railroad track shall be laid, the common council shall have authority to cause the owners or operators of said railroad track or tracks to move the same and to place such track or tracks in such portion of said street or streets as the common council may direct. § 5. The common council is also hereby authorized to require Power to all railroad companies or persons operating street railroads in require any of the streets of the city to pave or repave the roadway of roads to such street or streets between their tracks and at least two feet streets. in width on each side thereof, whenever the common council shall deem such pavement or repavement necessary. street rail pave subse when § 6. Whenever the common council shall, by reason of the Action at absence of a quorum, or from any other cause, fail to meet, it quent shall be lawful for the common council to transact any business meeting under any notice required to be published by this act, or in any council proceedings or matter whatever, at its next regular meeting, with meet. the same force and effect as if such business had been transacted at the time fixed therefor. ARTICLE IV. BOARD OF ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION. fails to ment and § 1. There shall be a board of assessment and taxation in the Board of city of Utica, to consist of four members, all of whom shall be assess electors of the city, and at the time of their election and during taxation. their term of office, freeholders in said city. 1. The assessors of the city shall be the board of assessment How conand taxation. stituted. 2. The board of assessment and taxation shall annually elect chairman; one of its members chairman thereof and may adopt rules for rules. the transaction of business. assistants. entire duties; re from office. 3. The board of assessment and taxation shall have authority Secretary to appoint a secretary and such other clerks and assistants as and shall be determined by the board of estimate and apportionment. 4. Each assessor shall devote his entire time to the duties of Assessors his office. For a violation of the provisions of this section or for vote official misconduct, any assessor may be removed from office by time to the mayor upon charges in writing, served personally upon him, moval or as prescribed by any court of record, after trial before the mayor, and an opportunity for a defense thereto. Upon such trial witnesses may be examined and produced before the mayor by any party interested. The common council shall have no power to remove said assessors. An appeal may be taken to the special term of the supreme court by any assessor removed by the mayor, and such special term shall examine the proofs taken on such trial and hear arguments thereon, and if necessary take further proof or evidence in the matter, and its decision thereon shall be final. Such appeal may be heard before any special term in the fifth judicial district on eight days' notice. § 2. The board of assessment and taxation shall have sole Jurischarge, control and jurisdiction as follows: diction of board. and duties 1. They shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties which Powers now are or shall hereafter be, conferred and imposed upon nues assessors of towns by the tax law or. other general laws of this sors. Assessment of property. Assessment roll Notice of Hearing. state relative to the assessment and valuation of real and personal property for the purposes of taxation, and also such powers and duties as are conferred and imposed upon the board of assessors or the assessors of the several wards of said city, except as otherwise prescribed by this act. 2. In the manner provided in the tax law or other general laws of the state, relative to the listing, valuation and assessment of property for the purposes of taxation, said board shall proceed to made.* correct, review, complete and verify the assessment rolls for each ward of the city. The annual assessment of property in the city for the succeeding fiscal year shall be made by the board of assessment and taxation by the first day of September, and the assessment roll shall be completed on or before the tenth day of September. Forthwith the board of assessment and taxation shall completion cause a notice to be posted conspicuously in public places of the city and published in the official newspapers, stating that they have completed the assessment roll and that a copy thereof has Leen placed in the office of the board of assessment and taxation for public inspection, and that on a day specified in said notice, not less than ten days from the completion of said assessment roll, the board shall meet to hear and determine complaints and objections to such assessment, which day shall be known as grievance day. Upon the day so designated the board shall meet and act in conformity with said notice. Upon the completion and verification of the assessment roll, it shall be filed, on or before the first day of October with the city clerk, there to remain ten days for public inspection. A separate assessment roll shall be made for each ward of the city, prepared as prescribed by the tax law, except that they shall contain sixth and seventh columns. The said board of assessment and taxation shall insert in the sixth column the city tax and file said assessment roll with the city tax thereon duly verified by the assessors as prescribed by law, in the city clerk's office, and said city clerk on or before October fifteenth in each year shall deliver to the supervisor of visors. each of the several wards of the