4389. Duties of city marshal. SEC. 4389. The city marshal, in addition to the duties prescribed by the common council, must execute and return all process issued by the police judge, or directed to him by any legal authority, and attend upon the police court regularly. He may appoint one or more deputies; and must arrest all persons guilty of a breach of the peace or for the violation of any city ordinance, and bring them before the police judge for trial, and has superintending control over the city police; and, until otherwise provided by ordinance, must perform all duties of collector of city taxes.

4390. Duties of assessor.

SEC. 4390. The assessor, in addition to the duties prescribed by the common council, must make out, within such time as the common council orders, a correct list of all the taxable property within the city limits, with the valuation thereof, which list certified by him must be returned to the common council. The mode of making out the list and of ascertaining the value of property, and of collecting all taxes, is the same as prescribed in this code for assessing and collecting the state tax.

Stats. 1850, p. 87, sec. 26.

4391. Duties of city attorney.

SEC. 4391. The city attorney must attend to all suits, matters, and things in which the city may be legally interested; to give his advice or opinion in writing whenever required by the mayor or common council, and do and perform all such things touching his office as by the common council may be required of him.

Stats. 1850, p. 87, sec. 27.

4392. Duties of treasurer.

SEC. 4392. The treasurer must receive all moneys that come to the city either from taxation or otherwise, and pay the same out on the certificate of the president of the common council, and do and perform all other acts as are prescribed for him by the common council. He must on the first days of January, April, July, and October of each year, make out and present to the mayor a full and complete statement of the receipts and expenditures of the preceding three months, which statement the mayor must cause to be published.

The treasurer must not pay out money on a by ordinance: Dubordieu v. Butler, 49 Cal. warrant not audited and approved as required 512.

4393. Duties of clerk.

SEC. 4393. The city clerk is clerk of the common council; must keep the journal of their proceedings and all records of the city; he must keep the accounts of the city, and countersign all warrants on the city treasurer; keep a true account thereof and of the financial condition of the city; and do such other things as the common council may by ordinance provide.

SEC. 4403. The common council consists of not less than three citizens of the city, elected one from each of the wards. The mayor is the presiding officer

thereof.

4404. Wards, and number of.

SEC. 4404. The common council has power to divide the city into a convenient number of wards, fix the boundaries thereto, and may change the same from time to time as they see fit, having regard to the number of white male inhabitants, so that each ward contains as near as may be the same number of inhabitants. The number of wards of any city must not exceed the number of councilmen to which the city is entitled; and when a city has been so divided the councilmen must be elected from the several wards respectively, according to the number of inhabitants.

Stats. 1850, p. 87, sec. 9.

4405. First meeting.

SEC. 4405. The members of the common council must assemble within five days after their election, and choose some suitable person as clerk. In case of the absence of the mayor, they may elect a president pro tempore, who has all the powers and must perform all the duties of the president. They must, by ordinance, fix the times and places of holding their stated meetings, and may be convened by the mayor at any time.

Stats. 1850, p. 87, sec. 10.

4406. Quorum.

SEC. 4406. A majority of the members of the common council constitutes a quorum to do business; but a less number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as the council may by ordinance prescribe.

Stats. 1850, p. 87, sec. 10.

4407. May make rules, etc.

SEC. 4407. The common council is the judge of the qualification, elections, and returns of their own members and the other officers elected under the provisions of this title. They may determine contested elections; they may provide rules for their own proceedings, punish any member or other person for lisorderly conduct in their presence, and, with the concurrence of two thirds of their number, expel any member, but not a second time for the same cause; they must keep a journal of their proceedings, and at the desire of any member must cause the yeas and nays to be taken and entered on any question; and their proceedings must be public.

