Compensa. tion.

Bonds for licenses.

Board of finance.

Quorum.

President.]

Their duties.

clerk. They shall not be delivered until the sums to be paid therefor, and the fees accruing thereon, are paid to said clerk, and the bond required by law is duly executed and approved by the board of excise, and when issued shall be in force, unless revoked, until the third Tuesday of January in the following year. Immediately upon the receipt of such sums and fees by said clerk, he shall pay them over to the county treasurer, and render an account thereof to the comptroller.

7. The commissioners of excise shall be entitled to receive two dollars a day for their services, in lieu of all fees and perquisites whatever, but the pay of no member shall exceed ten dollars in any one year, which, together with the necessary expenses of blank forms of license and advertising, shall be paid by the county treasurer on certificate of the city clerk.

§ 8. The bonds to be taken on granting licenses shall be similar to those prescribed in like cases in the ninth title of the twentieth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes, and shall be disposed of and prosecuted in the manner therein directed.

TITLE IX.

OF THE FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT.

§ 1. At the first annual election of city officers to be held under this act, and at every annual election thereafter, there shall be elected in each ward of said city, four financial officers, who shall be freeholders in the city and residents of the ward in which they are respectively elected, and who shall hold their offices for one year, and until others are elected and qualified. The said financial officers, together with the mayor and common council, shall constitute and be known as the board of finance of the city of Williamsburgh.

§ 2. Thirteen of the members of said board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The mayor, or acting mayor, shall preside when present at the meetings of the board, and the city clerk shall be clerk of said board. In case of the absence of the mayor, acting mayor, or clerk, it shall be lawful for said board to appoint a president pro tem., or clerk pro tem., or both if necessary, out of their number, to discharge the proper duties belonging to the president or clerk at such meeting. § 3. It shall be the duty of the board of finance, on or before the first Monday of August in each year, to fix, determine and direct the amount of moneys which shall be

raised to defray the contingent and all other expenses of said city for the current year, including any interest due or to become due on the public debt of said city, as well as any instalments which may become due thereon, together with such sums as may at any time be required by law to pay into the sinking fund of the city; and for that purpose they shall meet on the first Tuesday of March, and as often thereafter as may be necessary. The clerk shall lay before said board the annual statement of the mayor, in and by this act directed to be presented to the common council, together with the action of the common council thereon. The said board after having fixed and determined the amount to be raised as aforesaid, shall cause a statement thereof to be made, signed by the mayor or presiding officer of said board, and attested by the clerk, and file the same in the office of the city clerk. Such statement may be altered and amended by said board of finance from time to time, before the first Monday of August, but not after that date. It shall also be the duty of said board to fix and determine the amount of salaries or compensation which shall be paid to the several officers of said city, (except to the aldermen and members of the board of finance, and such as are otherwise fixed by this act,) for their services as such officers. The salaries of officers shall be fixed before their election or appointment; and it shall be the duty of the board of finance of the village of Williamsburgh to meet on or before the first Monday of October, 1851, and fix the amount of salaries to be paid to the several officers first elected under this act.

raise taxes.

§ 4. The common council shall have power in each Power to year to raise by tax such sums as shall be fixed and determined by the board of finance in manner aforesaid, and to adopt all legal and requisite measures for levying and collecting the same.

borrow

§ 5. The common council are hereby authorised and Power to empowered from time to time in each year, in advance of money. the collection of taxes authorised to be raised as aforesaid, to borrow such sum or sums of money as may be necessary to defray the current city expenses, as the same may accrue or become payable, and for that purpose may issue the bonds of the city, redeemable at any time or times to be specified in such bonds not exceeding one year from the date thereof: Provided, however, that the sum or sums so borrowed shall not in the aggregate exceed twothirds of the whole amount which shall have been directed

Money borrowed how

by the board of finance to be raised for the city expenses of the current year.

§ 6. Whenever the common council shall borrow any to be paid. money pursuant to the provisions of the last preceding section, so much of the moneys which shall have been or shall be directed to be raised by tax for city expenses, as shall be necessary to pay off the amount so borrowed, with the interest thereon, shall become pledged for the faithful payment thereof, and when collected shall be paid to and held by the treasurer as a special fund, to be paid out only upon warrant drawn against such fund, in payment of any sum or sums so borrowed as aforesaid with interest thereon.

$25,000,

may be

inake im

§7. The common council may, from time to time, borborrowed row upon the corporate bonds of the city, for the purpose yearly to of making such permanent improvements as would be a provements general charge or tax upon the city, such sum or sums of money as may be authorized by the board of finance in the manner hereinafter directed, but the aggregate amount of all the sums so borrowed, in any one year, shall not exceed the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars.

Such loan, how authorized.

