USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Brockton > History of Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1656-1894 > Part 67
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SECT. 15. The city clerk shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of the duties of his office. He shall have charge of all journals, records, papers, and documents of the city, sign all warrants issued by the mayor and aldermen, and do such other acts in his said
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capacity as the city council may lawfully and reasonably require of him; and shall deliver all journals, records, papers and documents, and other things entrusted to him as city clerk, to his successor in office. He shall also perform all the duties and exercise all the powers by law incumbent upon or vested in clerks of towns of this Common- wealth. He shall be clerk of the board of aldermen; shall attend said board when the same is in session, and keep a journal of its acts, votes and proceedings; also of the city council when in convention. He shall engross all the ordinances passed by the city council in a book provided for that purpose, and shall add proper indexes, which book shall be deemed a public record of such ordinances; and he shall perform such other duties as shall be prescribed by the board of aldermen. In case of the temporary absence of the city clerk, the mayor, by and with the advice and consent of the board of alder- men, may appoint a clerk pro tempore, who shall be duly qualified.
SECT. 16. The board of overseers of the poor in the city of Brockton shall consist of three members, residents of the city, and of the mayor and city marshal who shall be ex officio members of the board. The mayor shall be ex officio chairman of the board. The city council shall elect by joint ballot, in convention, as soon after their organiza- tion as may be convenient, three persons to be members of the board of overseers of the poor, one for one year, one for two years, and one for three years; and thereafter the city council shall annually, as soon after their organization as may be convenient, elect in the same manner one person to hold office for the term of three years. But no more than one of the three members so to be elected shall be eligible from any one ward of said city. Vacancies occurring in the board may be filled by joint ballot of the city council at any time, the members so elected to hold office only for the unexpired term of the member who has ceased to hold office. The city council may at any time remove members of said board from office for cause. The board shall be organized an- nually on the third Monday in January. The compensation of the overseers of the poor shall be fixed by concurrent vote of the city council.
SECT. 17. The city council elected in December, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-one, shall, as soon after their organization as may be convenient, elect by joint ballot in convention three persons to be assessors of taxes, one for three years, one for two years, and one for one year ; and thereafter the city council shall annually, as soon after their organization as may be convenient, elect in the same manner one person who shall hold his office for the term of three years next ensuing, and until another shall be elected and qualified in his stead. The persons so elected shall constitute the board of assessors, and shall exercise the powers and be subject to the liabilities and duties of as- sessors in towns. Vacancies occurring in the board may be filled by joint ballot of the city council at any time, the members so elected to hold office only for the unexpired term of the member who had ceased to hold office. All taxes shall be assessed, appor- tioned, and collected in the manner prescribed by the general laws of the Common- wealth : provided, however, that the city council may establish further or additional pro- visions for the collection thereof. The compensation of the assessors shall be fixed by concurrent vote of the city council.
SECT. 18. The qualified voters of each ward, at their respective annual ward meetings for the choice of officers, shall elect by ballot one person in each ward, who shall be a
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resident of said ward, to be an assistant assessor; and it shall be the duty of the per- sons so chosen to furnish the assessors with all necessary information relative to per- sons and property taxable in their respective wards; and they shall be sworn to the faithful performance of their duty. Their compensation shall be fixed by concurrent vote of the city council.
SECT. 19. The city council elected in December in the year one thousand eight hun- dred and eighty-one, shall, as soon after their organization as may be convenient, elect by joint ballot in convention three persons to act as water commissioners, one for three years, one for two years, and one for one year; and thereafter the city council shall annually, as soon after their organization as may be convenient, eleet in the same man- ner one person who shall hold his office for the term of three years next ensuing. and until another shall be elected and qualified in his stead. Vacaneies occurring in the commission may be filled by joint ballot of the city council at any time. The city coun- cil may at any time remove any member of said commission from offiee for cause. The compensation of the water commissioners shall be fixed by concurrent vote of the city council.
