USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1843-1859 > Part 17
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CITY ORDINANCES.
All applications for appointment shall be in the handwriting of the applicant.
While on duty each member shall wear the Police uniform and badge prescribed, and shall carry a loaded revolver, and a club of not more than fourteen inches in length, made of wood.
When on parade or special duty may carry a side billy not more than twenty-four inches in length.
SECT. 8. Each member shall devote his entire time to and acquaint himself with the business of the Department; shall follow or be employed in no other calling; shall hold himself ready at all times whenever his services may be required, and answer the calls and obey the orders of his superior officer, and shall make daily report of his doings, and of important facts coming to his knowledge, at roll-call.
SECT. 9. The Chief of Police and other members of the Department shall receive such compensation as the City Council may from time to time determine; and no member shall collect or receive any fees for services, or as witnesses in any criminal case, or in cases in which the City is a party, before any Police or Trial Justice Court within the County.
SECT. 10. It shall be the duty of all members to take notice of all obstructions, nuisances, and defects in the streets, and if unauthorized, remove the same when practicable, forthwith.
They shall notice all street lamps not lighted at
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proper times, or not burning during the proper hours, or which are unclean, or give insufficient light; and shall forthwith report thereon, and also on any other matters affecting the health or safety of the public, to the Chief of Police, who shall report the same to the Mayor when deemed expedient.
SECT. 11. Officers wounded or disabled through sickness, or otherwise, while on actual duty, shall receive pay for the time of service necessarily lost in recovering, not exceeding one month, when duly certified by the City Physician, upon the approval of the Committee on Police, unless otherwise ordered by the Board of Aldermen.
SECT. 12. The Committee on Police shall have general charge of all property belonging to the Police Department, and shall give directions for the management of the same.
SECT. 13. The Police Station shall be open at all hours of the day and night for the purpose of receiv- ing complaints from the inhabitants respecting of- fences against the laws of the Commonwealth and Ordinances of the City; and shall be furnished with the "General Statutes," an English Dictionary, and the Bible; and each regular officer shall be pro- vided with a copy of this Ordinance, a numbered Police badge, one pair of handcuffs, a club, and a suitable number of Police regulation buttons for his uniform.
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CITY ORDINANCES.
SECT. 14. The Board of Aldermen may make from time to time such further rules and regulations for the government, disposition, and management of the Police as they may deem expedient, provided, such rules and regulations are not inconsistent with the laws of this Commonwealth.
No. 19.
AN ORDINANCE IN RELATION TO BURIAL GROUNDS AND THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD.
SECTION 1. The Mayor and Aldermen shall, an- nually, appoint a sufficient number of funeral under- takers, whose duty it shall be to attend and manage funerals, when so required, under the direction of the Committee on Burial Grounds; and all persons not licensed as undertakers, are hereby forbidden and prohibited to undertake the management of any funeral.
SECT. 2. No person shall bury or inter, or cause to be buried or interred in this city, any dead body, and no person shall remove or cause to be removed out of the city, the body of a deceased person for interment, without having first obtained a permit so to do from the City Clerk; and it is hereby made to be his duty to grant the same, unless some good cause should appear for refusal.
SECT. 3. No person shall bury or inter, or cause
8
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MUNICIPAL REGISTER.
to be buried or interred, any dead body at any other time of day than between sunrising and sunsetting, except when otherwise ordered by the Committee on Burial Grounds; and no grave shall be reopened for the burial therein, or disinterment therefrom, of any dead body, without a permit shall have been first obtained therefor from the City Clerk. In all cases of interments or burials, the top of any coffin, in any grave, shall not be less than four feet from the sur- face of the ground.
SECT. 4. Whenever any person shall decease with- in the limits of the city, it shall be the duty of the nearest relative, or of the person in whose house the death may have occurred, or any other person who may have first become informed of the event, to cause the same to be made known to an undertaker as soon as practicable.
SECT. 5. No person shall remove any dead body or the remains of any such body from any grave or tomb in the city; nor disturb, break up, or remove any dead body in any grave or tomb unless a permit shall have first been obtained therefor from the City Clerk.
SECT. 6. The Board of Health are authorized to make and adopt any regulations in relation to the interment of the dead which they may deem expe- dient, provided that the same be not inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Ordinance.
