The City Council - Powers.
Section 12
Sec. 12. The City Council - Powers. - The City Council shall have power by ordinance or resolution To make all appropriations for the expenses of the government of the city, and establish and fix the salaries of city officers and employees, except teachers in the public schools, subject to approval by the Department Head. ; To provide for the levy and collection of taxes and other city revenues, as provided by law, and apply the same to the payment of city expenses in accordance with appropriations. To issue licenses fixing the amount of the license fee for the following: hawkers, peddlers who sell only native vegetables, fruits or foods, personally carried by the huckster or peddler, auctioneers, plumbers, barbers, embalmers, collecting agencies, mercantile agencies, transportation companies and agencies, advertising agents, tattooers, hotels, clubs, restaurants, lodging houses, boarding houses, livery stables, boarding stables, laundries, cleaning and dyeing establishments, establishments for die storage of highly combustible or explosive materials,public warehouses, dance halls, circus, and ajl other perforraances and places of amusement, public vehicles, horse races, bowling alleys, pawibrokers, dealers in second-hand merchandise, junk dealers, billiard tables, theaters, theatrical performances, 8Pd all other performances and places of amusement, shooting galleries, slot machines not used for gamiiig, and merry-gorounds; to license, regulate, or prohibit the selling, giving away, or disposing in any manner of any intoxicating, spirituous, vinous, or fermented liquors, and determine the amount to be paid for such licenses; to regulate and license signs, signboards, and billboards displayed or maintained in any place exposed to public view, except those displayed at the place or places where the professions or business advertised thereby is in whole or in part conducted. If after due investigation, the Mayor shall decide that any person licensed under the provisions of this subsection is abusing his license and privilege to the injury of the public morals or peace or that any place so licensed has been or is conducted in a disorderly or unlawful manner, or is a nuisance, or is permitted to be used as a resort for disorderly characters, criminals, or women of ill repute, he may by order summarily revoke such license, subject to appeal to the Department Head, whose action on the appeal shall be final. Such revocation shall operate to forfeit to the city all sums which may have been paid for said license and to prohibit the issuance to the person whose license is so revoked of any other license for a term which may be fixed in said order. To make regulations for the conducting of the business of the persons and places named in subsection (c) of this section. To regulate the business and fix the location of blacksmith shops, foundries, steam boilers, steam engines, lumber yards, sawmills, and other establishments likely to endanger the public safety by giving rise to conflagrations or explosions;to regulate the storage and sale of gunpowder, tar, pitch, resin, coal oil, gasoline, benzine, turpentine, hemp, cotton, nitroglycerin, petroleum, or any of the products thereof and of all other highly combustible or explosive materials. To regulate the use of the streets end public places by vehicles; to regulate garages and stables aid the keeping of carriages, carts, and other conveyances for hire; and to designate stands to be occupied by public vehicles vdien not in use. To provide for the erection or rental and care of buildings necessary for the use of the city. To establish and maintain public schools, subject to the limitations of law. To establish fire limits aid regulate the kinds of buildings and structures that may be erected within said limits, and the manner of constructing and repairing the same. To erect engine houses,and provide fire engines, hose carts, hooks and ladders, and other equipment for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and to provide for the managenent and use of the same. Until further provision is made, the law providing for fire protection in municipalities having no paid fire department, shall apply to the city. To regulate the use of lights in stables, shops, and other buildings and places, and to regulate or restrain the building of bonfires and the use of firecrackers, fireworks, torpedoes, and pyrotechnic displays. To make suitable provisions to insure the public safety from conflagrations and the effects of storms and other public calamities, and to provide relief for persons su ffering from the sane. To provide for laying out, opening, extending, widening, straightening, closing up, constructing, or regulating, in part, any public plaza, square, street sidewalk, trail, park, waterworks, or water mains, or any cemetery, sewer, sewer connection or connections, either on, in, or upon public or private property; to provide for ascertaining whether any, and what amount in value of, damage will be caused, or benefit will accrue to the owner or possessor of any land, premises, or improvements, whether public or private, by reason of any such work end for which the owner or possessor should be compensated, or should pay a compensation, and provide for assessing, levying, and collecting, either generally on the whole assessable property within the city, especially on the property benefited, or on all the property within any stated area ox district within the bounds of said city which it may create and establish for any such purpose, the whole, or any part of the amount of damages and expenses which, as so ascertained, will be incurred in and about any such work or construction as aforesaid within the bounds of said city; to provide for the payment of such compensation as may be found to be due to any person or persons entitled thereto; to provide, when the owners or possessors of such lands, premises or improve ments shall not properly and fully pay to such official and at such time or times and manner as it shall fix therefor any amount or anounts which may be found and declared to be due as and for such assessment as aforesaid, for