SECT. 20. The city council may establish a fire department for said city, to consist of a chief engineer, and of as many assistant engineers, engine men, hose men, hook and ladder men and assistants, as the city council by ordinance shall from time to time pre- scribe; and said council shall have authority to fix the time of their appointment and the term of their serviee, to define their office and duties, and in general to make such regulations, concerning the pay, conduct and government of such department, the man- agement of fires, and the conduct of persons attending fires, as they may deem expedient, and may fix such penalties for any violation of sueh regulations, or any of them, as arc provided for the breach of the ordinances of said city. The appointment of all the officers and members of such department shall be vested in the mayor and aldermen exclusively, who shall also have authority to remove from office any officer or member, for cause, in their discretion. The engineers so appointed shall be the fire wards of the city, but the mayor aud aldermen may appoint additional fire wards. The compen- sation of the department shall be fixed by concurrent vote of the city council.
SECT. 21. The city council shall, in such manner as they shall determine, elect or ap- point all other subordinate officers, for whose election or appointment other provisions are not herein made, define their duties and fix their compensation.
SECT. 22. The qualified voters of the city, voting in their respective wards, shall on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, elect by ballot, nine persons to be members of the school com - mittee, three to be chosen for three years, three for two years, and three for one year from the first Monday in January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty- two; and thereafter three persons shall be chosen at each annual meeting, for the term of three years from the first Monday of January next ensuing, and the persons so chosen shall, with the mayor, constitute the school committee, and have the care and superintendence of the public schools. The mayor shall be ex officio chairman of the board, and all the rights and obligations of the town of Brockton in relation to the grant and appropriation of money to the support of the schools, and the special powers
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and authority heretofore conferred by law upon the inhabitants of said town, to raise money for the support of schools therein, shall be merged in the powers and obligations of the city, to be exercised in the same manner as over other subjects of taxation ; and all grants and appropriations of money for the support of schools, and the erection and repair of school houses in said city, shall be made by the city council in the same man- ner as grants and appropriations are made for other city purposes. Vacancies occurring in the board may be filled by the joint ballot of the city council and school committee, in convention, the members so chosen to hold office only for the remainder of the municipal year.
SECT. 23. Should there fail to be a choice of members of the school commitee or assistant assessors on the day of the annual ward meeting, the meeting shall be adjourned from time to time until the election shall be completed.
SECT. 24. All city and ward officers shall be held to discharge the duties of the offices to which they have been respectively elected, notwithstanding their removal after their election out of their respective wards into any other wards of the city ; but a permanent residence out of the city shall cause a vacancy to exist in the offices to which they were elected.
SECT. 25. The city council shall take care that no money shall be paid from the treasury unless granted or appropriated, and shall secure a just and proper accountability by requiring bonds, with sufficient penalties and sureties, from all persons intrusted with the receipt, custody, or disbursement of money. They shall have the care and super- intendence of the city buildings and the custody and management of all city property, with power to let or to sell what may legally be let or sold, and to purchase property, real or personal, in the name and for the use of the city, whenever its interests or con- venience may, in their judgment, require it. And they shall, as often as once a year, cause to be published, for the use of the inhabitants, a particular account of the receipts and expenditures and a schedule of city property and of the city debts.
SECT. 26. The city council shall have the same powers in relation to the laying out, acceptance, altering, or discontinuing of streets and ways, and the assessment of damages, which selectmen and inhabitants of towns now have by law, all petitions and questions relating to the same, however, being first acted on by the mayor and alder- men. Any person aggrieved by any proceedings of the mayor and aldermen, or of the city council, under this provision, shall have all the rights and privileges now allowed in appeals from the decisions of selectmen or the inhabitants of towns. No street or way shall hereafter be opened in the city of Brockton over any private land by the owners thereof, and dedicated to and permitted to be used by the public, of a less width than forty feet, except with the consent of said mayor and aldermen in writing, first had and obtained for that purpose.