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CITY ORDINANCES.
SECT. 7. Any person who shall offend against any of the provisions of this Ordinance shall be lia- ble to a fine of not less than one dollar, nor more than twenty dollars.
No. 20.
AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO HORSE RAILROADS.
SECTION 1. The following Rules shall be observed by Horse Railroad Corporations, their servants, and agents, making use of the streets in this city : -
1. No car shall be drawn at a greater rate of speed than seven miles an hour.
2. Cars drawn in the same direction shall be kept at least one hundred feet apart, except at stations, or in case of accident.
3. The conductors and drivers shall keep a vigilant watch for teams, carriages, and persons, whether on the track or moving in the direction thereof, and, on the first appearance of danger, shall stop the car at once and take the best means of avoiding the same.
4. The conductors shall announce the names of the squares, and principal streets, as the cars reach them.
5. Repairs upon such portions of the streets as said corpora- tions are required to keep in repair shall be made under the direc_ tion of the Superintendent of Streets, and to his acceptance.
6. Whenever snow falls of sufficient depth to make sleighing, no snow-plow shall be used on the tracks, nor shall the snow he removed therefrom without the consent of the Mayor and Alder- men, nor shall such corporation, their servants, or agents, without such consent, sprinkle salt, or any article of a decomposing nature, on or over their tracks or rails.
7. Whenever the streets wherein the tracks are laid, become, in the judgment of the Committee on Highways, unsafe and incon- venient for travellers, by reason of accumulations of snow and ice
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between the track and the sidewalk, the corporation using said track shall remove such snow and ice when so directed by the Com - mittee on Highways ; and until the same is so removed, after such notice, the cars shall cease to run over such track.
SECT. 2. Any person or corporation violating any of the foregoing Rules shall be punished by a fine of twenty dollars for cach offence.
No. 21.
AN ORDINANCE IN RELATION TO THE EXECUTION OF DEEDS AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS.
SECTION 1. The Mayor of the City is authorized and empowered to affix the common seal of the City unto, and to sign, seal, execute, and deliver, in behalf of the City, all deeds and leases of land sold or leased by the City ; and all deeds, contracts, indentures, and assurances made and entered into by order of the City Council, or by order of any Committee of the City Council for that purpose duly authorized.
SECT. 2. Whenever any person, having lawful authority to redeem any estate mortgaged to the City shall make application to the Mayor for such purpose, the Mayor shall have power, on the payment of the money due on said mortgage to the Treasurer of the City, to discharge, release, or assign the same, with- out liability or recourse to the City, the assent of the Board of Aldermen thereto being had and ob-
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CITY ORDIN ANCES.
tained, and to execute, in behalf of the City, any and all legal instruments that may be necessary for the purpose.
No. 22.
AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO LICENSES.
SECTION 1. Any license or permission, which may be granted or given by virtue of the provisions of any of the Ordinances of the City, may be re- voked and annulled at any time by the Mayor and Aldermen ; and no license or permission granted or given by virtue of the provisions of any Ordinance, or anything done, or right acquired by virtue of the same, shall entitle any person or persons to a con- tinuance of such license, permission, or thing done, or right acquired.
SECT. 2. The City Clerk shall issue all licenses under the direction of the several Committees having charge of the Departments from which licenses may be granted.
SECT. 3. All licenses shall expire on the first day of May, annually.
No. 23.
AN ORDINANCE IN RELATION TO POSTING NOTICES.
SECTION 1. No person shall post any written or printed matter upon any tree, fence, wall, or building
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of another without the consent of the owner or occu- pant thereof, nor upon any property of the City with- out the consent of the Mayor.
SECT. 2. Any person offending against the pro- visions of this Ordinance shall be punished by a fine not exceeding twenty dollars.
No. 24.
AN ORDINANCE CONCERNING JUNK SIIOPS AND DEALERS IN SECOND-HAND ARTICLES.
SECTION 1. All licenses which shall be granted according to law to any persons to be keepers of shops for the purchase, sale, or barter of junk, old metals, or any second-hand articles, and to be dealers therein, shall contain the following conditions and restrictions : -
FIRST. That every keeper of such shop shall keep a book in which shall be written at the time of every purchase a description of the article or articles pur- chased, the name, age, and residence of the person from whom, and the day and hour when such purchase was made, and that such book shall at all times be open to the inspection of the Mayor and Aldermen, and each of them, and the Chief of Police, or any person by either of them authorized, and of any Police Officers of the City.