filing in the proper and appropriate registers or records of property dec- larations of such amounts so found due, which amounts shall, in each and all cases and upon and after such filing, be and become liens upon and against such lands, premises, or im- provements; that said liens shall have and take precedence over all other liens of every kind and nature whatsoever whether antecedent or subsequent in point of time, save and except annual or other regular tax liens;and that said liens shall be enforced and collected by the same officials, in the same manner and under the same penalties as to time and interest as annual or other regular tax liens, and shall, when so paid or collected, be paid in and credited to the appropriate assessment fund, whether general or special, and be disbursed therefrom in such and no other manner as shall be provided in the ordinance creating such assessment and fund; to carry into effect by ordinance the powers herein- before granted in this subsection, but no ordinance shall provide for more than one project of any of the kinds named herein, nor create more than one district, assessment, and fund necessary and appropriate therefor, and in each and every such ordinance, provision shall be made for notice to any and all persons interested, giving them and each of them not less than two weeks from and after the date o f depositing a notice in the post office at the city in a securely sealed post-paid wrapper addressed to each person affected thereby and assessed thereunder at his last known place of residence, or at the city if no place of residence is known, or to an agent who may be or may have been appointed by such person in writing, in which to appear and file objection to either the work itself, the method or manner of assessment, the time or times and method of payment therefor, or to all thereof, and such other and further objection or objections as may seem to any such person or persons reasonable and proper in the premises; such notice shall set forth the nature of the proposed improvement, the estimated cost thereof, the total amount of the assessment to be levied therefor, and the amount to be levied upon each parcel of the property or possession of the addressee; and and every such appearance and objection shall be made and heard only before the City Council, which may, at any such hearing, alter, modify, or increase the area of such district, the total assessment thereof, or any individual area of assess- ment objected to therein, and shall decide any and every such objection within ten days after the filing thereof and give notice of such decision to the person ur persons in- terested iii the manner hereinbefore provided for notice of such assessment wi tlun five days thereafter. And ail assess- ments levied by virtue of this subsection shall be levied only upon the basis of the value of the land benefited and not upon improvements thereon, and all valuations of any and all lands and premises made under the provisions hereof and for the purposes herein stated shall be the valuations there- of, last regularly made for the purposes of annual taxation. To provide for the lighting, cleaning, and sprinkling of streets and public places; to prevent and remove en- croachments and obstructions upon the same; to regulate or prevent the use of the same for processions, signs, sign- posts, awnings, and awning posts; to prohibit the throwing or depositing of offal, garbage, refuse, or other offensive matter in the same, and to provide for its collection and disposition; to regulate the openings therein for the laying of gas, water sewer, and other pipes therein, the building and repair of tunnels, sewers, and drains, and all struc- tures therein and thereunder, and the erecting of poles and stringing of wires therein; to provide for and regulate crosswalks, curbs,,and gutters therein; to name and change the names of the same, and provide for arid regulate the num- bering of houses and lots fronting thereon; to regulate traffic and sales upon the same; to abate nuisances in the same, and punish the authors or owners thereof; to construct, maintain, and regulate the use of bridges, viaducts and cul- verts; to prevent and regulate amusements having'a tendency to annoy persons using the streets or public places, or to frighten horses and other animals; to regulate the speed of horses and other animals, vehicles, and locomotives within the limits of the city. To provide for the inspection of all gas, electric and telephone wires, conduits, meters, and other apparatus and the condemnation and correction or removal of the same when dangerous or defective. To maintain waterworks for the purposes of supplying water to the inhabitants of the city, to purify the source of supply, to regulate the control and use of the water, and to fix and collect rents therefor; to regulate the construc- tion, repair, and use of hydrants, pumps, cisterns, and reservoirs, and to prevent the waste of water; and'for'the purpose of protecting and insuring the purity and quantity of the water supply of the city, to extend its ordinance over all territories within the drainage area of such water supply, and within one hundred meters of any reservoir, con- duit, canal, aqueduct, pumping station, or watershed used in connection with the water service. To establish and maintain a city pound and fix the fees for poundage, regulate, restrict, or prohibit the running at large of domestic animals and dogs unlicensed, and provide for the distraining, impounding, and killing or sale of the same for the penalty incurred and the cost of the proceedings; also impose penalties upon the owners of said animals for the violation of any ordinance in relation thereto. But carabaos, horses, mules, asses, and all members of the bovine family shall be disposed of in accordance with general law. To regulate the keeping and use of animals, in so far as the same affects the public health and the health of domestic animals. To require any land or building which is in an in-sanitary condition to be cleansed at ¦ the expense of the owner or ¦ tenant, and, upon failure to comply with such an order, have the work done, and assess the expense