SECT. 27. The city council may make ordinances, with suitable penalties, for the inspection and survey, measurement and sale of lumber, wood, hay, coal, and bark, brought into or exposed in the city for sale, and shall have the same powers as the town had in reference to the suspension of the laws for the protection and preservation of useful birds, and of all other laws, the operation or suspension of which is subject to the action of the towns thereon. The city council may also make all such salutary and
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needful by-laws as towns, by the laws of this Commonwealth, have power to make and establish, and to annex penalties, not exceeding twenty dollars, for the breach thereof, which by-laws shall take effect and be in force from and after the time therein respect- ively limited : provided, however, that all laws and regulations in force in the town of Brockton shall, until they expire by their own limitation, or are revised or repealed by the city council, remain in force, and all fines and forfeitures for the breach of any by- law or ordinance shall be paid into the city treasury.
SECT. 28. All elections of national, state, county, and district officers, who are voted for by the people, shall be held at meetings of the citizens qualified to vote at such elections, in their respective wards. at the time fixed by law for these elections respect- ively.
SECT. 29. Fifteen days prior to every election, the mayor and aldermen shall make out lists of all the citizens of each ward qualified to vote in such elections, in the manner in which selectmen of towns are required to make out lists of voters, and for that pur- pose they shall have full access to the assessors' books and lists, and are empowered to call for the assistance of the assessors, assistant assessors, and other city officers, and they shall deliver the lists so prepared and corrected to the clerks of the several wards, to be used at such elections, and no person shall be entitled to vote whose name is not borne on such list. A list of the voters in each ward shall be posted in one or more public places in each ward.
SECT. 30. All power and authority now vested by law in the board of health of the town of Brockton, or the selectmen thereof, shall be transferred to and vested in a board of health to be appointed by the mayor and aldermen, as provided in chapter one hundred and thirty-three of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, who shall have and exercise all the powers and duties granted.
SECT. 31. The power and authority vested in said town of Brockton by chapter one hundred and twenty-four of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, entitled " An Act to supply the town of Brockton with pure water," and by the vote of said town accepted, in accordance with the provisions of said act, shall continue in force. The powers thereby conferred shall be exercised by the city council.
SECT. 32. General meetings of the citizens qualified to vote may from time to time be held to consult upon the public good, to instruct their representatives, and to take all lawful means to obtain redress for any grievances, according to the right secured to the people by the constitution of this Commonwealth, and such meetings may and shall be duly warned by the mayor and aldermen, upon the request in writing, setting forth the pu poses thereof, of fifty qualified voters.
SECT. 33. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed : provided, however, that the repeal of the said acts shall not affect any act done, nor any right accruing or accrued or established, nor any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil case, before the time when such repeal shall take effect ; and that no offense committed, and no penalty or forfeiture incurred, under any act hereby repealed, and before the time when such repeal shall take effect, shall be affected by the repeal; and that no suit or prosecution pending at the time of the said repeal for any offence com- mitted, or for the recovery of any penalty or forfeiture incurred under said acts, shall be
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HISTORY OF BROCKTON.
affected by suchi repeal ; and provided, also, that all persons who, at the time of said repeal taking effect, shall hold any office under the said acts shall continue to hold the same until the organization of the city government contemplated by this charter shall be effected completely.