SECOND. That every keeper of such shop shall put in some conspicuous place, a sign designating that
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CITY ORDINANCES.
he is licensed as such, and containing his name legibly inscribed thereon in large letters.
THIRD. That such shop and all articles of mer- chandise therein may be examined by the Mayor and Aldermen, or each of them, the Chief of Police or any Police Officers of the City, at all times.
FOURTH. That no keeper of such shop shall, di- rectly or indirectly, either purchase or receive, by way of barter or exchange, any of the articles afore- said of any minor or apprentice, knowing, or having reason to believe him to be such; and no articles pur- chased or received by said keeper shall be sold by him until a period of at least one week from the purchase or receipt by him shall have elapsed.
SECT. 2. Every wagon, cart, sleigh, sled, or other vehicle used in the collection of junk, metals, rags, or second-hand articles shall be licensed by the Mayor and Aldermen, and shall have the owner's name and the number of the license placed upon the outside, and upon each side thereof, in plain, legible words and figures of not less than one and one half inches in size, and so that the same may be distinctly seen.
The person in whose name a license is taken out for any such vehicle shall be considered the owner of the same until such license is surrendered.
SECT. 3. No person shall purchase, barter for, or collect any junk, old metal, rags, or other second- hand articles without having first received a license so to do from the Mayor and Aldermen.
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MUNICIPAL REGISTER.
SECT. 4. Any license granted under the provis- ions of this Ordinance may be revoked at any time by the Mayor and Aldermen.
SECT. 5. Every person, upon receiving any license under this Ordinance, shall pay therefor to the City Clerk, for the use of the City, ten dollars, and the same shall not be issued except upon such payment.
SECT. 6. Any person who shall violate either of the rules, regulations, or restrictions contained in his license, as aforesaid, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding twenty dollars for each offence; and any person who shall collect, purchase, or barter for junk, old metal, rags, or any second-hand articles without having a license as aforesaid shall be liable to the same penalty.
No. 25.
AN ORDINANCE IN RELATION TO THE REGULATION AND INSPECTION OF BUILDINGS AND FOR THE PURPOSE OF SECURING THE PREVENTION OF FIRE AND THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE.
SECTION 1. No block of buildings, or buildings in connection with each other, shall be erected unless the partition or party walls between such buildings shall be of brick throughout; and all such buildings shall be separated from each other by such an entire brick partition or party wall at least eight inches in thickness, and said wall shall be carried up and extend at least eight inches above the outside of
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CITY ORDINANCES.
the roof, suitably capped with some incombustible material.
SECT. 2. No block of buildings hereafter erected shall be erected in a range of more than thirty feet without the intervention of an entire brick partition wall at least eight inches in thickness, and said wall shall be carried up and extend at least eight inches above the outside of the roof, suitably capped with some incombustible material.
SECT. 3. The term "party wall " in the construc- tion of this Ordinance shall also include and apply to every wall used or built as a separation of any build- ing from any other building, or as a separation of any tenement from any other tenement, with the view to the same being occupied by different persons.
SECT. 4. No building shall be altered, enlarged, or otherwise built upon so that it shall not conform to the provisions of this Ordinance.
SECT. 5. Such brick partition or party walls may be dispensed with in particular cases, where the public good permits or necessity requires, by consent of the City Council.
SECT. 6. This Ordinance shall be and hereby is made operative upon and within the whole territory of the City of Somerville.
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MUNICIPAL REGISTER.
SECT. 7. It shall be the duty of the Chief of Police to examine all buildings which may be erected as aforesaid, and to make a record of all violations of any provisions of this Ordinance, and to prosecute for all such violations. He shall report all such vio- lations to the Mayor, who is empowered and author- ized to take such steps and sign such papers in the name and on behalf of the City, as may be necessary or required for preventing or restraining any such violation.
SECT. S. Any person or corporation violating any provision of this Ordinance shall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding one hundred dollars.
No. 26.
AN ORDINANCE IN RELATION TO THE REPEAL OF CERTAIN BY-LAWS.