4408. Additional powers of common council.

SEC. 4408. The common council has power:

1. To create the offices of city clerk, city attorney, assessor, and collector, and such other offices as may be necessary, and prescribe their duties and fix their compensation;

2. To establish and fix the salaries of the mayor, police judge, and other city officers, and also fix a tariff of fees for the officers entitled to such, designating the fees allowed for each particular item of service, and cause the same to be published in like manner with the ordinances passed by the common council; 3. To manage the finances and property of the city;

4. To regulate the streets, wharves, piers, and chutes in the city, and the use thereof;

5. To establish or authorize slaughter-houses and markets, and regulate the

same;

6. To provide for lighting, watering, and cleaning the city, and protecting it against fire;

and

7. To license and regulate hacks, cabs, carts, omnibuses, railway cars, all other vehicles, butchers, porters, pawnbrokers, peddlers, showmen, and junk-shop keepers, theaters, and all other places of public amusement;

8. To provide for licensing any and all business not prohibited by law, and fix the amount of license tax for the same;

9. To regulate the keeping and use of animals, and the keeping and use of gunpowder and other dangerous substances;

10. To suppress gaming, gambling-houses, and other disorderly houses, nuisances of every description, and all kinds of vice and immorality;

11. To prohibit the burial of the dead within the city, except at such places and in such manner as the common council may determine;

12. To establish and regulate a police department;

13. To establish and regulate a fire department;

14. To impose penalties for the violation of ordinances; but no single penalty must exceed a fine of five hundred dollars, or imprisonment for ten days, or both;

15. To impose and appropriate fines, penalties, and forfeitures for breaches of ordinances;

16. To make by-laws and ordinances not repugnant to the constitution and the laws of the United States or of this state;

17. To require any land or building to be cleansed at the expense of the owner or occupant, and upon his default, may do the work and assess the expense upon the land or building;

18. To establish a board of health to prevent the introduction and spreading of disease, or to ordain and adopt for the government of the city the "quarantine" or "health regulations" provided by this code for San Francisco or Sacramento;

19. To levy and collect taxes, to lay out, extend, alter, or widen streets and alleys, and make appropriations for any object of city expenditures;

20. To erect and maintain poor-houses and hospitals, and pass such by-laws and ordinances for the regulation of the police as they may deem necessary. All ordinances must be published in the manner prescribed by the common

council.

4409. Street improvements, how made.

SEC. 4409. Whenever the owners of a major part of the property fronting on any street or avenue desire to improve such street by paving the same, or constructing sewers, or otherwise, the mayor and council may make such improvement at the expense of all the owners of property on the street, which must be in proportion to the number of feet owned by each.

expense

An Act to provide for work upon streets, lanes, alleys, courts, places, and sidewalks, and for the construction of sewers within municipalities.

[Approved March 18, 1885; 1885, 147.]

Streets public for the purpose of this act.

PART I.

SECTION 1. All streets, lanes, alleys, places, or courts in the municipalities of this state now open or dedicated, or which may hereafter be opened or dedicated to public use, shall be deemed and held to be open public streets, lanes, alleys, places, or courts, for the purposes of this act, and the city council of each municipality is hereby empowered to establish and change the grades of said streets, lanes, alleys, places, or courts, and fix the width thereof, and is hereby invested with jurisdiction to order to be done thereon any of the work mentioned in section two of this act, under the proceedings hereinafter described.

City council to order street work done.

SEC. 2. Whenever the public interest or convenience may require, the city council is hereby authorized and empowered to order the whole or any portion of the streets, lanes, alleys, courts,

POL. CODE-45

705

or places of any such city graded or regraded to the official grade, planked or replanked, paved or repaved, macadamized or remacadamized, graveled or regraveled, piled or repiled, capped or recapped, and to order sidewalks, sewers, man-holes, culverts, curbing, and cross-walks to be constructed therein, and to order any other work to be done which shall be necessary to make and complete the whole or any portion of said streets, sidewalks, lanes, alleys, courts, or places, and it may order any of the said work to be improved.

Resolution of intention.

