Emergency measures. Restrictions. Amendments. Passage at one session. Publication Certain instruments. actions, etc., to continue in force. emergency involving the health or safety of the people or their property. No ordinance shall be regarded as an emergency measure unless the emergency is defined and declared in a preamble thereto separately voted on and receiving the affirmative vote of two thirds of the members of the city council. No ordinance making a grant, renewal or extension, whatever its kind or nature, of any franchise or special privilege shall be passed as an emergency measure, and, except as provided in chapter one hundred and twenty-two of the Revised Laws and sections one hundred and twenty-six and one hundred and twenty-seven of chapter seven hundred and forty-two of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and fourteen and acts in amendment thereof and in addition thereto, no such grant, renewal or extension shall be made otherwise than by ordinance. SECTION 20. No ordinance or part thereof shall be amended or annulled except by an ordinance adopted in accordance with the provisions of this act. SECTION 21. Any ordinance, order or resolution may be passed through all its stages of legislation at one session; provided that no member of the council objects thereto, but if any member of the council objects, the measure shall be postponed for that meeting. SECTION 22. Every proposed ordinance or loan order, except emergency measures as hereinbefore defined, shall be published once in full in at least one newspaper of the city, or in any additional manner that may be provided by ordinance, at least ten days before its final passage. After such final passage, it shall, in the same manner as before, again be published once, as amended and completed, except in the case of an emergency ordinance which may be passed as hereinbefore provided and which shall take effect on its passage, and shall be so published at the earliest practicable moment. SECTION 23. All official bonds, recognizances, obligations, contracts and all other instruments entered into or executed by or to the town before this act takes effect, and all taxes, special assessments, fines, penalties, forfeitures incurred or imposed, due or owing to the town, shall be enforced and collected, and all writs, prosecutions, actions and causes of action, except as is herein otherwise provided, shall continue without abatement and remain unaffected by this act; and no legal act done by or in favor of the town shall be rendered invalid by its adoption of this act. employees civil service SECTION 24. The civil service laws shall not apply to Certain the appointment of the mayor's secretaries nor of the stenog- exempted from raphers, clerks, telephone operators and messengers con- laws. nected with his office, and the mayor may remove such appointees without a hearing and without making a statement of the cause for their removal. vacancies, mayor," and SECTION 25. If a vacancy occurs in the office of the Certain mayor or city council before the last six months of the how filled. term of office, the city council shall order an election for a mayor or a member of the council to serve for the unexpired term; and if such vacancy occurs in the last six months of said term, the president of the city council shall succeed to the office of mayor for the unexpired term. If the mayor is "Acting absent or unable from any cause temporarily to perform his duties they shall be performed by the president of the city council. The person upon whom such duties shall devolve shall be called "acting mayor", and he shall possess the powers of mayor only in matters not admitting of delay, but shall have no power to make permanent appointments. Should an appointive officer of the city be temporarily Temporary unable for any cause to perform his duties, the mayor may make a temporary appointment of some person to act until such official shall resume his duties. appointments. not to make with the city. SECTION 26. It shall be unlawful for the mayor or for Certain officials a member of the city council or school committee or for any or share in officer or employee of the city directly or indirectly to make contracts, etc., a contract with the city, or to receive any commission, discount, bonus, gift, contribution, or reward from or any share in the profits of any person or corporation making or performing such contract, unless the mayor, such member, officer or employee, immediately upon learning of the existence of such contract, or that such contract is proposed, shall notify in writing the mayor, city council or school committee of the nature of his interest in such contract, and shall abstain from doing any official act on behalf of the city in reference thereto. In case of such interest on the part of an officer whose duty it is to sign such contract on behalf of the city, the contract may be signed by any other officer of the city duly authorized thereto by the mayor, or if the mayor has such interest, by the city clerk: provided, Proviso. however, that when a contractor with the city is a corporation or a voluntary stock association, the ownership of less than five per cent of the stock or shares actually issued shall not be considered as involving an interest in the contract within the meaning of this section, and such ownership shall not Penalty. Proposals for contracts to affect the validity of the contract unless the owner of such stock or shares is also an officer or agent of the corporation or association, or solicits or takes part in the making of the contract. A violation of any provision of this section shall render the contract in respect to which such violation occurs voidable at the option of the city. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment. SECTION 27. No contract for construction work or for be advertised. the purchase of apparatus, supplies or materials, whether the same shall be for repairs or original construction, the estimated cost of which amounts to or exceeds two hundred dollars, except in cases of special emergency involving the health or safety of the people or their property, shall be awarded unless proposals for the same shall have been invited by advertisements in at least one newspaper published in the city once a week for at least two consecutive weeks, the last publication to be at least one week before the time specified for the opening of said proposals. Such advertisements shall state the time and place where plans and specifications of proposed work or supplies may be had and the time and place for opening the proposals in answer to said advertisements, and shall reserve to the city the right to reject any or all of such proposals. All such proposals Split contracts shall be opened in public. No bill or contract shall be split or divided for the purpose of evading any provision of this act. prohibited. Certain contracts to be approved by mayor, Bond. SECTION 28. All contracts made by any department, board or commission in which the amount involved is two hundred dollars or more shall be in writing, and no such contract shall be deemed to have been made or executed until the approval of the mayor and of the department or board making the contract is affixed thereto. Any contract made as aforesaid may be required to be accompanied by a bond with sureties satisfactory to the board or official having the matter in charge, or by a deposit of money, certified check or other security for the faithful performance thereof, and such bonds or other securities shall be deposited with the city treasurer until the contract has been carried out in all respects; and no such contract shall be altered except by a written agreement of the contractor, the sureties on his bond, and the officer, department or board making the contract, with the approval of the mayor affixed thereto. land for purposes. SECTION 29. At the request of any department, and Taking of with the approval of the mayor and the city council, the city municipal council may take in fee, in the name of the city, for any municipal purpose any land within the limits of the city not already appropriated to public use. Whenever the price proposed to be paid for a lot of land for any municipal purpose is more than twenty-five per cent higher than its average assessed valuation during the previous three years, said land shall not be taken by purchase, but shall be taken by right of eminent domain and paid for in the manner provided for the taking of, and the payment of damages for, land taken for highways in said city. No land shall be taken until an appropriation by loan or otherwise for the general purpose for which land is needed shall have been made by the mayor and city council by a two thirds vote of all its members; nor shall a price be paid in excess of the appropriation, unless a larger sum is awarded by a court of competent jurisdiction. committee, SECTION 30. The school committee shall consist of the School mayor, who shall be the chairman, and six members who election, shall be elected at large. At the first annual city election terms, etc. held after the acceptance of this act, there shall be elected two members to serve for one year, two for two years and two for three years, and annually thereafter there shall be elected two members to serve for the term of three years. superintend SECTION 31. The school committee shall elect annually To elect a superintendent of schools, and may, under the laws regu- ent, etc. lating the civil service, appoint, suspend or remove at pleasure such subordinate officers or assistants, including janitors of school buildings, as it may deem necessary for the proper discharge of its duties and the conduct of its business; it shall define their terms of service and their duties, and shall fix their compensation. No member of the school committee, except the mayor, shall, during the term for which he is elected, hold any other office or position the salary or compensation for which is payable out of the city treasury. The committee shall organize annually on the first Monday Organization in January, and shall elect one of its members as vice chair- committee. man, whose duty it shall be to preside at all meetings of the committee at which the mayor is not present. of school duties. SECTION 32. The school committee, in addition to the Powers and powers and duties pertaining by law to school committees, shall have power to provide, when they are necessary, temporary accommodations for school purposes, and shall have the control of all school buildings and of the grounds To approve sites, plans, buildings. connected therewith, and the power to make all repairs, the expenditures for which are made from the regular appropriation for the school department, except as is otherwise provided herein. SECTION 33. No site for a school building shall be acetc., for school quired by the city unless the approval of the site by the school committee is first obtained. No plans for the construction of or alterations in a school building shall be accepted, and no work shall be begun on the construction or alteration of a school building, unless the approval of the school committee and the mayor therefor is first obtained. Nothing herein contained shall require such approval for the making of ordinary repairs. To make rules and regulations. Meetings to be public, except, etc. Vacancies in school committee, how filled. Initiative petitions for passage of a i measure.' SECTION 34. The school committee shall make all reasonable rules and regulations for the management of the public schools of the city and for conducting the business of the committee, provided that such rules are not inconsistent with any laws of the commonwealth. SECTION 35. All meetings of the school committee shall be open to the public, except that, when requested by not less than four members of the committee, any particular meeting shall be private. The vote on any particular measure shall be by the call of the yeas and nays, when requested by not less than two members of the committee. SECTION 36. If a vacancy occurs in the school committee by failure to elect, or otherwise, the city council and the remaining members of the school committee shall meet in joint convention and elect a suitable person to fill the vacancy until the next annual city election. The mayor, if present, shall preside at the convention. SECTION 37. A petition meeting the requirements hereinafter provided and requesting the city council to pass an ordinance, resolution, order or vote, except an order granted under the provisions of chapter one hundred and twentytwo of the Revised Laws and sections one hundred and twenty-six and one hundred and twenty-seven of chapter seven hundred and forty-two of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and fourteen and acts in amendment thereof and in addition thereto, or requesting the school committee to pass a resolution, order or vote, all of these four terms being hereinafter included in the term "measure", therein set forth or designated, shall be termed an initiative petition, and shall be acted upon as hereinafter provided. |