SECTION 1. All Ordinances, By-Laws, and Regu- lations, and parts of By-Laws and Regulations here- tofore in force in the City of Somerville are hereby repealed, but such repeal shall not affect any rights acquired or liabilities already incurred under said Ordinances, By-Laws, or Regulations.
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CITY ORDINANCES.
No. 27.
AN ORDINANCE IN RELATION TO THE FOREGOING ORDINANCES.
SECTION 1. These Ordinances shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
IN COMMON COUNCIL, Dec. 27, 1875. Passed to be ordained.
MARK LEIGHTON, President, pro tem.
IN BOARD OF ALDERMEN, Dec. 27, 1875. Passed to be ordained.
WM. H. FURBER, Mayor.
CITY OF SOMERVILLE, Dec. 27, 1875. A true copy of Enrolled Ordinances.
Attest :
CHAS. E. GILMAN, City Clerk.
JOINT RULES AND ORDERS
OF THE
CITY COUNCIL.
ARTICLE I.
Committees.
SECTION 1. At the commencement of the Muni- cipal Year the following Joint Standing Committees shall be appointed by the presiding officer of each branch; provided, that either branch may determine to choose them by ballot, namely : -
1. A Committee on Finance,-to consist of the Mayor, two Aldermen, the President, and four mem- bers of the Common Council.
2. A Committee on Accounts, -to consist of two Aldermen and three members of the Common Council.
3. A Committee on Public Property, - to consist of two Aldermen and three members of the Common Council.
4. A Committee on Water, -to consist of two Aldermen, the President and two members of the Common Council.
5. A Committee on State Aid and Soldiers' Re-
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JOINT RULES AND ORDERS.
lief,-to consist of two Aldermen and three members of the Common Council.
6. A Committee on Fuel and Street Lights, - to consist of two Aldermen and three members of the Common Council.
7. A Committee on Fire Department, -to consist of two Aldermen and three members of the Common Council.
S. A Committee on Highways, -to consist of two Aldermen and three members of the Common Council.
9. A Committee on Printing, -to consist of one Alderman and two members of the Common Council.
10. A Committee on Burial Grounds, -to con- sist of two Aldermen and three members of the Com- mon Council.
11. A Committee on Ordinances, -to consist of two Aldermen and three members of the Common Council.
12. A Committee on Claims, -to consist of the Mayor, one Alderman, the President, and two mem- bers of the Common Council.
SECT. 2. On all Joint Committees, of which it is provided that the Mayor shall be a member, in case of the non-election, decease, inability, or absence of that officer, the Chairman of the Board of Aldermen shall act ex-officio.
SECT. 3. The member of the Board of Aldermen first named on every Joint Committee, of which the
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MUNICIPAL REGISTER.
Mayor is not a member, shall be its Chairman; and in case of his resignation or inability the other mem- bers of the same Board, in the order in which they are named, and after them the member of the Com- mon Council first in order shall call meetings of the Committee and act as Chairman; and in case, from any reason, any Joint Committee shall not have been assembled within three weeks from the reference of any matter to said Committee, the member of the Common Council first in order shall call meetings of the Committee.
SECT. 4. Joint Standing Committees shall cause records to be kept of their proceedings in books pro- vided by the City for that purpose. No Committee shall act by separate consultations, and no report shall be received unless the subject thereof shall have been considered in Committee actually assembled.
SECT. 5. No Chairman of any Committee shall audit or approve any bill or account against the City for any supplies or services which shall not have been ordered or authorized by the Committee.
SECT. 6. No Committee shall enter into any con- tract with, or purchase, or authorize the purchase of, any articles of any member of the City Council or of any member of any Municipal Board of the City. (Gen. Stat. 1875, Chap. 232.)
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JOINT RULES AND ORDERS.
ARTICLE II.
Ordinances, Orders, etc.
SECTION 1. All By-Laws passed by the City Council shall be termed " Ordinances," and the enact- ing style shall be: "Be it ordained by the City Coun- cil of the City of Somerville."
SECT. 2. In all votes, when either or both branches of the City Council express anything by way of com- mand, the form of expression shall be "Ordered "; and when either or both branches express opinions, principles, facts, or purposes, the form shall be " Resolved."