SEC. 3. Before ordering any work done or improvements made, which is authorized by sec tion two of this act, the city council shall pass a resolution of intention so to do, and describing the work. The street superintendent shall thereupon cause to be conspicuously posted along the line of said contemplated work or improvement, at not more than three hundred feet in distance apart, but not less than three in all, or when the work to be done is the improvement of an entire crossing in front of each quarter-block liable to be assessed, notices of the passage of said resolution. Said notice shall be headed, "Notice of street work," in letters of not less than one inch in length, and shall, in legible characters, state the fact of the passage of the resolution, its date, and briefly the work or improvement proposed, and refer to the resolution for further particulars. He shall also cause a notice, similar in substance, to be published for a period of five days in one or more daily newspapers published and circulated in said city, and designated by said city council, or by one insertion in a weekly newspaper so published, circulated, and designated. The owners of one half or more of the frontage of the property fronting on said proposed work or improvement, where the same is for one block or more, may make a written objection to the same within ten days after the expiration of the time of the publication of said notice, which objection shall be delivered to the clerk of the city council, who shall indorse thereon the date of its reception by him, and such objection so delivered and indorsed shall be a bar for six months to any further proceedings in relation to the doing of said work or making said improvement, unless the owners of one half or more of the frontage as aforesaid shall meanwhile petition for the same to be done. At any time before issuance of the assessment roll, all owners of lots or lands, liable to assessment therein, who after the first publication of said resolu tion of intention may feel aggrieved, or who may have objections to any of the subsequent proceedings of the said council, in relation to the performance of the work mentioned in said notice of intention, shall file with the clerk a petition of remonstrance, wherein they shall state in what respect they feel aggrieved, or the proceedings to which they object; such petition or remon strance shall be passed upon by the said city council, and its decisions therein shall be final and conclusive. But when the work or improvement proposed to be done is the construction of sewers, man-holes, culverts, cross-walks, and sidewalks, and the objection thereto is signed by the owners of one half or more of the frontage as aforesaid, the said city council shall, at its next meeting, fix a time for hearing said objection, not less than one week thereafter. The city clerk shall thereupon notify the persons making such objection, by depositing a notice thereof in the post-office of said city, postage prepaid, addressed to each objector, or his agent when he appears for such objector. At the time specified said city council shall hear the objections urged, and pass upon the same, and its decision shall be final and conclusive, and the said bar for six months to any further proceedings shall not be applicable therein. And when not more than two blocks remain ungraded between one or more blocks on each side thereof, which have been graded, said city council may order that part of said street or highway so remaining ungraded, not exceeding two blocks, to be graded and improved, and the grading and improvement of said two blocks or less shall not be stayed or prevented by any written or other objection, unless such council shall deem proper. And if one half or more in width or in length, or as to grading, one half or more of the grading work, of any street lying and being between two successive main street-crossings, or if a crossing has been already graded or improved as aforesaid, said council may order the remainder improved, graded, or otherwise, notwithstanding such objections of property owners. At the expiration of ten days after the expiration of the time of the publica tion, and at the expiration of fifteen days after the posting of any resolution of intention, if no written objection to the work therein described has been delivered as aforesaid by the owners of one half or more of the frontage of the property fronting on said work or improvement, the city council shall be deemed to have acquired jurisdiction to order any of the work to be done or improvement to be made, which is authorized by section two of this act. Before passing any resolution for the construction of said improvements, plans and specifications, and careful esti mates of the cost and expenses thereof, shall be furnished to said city council, if required by it, by the city engineer of said city, and for the work of constructing sewers, specifications shall always be furnished by him. Whenever the estimated or actual cost of any work contemplated or ordered to be done by the city council, and chargeable under the provisions of this act against any lot or lots of land, or the owner thereof, shall exceed one half of the assessed value of such lot or lots as borne upon the last assessment roll whereon it was assessed, made for the levying of taxes for municipal purposes, the amount of the cost of said work, exceeding said one half of the assessed value of said lot or lots, shall be paid out of the city treasury, unless the owner such lot or lots shall, in writing, signed by himself or his authorized agent, consent that the whole expense of said improvement may be made a charge against said lot or lots. Petition of owners of frontage.

of

SEC. 4. The owners of more than one half in frontage of lots and lands fronting on any street, lane, alley, place, or court, or their duly authorized agents, may petition the city council to order any of the work mentioned in section two of this act to be done, and the city coun cil may order the work mentioned in said petition to be done, after notice of its intention so to do has been posted and published as provided in section three of this act.

Notices for proposals.