Sker. 34. For the purpose of organizing the system of government hereby estah- lished, and putting the same in operation in the first instance, the selectmen of the town of Brockton, for the time being, shall issue their warrants seven days at least previous to the Tuesday next after first Monday of December of the present year, calling meet- ings of the citizens of each ward on that day, at such place and hour as they may deem expedient, for the purpose of choosing a warden, clerk, and inspectors of each ward, and all other officers whose election is provided for in the preceding sections of this act ; and the transcript of the records in each ward, specifying the votes given for the several officers aforesaid, certified by the warden and clerk of the ward at said first meeting, shall be returned to said selectmen, whose duty it shall be to examine and compare the same; and in case such elections should not be completed at the first meet- ing, then to issue new warrants until such election shall be completed, and to give no- tice thereof in manner before provided to the several persons elected ; and at said first meeting a list of voters in each ward, prepared and corrected by the selectmen for the time being, shall be delivered to the clerk of each ward when elected, to be used as herein before provided. After the choice of the city officers as aforesaid, or a majority of both boards, the selectmen shall appoint a place for their first meeting, and shall, by written notice left at the place of residence of each member, notify them thereof. And after this first election of city officers, and this first meeting for the organization of the city council, according to the provisions of section nine of this act, as provided for in this section, the day of holding the annual elections and the day and hour for the meet- ing of the city council for the purpose of organization shall remain as provided in said ninth section of this act. It shall be the duty of the city council immediately after the first organization to carry into effect the several provisions of this act.
SECT. 35. This act shall be void unless the inhabitants of the town of Brockton, at a legal meeting called for that purpose, to be held within one year from the passage of this act, shall, by a vote of a majority of the voters present and voting thereon, as hereinafter provided, determine to adopt the same. At said meeting the votes shall be taken by written or printed ballots, and the polls shall be kept open not less than six hours. The selectmen shall preside in said meeting, and in receiving said ballots shall use the check lists in the same manner as they are used in the election of state officers.
SECT. 36. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved April 9, 1881.]
WARDS OF THE CITY .- The boundaries of the several wards in this city are as follows :
Ward One .- Beginning in the west line of the old Colony Railroad, in the middle of Court street, thence westerly by the middle of Court street to Main street ; thence across Main street to the middle of Pleas- ant street ; thence westerly by the middle of Pleasant street to Easton
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CITY OF BROCKTON.
line; thence southerly by the town line to Torrey street ; thence east- erly by the middle of Torrey street and the middle of Belmont street to the middle of the northern terminus of Ash street ; thence northerly in a line parallel with a private way known as Byron avenue to a point in- tersected by a line drawn from Arlington street westerly through the middle of Elm street ; thence easterly from said point by the line so drawn and by the middle of West Elm street and East Elm street to School street ; thence easterly by the middle of School street to the west line of the Old Colony Railroad ; and thence northerly by the west line of said railroad to the point of beginning.
Ward Two .- Beginning in the west line of the Old Colony Railroad, in the middle of Lawrence street, thence westerly by the middle of Law- rence street to Main street ; thence southerly by the middle of Main street to Winthrop street ; thence westerly by the middle of Winthrop street to Pond street ; thence westerly to a point in Ash street forty- two rods southerly from the middle of Belmont street (measuring by the middle of Ash street); thence northerly by the middle of Ash street to Belmont street; and thence northerly by a line parallel with a pri- vate way known as Byron avenue to a point intersected by a line drawn from Arlington street westerly through the middle of Elm street ; thence easterly from said point by the line so drawn and by the middle of West Elm street and East Elm street to School street ; thence east- erly by the middle of School street to the west line of the Old Colony Railroad ; and thence southerly by the west line of said railroad to the point of beginning.
Ward Three .- Beginning in the middle of Main street at West Bridge- water line, thence northerly by the middle of Main street to Winthrop street ; thence westerly by the middle of Winthrop street to Pond street ; and thence westerly to a point in the middle of Ash street forty- two rods southerly from the middle of Belmont street (measuring by the middle of Ash street) ; thence northerly by the middle of Ash street to Belmont street ; thence westerly by the middle of Belmont street to Torrey street ; and by the middle of Torrey street to Easton line ; and thence southerly by Easton line and easterly by West Bridgewater line to the point of beginning.
Ward Four .- Beginning in West Bridgewater line, in the middle of Main street, thence northerly by the middle of Main street to Lawrence
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HISTORY OF BROCKTON.
street; thence easterly by the middle of Lawrence street to Montello street, and across Montello street in the same course to Salisbury River ; thence southerly by the channel of the river to a point due west from the middle of the western terminus of Hammond street; thence due east to the middle of the western terminus of Hammond street ; thence easterly by the middle of Hammond street to Thatcher street ; thence southeasterly by the middle of Thatcher street to East Bridgewater line ; and thence southerly, westerly, northerly, and again westerly, by the town line to the point of beginning.