upon the land or buildings. To fill up or require to:be filled up to a grade necessary for proper sanitation any and all lands and premises which may be declared and duly reported by the Bureau of Health as being insanitary by reason of being below such grade or which, in the opinion of the Council, the public health or welfare may require. To construct and keep in repair public drains,sewers, and cesspools, and regulate the construction and use of private water-closets, privies, sewers, drains, and cesspools. To prohibit the burial of-the dead within the center of population of the city and provide for their-burial in such proper place and in such manner as the Council may determine, subject to the provisions of the general law regulating burial grounds and cemeteries and governing fune- rals and the disposal of the dead. To establish or authorize the establishment of slaughter houses and markets, and inspect and regulate the use of the same; to provide for and regulate the keeping, preparation, and sale of meat, fruits, poultry, milk, fish, vegeta- bles, and all other provisions or articles of food offered for sale. To enforce the regulations of the Bureau of Health, and by ordinance to provide fines and penalties for viola- tions of such regulations; and to adopt such other measures to prevent the introduction and'spread of disease as may, from time to time, be deemed desirable or necessary. To declare, prevent, and abate nuisances. To provide for the recording of births, marriages, and deaths. To establish, maintain, and regulate a police force and prescribe the powers and duties of its members. (aa) To establish, maintain, and regulate a city prison. (bb) To prohibit and provide for die punishment of cruelty to animals. (cc) To suppress gambling houses, houses of ill fame and other disorderly houses; and to prohibit the printing, sale, or exhibition of immoral pictures, books, or publications of any description. (dd) To prevent and suppress riots, affrays,disturbances, and disorderly assemblies; to punish and prevent intoxication, fighting, quarreling, and all disorderly conduct; and to make and enforce all necessary police ordinances, with the view to the confinement and reformation of vagrants, disorderly persons, mendicants, and prostitutes, and persons convicted of violating any city ordinance. (ee) To establish, regulate, and maintain city departments, and prescribe the powers and duties thereof and read- just the same. (ff) To construct, erect, and establish a public light, heat and power supply and installation 'system, and to that end to purcha.se, expropriate, or otherwise acquire all lands which may be necessary, and to build, :erect, and construct any and all buildings, stations, and other structures, and to purchase any or all such machinery, poles, wires, wagons, trucks, or other vehicles, supplies, and:equipment as may now or hereafter be necessary to the successful operation of such system, as may be provided by law. (gg) To maintain and operate any electric light, heat or power supply and installation system, however acquired; to keep the same in repair; to alter,increase, extend, improve, enlarge or modify the same or any part thereof; to replace worn or useless parts, machinery, poles, animals, vehicles, trucks, wires, and other equipment; and to operate, control, and mana ge the same. (hh) For any and all the purposes contemplated in the last two preceding subsections, to enter, if necessary, into contracts for partial or deferred payment; to appoint and employ such officers, clerks, employees, and laborers as may be necessary; and to appropriate funds of the city for all the purposes aforesaid. (ii) To enter into contracts with, and to supply electriclight, heat, current, and other service to residents, merchants, business men, and manufacturers in and about the city at rates and for prices not less than sufficient proper- ly to maintain and operate any such plant or system and to pay for depreciations in the same and for renewals and replacements of any and all parts thereof and for all exten- sions, iimprovements, enlargements, alterations, or.changes thereof and therein. (jj) To enter.into a contract of lease, and to rent or lease any electric light, heat, or power supply or installs- tion system whether erected, constructed, and:established by the City Council, or acquired by it through purchase, grant, or conveyance or in any other manner, to any person or persons, or to any corporation, for proper and sufficient consideration and subject to the right of supervision and control by the City Council over the operation of such sys- tem and over'the amount of heat, light, power and current delivered, and the character of other services rendered and of the rates and amounts chorged therefor. (kk) To fix penalties for violation of ordinances, but no single paialty shall exceed a fine of two hundred pesos or imprisonment for six months, or both, but imprisonment shall beimposed in lieu of unpaid fines at the rate of one day's imprisonment for each peso of the fine. Persons undergoing imprisonment-for violation of ordinances may be required to labor for the period of imprisonment upon public works of the.city insuch manner as may be directed by the City Coun- cil. Whenever a person is imprisoned for nonpayment of a fine he shall be released upon payment of such fine, less one peso per day for each day that he has been confined. Pending appeal the defendant shall remain in custody unless released upon sufficient bail in accordance with the general provisions of law, to await the judgment, of the appellate court. (ll) To make such further ordinances and regulations not repugnant to law as may be necessary to carry into effect and discharge the powers and duties conferred by this Act and such-as it shall deem necessary and proper to provide for the health and safety, promote the prosperity, improve the morals, peace, good order, comfort, and convenience of the city and the inhabitants'thereof, and forthe protection of property therein; and enforce obedience thereto with"such lawful fines or penalties as the City Council may prescribe under the provisions of subsection (kk) of this section.