§8. Before the board of finance shall be convened for the purpose of authorizing such loan, the common council shall, by a vote of a majority of all the members thereof, to be ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes, pass a resolution setting forth the sum proposed to be borrowed, and the specific purposes to which the same shall be applied. The resolution shall be certified by the clerk, and presented to the mayor; if he approve of the same, or if he do not return it with his objections within the time hereinafter mentioned, he shall cause a notice to be served upon each member of the board of finance, either personally, or by leaving the same at his residence, setting forth the amount of the proposed loan, and the object or objects thereof, and fixing the time and place of meeting of said board for the purpose of determining whether such loan shall be authorized. If he do not approve of such loan, the mayor shall, within ten days after the receipt thereof, return said resolution, with his objections in writing thereto, and file the same with the city clerk. The common council shall, at its next regular meeting thereafter, enter the objections at large on its journal; after which it shall proceed to reconsider the same, and if two-thirds of all the members elected, shall then agree to pass the resolution, the mayor shall cause the notice in this section mentioned to be served upon the members of the board of finance; such notice

shall be served at least one week before the meeting of said board.

§ 9. The board of finance shall meet at the time and Two-thirds place mentioned in said notice, and may, by a majority of necessary. two-thirds of all the members elected, to be ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes, authorize the common council to borrow the whole, or any part of the sum mentioned in the aforesaid resolution, subject, however, to the limitation contained in the seventh section of this title.

of loan.

$10. The common council shall thereupon have power Conditions to borrow upon the corporate bonds of the city, the sum authorised by the board of finance, and for that purpose may issue bonds, bearing interest, payable half yearly, at a rate not exceeding seven per cent per annum, and redeemable at such time or times, within twenty years, as the common council may by resolution determine.

money to

§11. Whenever money shall be borrowed by the com- Borrowed mon council for any specific purpose, the same shall be be specifiapplied only to such purpose, except the surplus thereof, p if any surplus should remain after accomplishing such

purpose.

cally ap

more

borrowed.

§12. The common council shall have power to borrow, when for the use of the city, sums exceeding twenty-five thou-ban sand dollars: provided, the proposition for creating such may be debt shall have been previously submitted to the electors of said city at a regular charter election, of which three months previous notice shall have been published in two of the newspapers printed and published in the city, and such proposition shall have then received the affirmative vote of a majority of the legal voters at such election. The common council may, by ordinance, direct the mode and manner of submitting such proposition to the electors of said city; and in case the majority of said electors shall be in favor of creating such loans, the common council, which shall be in office next after such election has taken place, may, by the vote of a majority of all the members elected, confirm such loan, and issue bonds therefor, payable at such time or times, in such manner, and at such rates of interest as they may direct.

be annual

§ 13. The common council are hereby authorized and Interest to directed to levy and collect annually by tax such sums as ly paid by shall be necessary to pay the interest upon the bonds of the tax. city lawfully issued, and also the interest upon the bonds heretofore issued by the trustees of the village of Williamsburgh, and also such sums as may be necessary to pay off the principal or any part thereof accruing during

Certificates of indebt

local im

the current year, and the faith and property of the city shall be and remain pledged for the payment of all monies heretofore borrowed or raised by the trustees of the village of Williamsburgh, under or by virtue of any law of this state.

§ 14. The common council shall also have power, after edness for any assessment for a local improvement has been confirmprovements ed and the contract for making the same has been entered into, to issue certificates of indebtedness to the contractor, payable out of such assessments when collected, and bearing interest after the expiration of one hundred and eighty days from the delivery of the assessment roll to the collectors, but no certificate shall at any time previous to the completion of the work, exceed seventy-five per cent in value of the work actually done, and they may issue a warrant for the collection of the assessment imposed before the work shall have been completed.

Comptroll

er.

Veto.

Perjury.

Competency.

Embezzlement.

15. The accounts of the city, and the management of its finances shall be under the direction of the comptroller of said city, subject to the provisions of this act and to the ordinances of the common council.

TITLE X.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

§ 1. The provisions of section nine of the second title of this act shall not authorize the mayor to veto any appointment to office made by the common council, but such appointments shall in all cases require the affirmative vote of a majority of the aldermen elected.

§ 2. Any person who may be required to take an oath or affirmation under or by virtue of any provision of this act, who shall wilfully swear or affirm falsely to any material fact or matter under such oath or affirmation legally administered shall, upon conviction, be adjudged guilty of perjury.

§3. No person shall be incompetent as a judge, justice, witness or juror, by reason of his being an inhabitant or freeholder in the city of Williamsburgh, in any action or proceeding in which the city is a party or interested.

§ 4. Every embezzlement of money that shall be received by any officer elected or appointed under this act, or by any clerk, deputy or assistant, of such officer, shall be deemed a felony, punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both.