Ward Five .- Beginning in the middle of Lawrence street, in the west line of the Old Colony Railroad, thence by the west line of said railroad northerly to Centre street ; thence by the middle of Centre street east- erly to the middle of the channel of the river ; thence northerly by the middle of the channel of the river or pond to Court street ; thence east- erly by the middle of Court street to Abington line ; thence southerly by the town-line to Thatcher street ; thence northwesterly by the middle of Thatcher street to Hammond street ; thence westerly by the middle of Hammond street to East street and thence due west to Salisbury River; thence northerly by the channel of the river to a point inter- sected by a line drawn easterly through Lawrence street; thence west- erly from said point by the line so drawn, and through the middle of Lawrence street, to the point of beginning.
Ward Six .- Beginning in the middle of Main street in Stoughton line, thence southerly by the middle of Main street to Court street ; thence easterly by the middle of Court street to the west line of the Old Colony Railroad ; thence southerly by the west line of said rail- road to Centre street ; thence easterly by the middle of Centre street to the middle of the channel of the river ; thence northerly by the middle of the channel of the river or pond to Court street ; thence by the middle of Court street easterly to Abington line; and thence northerly and westerly to the point of beginning.
Ward Seven .- Beginning in the middle of Main street, in Stoughton line, thence southerly by the middle of Main street to Pleasant street ; thence westerly by the middle of Pleasant street to Easton line ; and thence northerly and easterly by the town line to the point of begin- ning.
Passed to be ordained July 24, 1882.
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CITY OF BROCKTON.
CITY GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS.
1882.
Mayor, HON. ZIBA C. KEITHI.
Aldermen : Ward 1, Henry E. Lincoln ; Ward 2, Rufus P. Kingman ; Ward 3, George Churchill ; Ward 4, George E. Keith; Ward 5, Ward Thompson; Ward 6, Enos H. Reynolds ; Ward 7, Bradford E. Jones.
City Clerk, De Witt Clinton Packard.
Common Council: Ward 1, William H. Savage, William H. Tobey, George M. Cope- land ; Ward 2, Sanford Winter, William L. Douglas, Isaiah A. Beals ; Ward 3, George 1. Knapp, Lemnel P. Churchill, Hiram A. Monk : Ward 4, Patrick McCarty, Nathan Keith, John A. Howard ; Ward 5, Martin T. Packard, Elbridge G. Hale, Daniel Con- nolly ; Ward 6, Charles H. Cary, Henry Southworth, Elbridge L. Brown; Ward 7, George A. Packard, Augustus T. Jones, Edward Crocker. President, Augustus T. Jones ; Clerk, Elbridge L. Brown.
City Treasurer, Henry A. Ford.
City Solicitor, Jonathan White,
Auditor, Baalis Sanford.
Collector of Taxes, William Keith.
Superintendent of Streets, Henry B. Packard.
Assessors: William Rankin (for three years), Ira Copeland (for two years), Noah Chesman (for one year).
Assistant Assessors : Ward 1, Francis B. Gardner; Ward 2, Thaddeus E. Gifford ; Ward 3, David Hervey ; Ward 4, William A. Thompson; Ward 5, Isaac Kingman ; Ward 6, David Burke; Ward 7, Ellis Brett.
Overseers of the Poor: Francis B. Gardner (for three years), Henry A. Ford (for two years), Isaac Kingman (for one year).
School Committee (Hon. Ziba C. Keith, chairman ex officio), Baalis Sanford, Jonathan White, David L. Cowell (for three years), S. F. Packard, C. F. Copeland, Mrs. Martha. J. Farwell (for two years), Rev. S. L. Beal, Arthur E. Kendrick, D. W. C. Packard (for one year).
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