city the said assessment rolls, and such supervisor shall deliver the same to the board of superDuties of visors as the assessment rolls of the city, and upon such assessment rolls the board of supervisors shall insert, or cause to be inserted, in the seventh column thereof, the amount of the state and county tax, and attach thereto their warrant for the collection thereof, and the same shall thereupon be filed by the supervisor of such ward with the board of assessment and taxation of the city. It shall be the duty of each supervisor of the city to make one copy of the assessment roll of his ward, including the tax so inserted by the board of supervisors and the warrant so attached, which copy he shall certify to be correct, and deliver the same, upon receiving the proper bond, to the city treasurer, Delivery to or collector, as required by law. The board of assessment and taxation shall make one copy of each of said rolls containing the * So in original. [Evidently should be "make ".] City tax. Delivery to super supervisors. city treas urer. rection. city tax and deliver the same to the city treasurer. Upon the hearing and determination of complaints in relation to assessments, on grievance day, or at any adjourned day, as prescribed by section thirty-six of the tax law, the mayor, president of the common council and chairman of the committee of the common council on legal proceedings, taxes and assessments are hereby authorized to meet with the assessors, and in the determination thereof shall have the same powers and authority possessed by such assessors. The board of assessment and taxation shall give notice Review of the time and place of such hearing to the mayor, to the and corpresident of the common council, and to the chairman of the committee on legal proceedings, taxes and assessments personally, at least twenty-four hours before the time fixed therefor. When reviewing and correcting such assessment rolls, the board of assessment and taxation, the mayor, president and chairman aforesaid, may insert therein any property liable to taxation which may have been omitted, on giving personal notice to the owner or occupant thereof in writing of not less than two days to attend at the time and place therein stated, and show cause why any specified correction should not be made, and they shall also have the same powers on such hearing as are possessed by the assessors of towns. The rolls when finally completed and corrected as afore- verificasaid, shall be verified by the board of assessment and taxation, or a majority thereof, in the form and manner required by the tax law. tion. keep maps showing etc., of 3. The board of assessment and taxation shall keep in its office Board to maps and surveys, when made as hereinafter provided, of all the and taxable property in the city, certified by the city engineer, which surveys maps and surveys shall show the locations and boundaries of each parcels. piece or parcel of property taxed or taxable, correctly, and the property. name of the owner or person or corporation assessed, and it shall be the duty of the common council to provide such maps and surveys in all wards of the city. For the purpose of making such maps and surveys the board of assessment and taxation, acting with the city engineer, shall divide the city into districts as may be advisable, and the expense thereof in each year shall be provided in the annual budget and tax levy. The board of assessment and taxation shall have power, and it shall be its duty to make notations on such maps and surveys so provided or kept by it, showing changes, and such notations shall be deemed to be a part of such maps and surveys. Reference shall be made to such Reference maps and surveys when made in the annual assessment rolls or tax lists, in all local assessment rolls or lists, in certificates of sale for unpaid taxes, and said maps and surveys shall be deemed a part of the description in said assessment rolls or list, tax lists, assessment lists, certificates, notices and conveyances of property sold. Reference to such maps and surveys in such assessment rolls, tax lists and assessment lists when made, may be made generally in captions thereto; provided, however, that until such maps and surveys are made and filed as herein provided, said assessment rolls, tax lists, assessment lists, certificates of sale and thereto. and maps division sented conveyance of property shall be made as heretofore according to the law in force before and at the time any act hereby amended took effect. Provided, also, that until such maps are provided as aforesaid, the city engineer shall make all surveys, maps, diagrams and descriptions of property necessary to enable the assessors Deeds of to make all local assessments. Every deed of conveyance of lands Conveyance in the city shall be presented to the board of assessment and taxashowing tion and stamped by said board before the same shall be recorded, into blocks and if the county clerk shall record any deed of conveyance of to be pre-lands in the city of Utica which has not been stamped by the board of assessment and taxation of said city, he shall forfeit to the city the sum of ten dollars; but nothing herein contained shall effect the validity of a deed recorded without being so stamped. Every map, plot or sub-division of such lands into blocks or lots shall, before it shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county of Oneida or in any city office, be presented to said board of assessment and taxation and a copy thereof filed in the office of said board, and the