SEC. 5. Before the awarding of any contract by the city council for doing any work author. ized by section two of this act, the city council shall cause notice to be posted conspicuously for five days on or near the council-chamber door of said council, inviting sealed proposals for the work contemplated. All proposals offered shall be accompanied by a check payable to the order of the mayor of the city, certified by a responsible bank, for an amount which shall not be less than ten per cent of the aggregate of the proposal; or if so prescribed by the city council, by a bond for the said amount signed by the bidder and by two sureties, who shall justify before any officer competent to administer an oath, in double the said amount over and above all statutory exemptions. Said proposals shall be delivered to the clerk of the said city council, and said council shall, in open session, examine and publicly declare the same; provided, however, that no proposal shall be considered unless accompanied by said check or bond satisfactory to the council. The city council may reject any and all bids, should it deem this for the public good, and also the bid of any party who has been delinquent and unfaithful in any former contract with the municipality, and shall reject all bids other than the lowest regular bid of any responsible bidder, and may award the contract for said work or improvement to the lowest responsible bidder at the prices named in his bid, and shall thereupon return to the proper parties the respective checks and bonds corresponding to the bids so rejected. But the check accompanying such accepted proposal or bid shall be held by the city clerk of said city until the contract for doing said work as hereinafter provided has been entered into, either by said lowest bidder or by the owners of a major part of the frontage, whereupon said certified check shall be returned to said bidder. But if said bidder fails, neglects, or refuses to enter into the contract to perform said work or improvement, as hereinafter provided, then the certified check accompanying his bid, and the amount therein mentioned, shall be declared to be forfeited to said city, and shall be collected by it and paid into its fund for repairs of streets, and any bond forfeited may be prosecuted and the amount due thereon collected and paid into said fund. Notice of such awards of contracts shall be posted for five days, in the same manner as herein before provided for the publication of proposals for said work. The owners of the major part of the frontage of lots and lands upon the street whereon said work is to be done, which are liable to be assessed for said work, or their agents, and who shall make oath that they are such owners or agents, shall not be required to present sealed proposals, but may within ten days after the first posting of notice of said award elect to take said work, and enter into a written contract to do the whole work at the price at which the same has been awarded. Should the said owners fail to elect to take said work and to enter into a written contract therefor within said ten days, or to commence the work within fifteen days after the first publication of said award, and to prosecute the same with diligence to completion, it shall be the duty of the superintendent of streets to enter into a contract with the original bidder to whom the contract was awarded, and at the prices specified in his bid. But if said original bidder neglects, fails, or refuses for fifteen days after the first posting of notice of the award to enter into the contract, then the city council shall again advertise for proposals, as in the first instance, and award the contract for said work to the then lowest regular responsible bidder. The bids of all persons, and the election of all owners as aforesaid who have failed to enter into contract as

а

herein provided, shall be rejected in any bidding or election subsequent to the first, for the same work. If the owners or contractor who may have taken any contract do not complete the same within the time limited in the contract, or within such further time as the city council may give them, the superintendent of streets shall report such delinquency to the city council, which may relet the unfinished portion of said work, after pursuing the formalities prescribed hereinbefore for the letting of the whole. All contractors, contracting owners included, shall, at the time of executing any contract for street work herein, execute a bond to the satisfaction and approval of the superintendent of streets of said city, with two or more sureties, and payable to such city, in such sums as the said mayor shall deem adequate, conditional for the faithful performance of the contract; and the sureties shall justify before any person competent to administer an oath in double the amount mentioned in said bond over and above all statutory exemptions. Before being entitled to a contract the bidder to whom award was made, or the Owners who have elected to take the contract, must advance to the superintendent of streets for payment by him the cost of publication of the notices required hitherto under the proceedings prescribed in this act.

Superintendent of streets to make contracts.

SEC. 6. The superintendent of streets is hereby authorized, in his official capacity, to make all written contracts, and receive all bonds authorized by this act, and to do any other act, either express or implied, that pertains to the street department under this act; and he shall fix the time for the commencement, which shall not be more than fifteen days from the date of the contract, and for the completion of the work under all contracts entered into by him, which work shall be prosecuted with diligence from day to day thereafter to completion, and he may extend the time so fixed from time to time, under the direction of the city council. The work provided for in section two of this act must, in all cases, be done under the direction and to the satisfaction of the superintendent of streets, and the materials used shall comply with the specifications and be to the satisfaction of said superintendent of streets, and all contracts made therefor must contain a provision to that effect, and also express notice that in no case, except where it is otherwise provided in this act, will the city, or any officer thereof, be liable for any portion of the expense, nor for any delinquency of persons or property assessed. The city council may, by ordinance, prescribe general rules directing the superintendent of streets and the contractor as to the materials to be used, and the mode of executing the work, under all contracts thereafter made. The assessment and apportionment of the expenses of all such work or improvement shall be made by the superintendent of streets in the mode herein provided.