SECT. 3. In every case of an Ordinance or joint order, or joint resolution or an amendment thereof, agreed to in one Board and dissented to by the other, a conference may be had at the request of either. Committees of Conference shall consist of three members on the part of each branch of the City Council representing its vote, and the Committee appointed for the purpose shall meet as soon as convenient, state the views of their respective Boards for and against the measure or amendment, and con- fer freely thereon. Their report shall be made in writing to the branch asking the conference, and may be either accepted or rejected; but no other action shall be had except through a new Committee of Conference.
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MUNICIPAL REGISTER.
SECT. 4. When either Board shall non-concur in any Ordinance sent from the other notice thereof shall be given by written message.
SECT. 5. Every Ordinance shall have as many readings in each Board as the rules thereof shall require; after which, the question shall be on passing the same to be enrolled, and when the same shall have passed to be enrolled it shall be sent to the other Board for concurrence; and after its passage to be enrolled in concurrence the same shall be enrolled by the Clerk of the Common Council and examined by a Committee of that Board; and on being found by said committee to be truly and correctly enrolled, the same shall be reported to the Common Council, when the question shall be on passing the same to be ordained. After its passage to be ordained it shall be signed by the President and sent to the other Board, where a like examination shall be made by the Committee on Enrolment of the Board of Alder- men, and the same proceeding thereon shall be had as in the Common Council; and when it shall have passed to be ordained in both branches it shall be signed by the Mayor.
SECT. 6. No enrolled Ordinance shall be amended.
SECT. 7. No vote by which a joint order, or resolve, or Ordinance has been passed in its final stage shall be reconsidered by either Board after the same has been finally acted upon in the other Board,
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JOINT RULES AND ORDERS.
unless a motion for reconsideration be made, or notice thereof be given, at the same meeting at which the vote on its final stage be passed.
SECT. 8. After the Annual Order of Appropria- tions shall have been passed, no subsequent expen- diture shall be authorized for any object, unless provision for the same shall be made by special transfer, from some of the Appropriations contained in the Annual Order, or by expressly creating there- for a City debt; in the latter of which cases the order shall not be passed unless two thirds of the whole number of each branch of the City Council shall vote in the affirmative by vote taken by yea or nay: pro- vided, that any unappropriated funds in the City Treasury may be appropriated by a joint order of the City Council after the Annual Order of Appropria- tions shall have passed.
SECT. 9. All reports and other papers submitted to the City Council shall be written in a fair hand, and no report or indorsement of any kind shall be made on the reports, memorials, or other papers referred to Committees of either branch while in their possession. And the clerks shall make copies of any papers to be reported by committees, at the request of the respective chairman thereof.
SECT. 10. Ordinary messages between the two Boards may be transmitted by their respective mes- sengers; but all messages proposing or assenting to 9
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a convention of the two branches shall be borne by some member of the Board, to be designated by the Chair. All messages of the two Boards shall be reduced to writing by their respective clerks.
SECT. 11. When a convention of the two branches of the City Council has been agreed upon for any specific purpose, no other business shall be transacted in said convention unless with the unanimous consent of all the members present.
SECT. 12. Either Board may propose to the other for its concurrence a time to which both Boards shall adjourn.
SECT. 13. "Cushing's Manual " shall be the au- thority on all questions of debate or parliamentary usage, whenever the same does not conflict with the joint rules, the rules of the Board of Aldermen, or of the Common Council.
RULES AND ORDERS
OF THE
BOARD OF ALDERMEN.
ARTICLE I.
Meetings, Quorum, Proceedings.
SECTION 1. At all meetings of the Board, whether by adjournment or by call of the Mayor, a majority shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of busi- ness. [City Charter, Sect. 2.]
SECT. 2. The Mayor shall take the chair at the hour to which the Board may have adjourned, and shall call the members to order, and, a quorum being present, shall cause the minutes of the preceding meeting to be read; in the absence of the Mayor a Chairman pro tempore shall be chosen.
He shall preserve decorum and order; may speak to points of order in preference to other members; shall decide all questions of order subject to an appeal to the Board by motion regularly seconded, and no other business shall be in order till the ques- tion on the appeal has been decided.
He shall declare all votes; but if any member doubt
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MUNICIPAL REGISTER.
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