original map or plot shall be stamped by said. board. If any such map or plot which has not been so stamped shall be placed on file by any officer, he shall forfeit to the city of Utica the sum of ten dollars. board. Prepara tion of list of trial jurors. Stating 4. The board of assessment and taxation shall act with the supervisor of each ward in preparing and making the list and duplicate list of trial jurors prescribed by the code of civil procedure, instead of the ward assessors therein mentioned. § 3. In making the assessment rolls, it shall be sufficient to state the name of one of the owners or occupants of lands, if such name be known, and if not known, then it shall be made ment rolls. against the owner and occupants unknown, with the number of names of owners or occupants in assess validate assess ment. the block or street on which such lands are situated, or the number of the lot or farm lot, if not subdivided into blocks and designated upon the streets of the city, but if the lands be vacant or the building or buildings thereon are not numbered, then the name of the street on which it fronts, and a description of the land shall be Misnomer given. No such assessment shall be set aside or held invalid benot to in- cause the same shall be made or shall have been made, in terms against owner or owners or occupants unknown, or against the estate of a deceased person (naming such deceased person) or against the executor, administrator, heirs or devisees of a deceased person (naming such deceased person) or against a company or firm named, or against the person in whose name is the record, but not the actual title of the property assessed, or because nonresident property is inserted in the resident part of the roll or the resident property in the non-resident part of the roll or for any cause arising from mistake or ignorance as to the name of the owner or occupant, whether an individual, a firm or a corporation provided the property assessed is described so as to indicate with reasonable certainty, the particular lot, tract or property intended to be assessed. Board to make local assessments. § 4. 1. The board of assessment and taxation shall make all local assessments, prepare all assessment lists and copies thereof electors as sessors dis and perform all duties required by the city charter, to be performed by them without extra compensation therefor. When by Appoint reason of interest in a local assessment there is not a sufficient ment of number of the said assessors qualified to make such assessments, when the mayor may appoint a sufficient number of the tax-paying qualified. electors of said city to act with the qualified assessors of said board in making the assessment. The persons so appointed shall take the oath of office which shall be annexed to the assessment list, and they shall each receive three dollars per day for their services in making the assessments and lists which shall be paid out of the general city funds. lands bene fited. 2. The board of assessment and taxation shall meet at their Assessoffice as soon as practicable after the expense of any local im- mods be provement shall have been determined, and may, if necessary, adjourn from time to time. The board shall assess the amount so determined, so far as the same is not payable by the city, upon the lands benefited by the local improvement in proportion to such benefit, except in those cases in which by law or by this act the assessment is to be made upon a different principle, and in those cases it shall make the assessment upon the principle prescribed in each case therefor. sessment tion of owners or 3. Said board of assessment and taxation shall make an assess- Local asment list to resemble as nearly as practicable the tax list in form, t and provided with a column in which payments can be entered by the city treasurer. In such assessment list, said board shall state Designathe names of the person or persons or corporations owning or occupying the lands chargeable with the expense of such improve- occupants. ment, if such names shall be known to them, if not known to them, then it shall be charged against owners or occupants unknown and the amount of taxes charged thereon. In such assessment and assessment lists it shall be sufficient to state the name of the owners or occupants of such lands, if such name be known, and if not known, then it shall be made and charged against owners and occupants unknown, with the number of the block or street on which said lands are situated, or the number of the lot or farm lot, if not subdivided into blocks, and designated upon the streets of the city, but if the lands be vacant or the building or buildings thereon are not numbered, then the name of the street on which it fronts and a description of the land shall be given. No such assessment Misnomer or reassessment shall be set aside or held to be invalid because the not to insame shall be made, or shall have been made, in terms against owner or owners, or occupant or occupants unknown, or against the estate of a deceased person (naming the deceased person) or against the executor, administrator, heirs or devisees of a deceased person (naming the deceased person) or against a company or firm named, or against the person in whose name is the record, but not the actual title of the property assessed, or for any cause arising from mistake or ignorance as to the name of the owner or occupant, whether an individual, a firm or a corporation, provided the property assessed is described so as to indicate or identify with validate assess ment. |