, streets, sewers, gutters, curbs, sidewalks, public parks, places and squares within the city and of all machinery, tools and implements used in connection therewith and of lighting and naming the streets, giving numbers to lots and tenants and changing the same but the management, control and maintenance thereof shall be exercised by the city manager under the direction of or pursuant to ordinance enacted by the council. Powers streets. § 48. The council shall have power through the exercise thereof by the city manager or other officers or employees to grade, relative to pave, repave or macadamize or otherwise improve any street or section of a street or any public place or square and to fix and regulate the grade line of streets and sidewalks and to cause sidewalks and gutters to be made and curbs to be set, of such material as it may direct. It may also regulate the planting, trimming, rearing or removing of all trees in the streets, public parks, places and squares in the city. acquire land. § 49. In the exercise of the powers hereby specifically granted Power to and of the powers vested in the council by the general laws of the state, it may acquire for and in the name of the city by purchase, agreement or by condemnation any lands, easements, privileges, rights and estates necessary for the construction and maintenance of any building or buildings or any works with which it is vested by this act or by law and for that purpose it may enter upon or cause to be entered upon the lands for the purpose of making the necessary surveys. grade or which road is § 50. If the grade of any street, public place or square in which Change of a street surface railroad is now or shall be hereafter operated, fine of shall be changed or if any such street shall be straightened, street in widened or altered, the railroad corporation operating such street street rallsurface railroad shall change the grade and line to conform to operated. such alterations if required so to do by the city but unless such railroad corporation shall be legally liable to pay the cost of such change of grade and line of such road, the expense of such change shall be borne by the city. for con 51. The council may direct that any construction work, the Contracts estimated expense of which is more than one thousand dollars. struction shall be awarded to a contractor pursuant to bid therefor, as the work. same may be called for by the city manager in such manner as he may deem proper but the right to reject any and all bids is hereby reserved to the city. Any contract which may be thus executed may provide that the person or corporation entering into the same shall execute a bond to the city for the faithful performance of the same in an amount to be approved by the city manager. No such contract shall be let, the expense whereof is to be borne in whole or in part by assessment upon the property benefited and no work shall be done thereunder until the confirmation of the assessment for such improvement as provided by this act. § 52. Any contract or contracts for lighting the public streets. Duration of parks and places of the city shall not be let for a period longer lighting than five years. contracts. Duties of abutting occupants as to sidewalks. comply. § 53. It shall be the duty of the owner or occupant of any owners and property fronting on any street, public square, place or highway of the city, to build, keep in repair and rebuild sidewalks in front of his said property upon such established grade and of such materials and size as the board of public works may direct. It shall be the duty of such owner or occupant to clean, keep free and clear from snow and ice such sidewalks. The council may provide by ordinance for the enforcement by proper penalties of Failure to the provisions of this section. In case of the failure of any property owner or occupant to build such sidewalk as above provided when notified so to do, or to clean, keep free and clear from snow and ice such sidewalks, the city manager may cause such sidewalk to be constructed or may cause such sidewalk to be cleaned, kept free and clear from snow and ice, and shall file a certificate of the actual cost thereof, not exceeding the expense of labor and material or the expense of cleaning or keeping such sidewalks free and clear from snow and ice, with the city treasurer, who shall certify the same to the assessor, and the same shall thereupon be assessed by the assessor upon the property of such owner and shall be levied and collected at the same time as and as a part of the city tax. The cost or reasonable value of any work performed for or material furnished by any department of the city to any property for its benefit may, if the same remains unWhen done paid after demand therefor, be certified to the assessor and shall thereupon be likewise assessed, levied and collected as and as a part of the city tax. The city may also collect the same and shall have power to enforce such collection by action in the city court in the name of the city, and any judgment recovered therefor shall be a lien upon the premises in front of which said sidewalk was constructed, or for the benefit of which such work was performed, upon filing a transcript of such judgment in the office of the clerk of Jefferson county. Collection of cost by city. Control of water works, water powers, etc. Lease of power TITLE VII. DEPARTMENT OF WATER, LIGHT AND POWER. § 54. The council is vested with the charge of the water works, water powers, reservoirs, pipes, buildings, structures, dams, power house, hydrants, machinery, lines and of all appliances and materials pertaining thereto or used in connection therewith, which may now belong to or may hereafter be acquired by the city, but the management, control, maintenance and protection thereof shall be exercised by the city manager under the direction of or pursuant to ordinance enacted by the council. § 55. Whenever in the opinion of the council it may be advishouses, etc. able to lease all of its powerhouses, sites, water power, lines, buildings or structures, now or hereafter belonging to the city, and shall so resolve by an affirmative vote of four-fifths of its members, it shall publish such resolution together with the terms and conditions of the proposed contract to lease, and a notice that at the time and place therein specified a special election of the taxpayers of the city of Watertown will be held to decide whether such lease shall be made, in the official newspaper of the city three times each week during the two weeks next preceding the date fixed for such special election. decide. Such special election shall be held at the time and place speci- Special fied in said notice and shall be conducted in the manner provided election to in this act for holding special elections for the issuance of bonds for extraordinary expenditures. result. The city clerk, after having received a certificate of said elec- Certification from the inspectors appointed to hold the same, shall deliver ton of such certificate to the council at its next meeting and it shall cause the result of the election thus certified to be entered in its minutes, and if the whole number of votes received at such election in favor of the execution of said contract to lease exceeds the whole number of votes against the same, the council shall Mayor to certify the same to the mayor of the said city, who shall there- contract to upon forthwith execute such contract to lease. execute lease. surplus The council may lease without a special election all of its sur- Lease of plus power in excess of city requirements for a term not exceeding power five years. for con water § 56. The council shall have the power to make all contracts Contracts relating to the construction of dams, waterworks, water mains, struction of reservoirs, conductors, generators, lines, buildings, structures, dams, pump houses and machinery and to make provision for the pur- works, etc. chase of hydrants, fountains, pumps and all materials, machinery, implements, utensils and meters necessary therefor. water side city. The council may extend and maintain its work mains and lines Furnishand may furnish water and electricity to the county buildings of in and electhe county of Jefferson, situate in the town of Pamelia in said tricity outcounty and also to Calvary cemetery, situate in the town of Watertown in said county and to make contracts with said county and with Calvary Cemetery Association respectively, in relation thereto. of power; § 57. The council shall have power by resolution adopted by a Generation four-fifths vote to cause power to be generated: (a) to light the erection of streets, public squares and places and public parks of the city lines, etc. and the public buildings of the city and county; (b) to sell and dispose of the same for industrial purposes; (c) to erect poles and lines and to excavate for and lay conduits within the city therefor and to maintain the same. power § 58. If at the close of the fiscal year the moneys received from water, water rates, electric light and power and other sources for the light and water, light and power fund shall exceed the appropriation for bond fund. such fund, the surplus shall be set apart by the said board for the payment of the bonds or other obligations on account of the works and shall be deposited by the treasurer of the city to the credit of the "water, light and power bond fund" unless such surplus by direction of the council shall be set apart for contemplated work. The council shall have power to direct the city treasurer to advertise for and purchase with such surplus fund at the lowest offer, the water bonds of the city of Watertown or other |