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 the 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, hucksters, not including hucksters or peddlers who sell only native vegetables, fruits or foods, personally carried by the huckster or peddler, auctioners, plumbers, barbers, embalmers, collecting agencies, mercantile agencies, transportation companies and agencies, advertising agents, tattooers, hotels, clubs, restaurants, lodging houses, bo arding houses, livery stables, boarding stables, laundries, cleaning and dyeing establishments, establishments for the storage of highly combustible or explosive materials, public warehouses, dance halls, circus, and all other performances and places of amusement, public vehicles, horse races, bowling alleys, pawnbrokers, dealers in second-hand merchandise, junk dealers, billiard tables, theaters, theatrical performances, and all other performances and places of amusement, shooting galleries, slot machines not used for ganing, and merry-go-rounds; 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, vhose action on the cppeal shall be final. Such revocation shall operate to forfeit to the city all aims which may have been paid for said license and to prohibit the issuance to the person vhose 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 aid places named in subsection (c) of this section. To regulate the business aid fix the locations of blacksmith shops, foundries, steam boilers, steam engines, lumber yards, sawmills, and other establishments likely tn endanger the public safety by giving rise to conflagrations or explosions; to regulate the storage and sale of gunpowders, tar, pitch, resin, coal, oil, gasoline, benzine, turpentine, hemp, cotton, nitroglycerin, petroleum, or any of the predicts thereof and of all other highly combustible or explosive materials. To reflate the use of the streets and public places by vehicles; to regulate garages and stables aid the keeping of carriages, carts, end other conveyances for hire; and to designate stands to be occupied by public vehicles when 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 and 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, aid other ecpipment for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and to provide for the management aid use of the same. Until farther provisions 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 limits 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 pyrotechni c displays. To make suitable provisions to insure the public safety from conflagrations and th e effects of storms and other public calamities, and to provide relief for persons suffering from the sane. To provide for laying out, opening, extending, widening, straightening, closing up, constructing, or regulating, in part, any public plaza, scparc, street, sidewalk, trail, park, waterworks, or water main s, or any cemetery, sewer, sewer connection or conn ection s, 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 th e owner or possessor of any land, premises, or improvements, whether public or private, by reason of my such work and for which the owner or possessor should to compensated, or should pay accompensation, 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 or district within the bounds of said city which it may create and establish for any such purpose, die whole, or any part of the amount of damages and expenses which, as so ascertained, will be incurred in aid about any such work nr construction as afore-said 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 improvements shall not properly and fully pay to such officials and at such time or times and manner as it shall fix therefor any amount or amounts which may be found and declared to be due as aid for such assessments as aforesaid, for filing in the proper and appropriate registers or records of property declarations o f such amounts so found due, which amounts shall, in such and all cases and upon and after such filings be and become liens upon and against such lands, premises, or improvements; 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 regilar tax liens; and that sad liens shall be enforced and collected by the same officials, in the sane manner and under die same penalties as to time and interest as annual or other regular tax liens, El and shall, when so paid or collected, be paid and credited to the appropriate assessiient fund, whether general or special, arid be disbursed therefrom in such and no other mamer as shall be provided m the ordinance creating such asessment and fund; to carry into effect by ordinance the powers hereinbefore granted m 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 end appropriate therefor, and in each and every such ordinance, provision shall , be made for notice to any such all persons interested giving than and each of then not less than two weeks from and after the date of 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 knowi place of residence, or at the city if no place of residence is known, or to an agait who may be or may have been appointed by such person in writing, in which to appear and file objection either the work itself, the method of 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; aiy 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 assesanent thereof, or any individial area of assessment objected herein, and shall decide any and every aich objection within ten days after the filing thereof and give notice of such decision to the person or persons interested in the manner hereinbefore provided for notice of such assessment within five days thereafter. And all assessments levied by virtue of this subsection shall he levied only upon the basis of the value of the land benefited and not upon improvements thereon, and all valuations of any and ail lands and premises made under the provisions hereof and for the purposes herein stated shall be die valuations thereof, 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 encroachments and obstructions upon the sane; to regulate or prevent die use of the same for processions, signs, sign posts, awiings, end awning posts; to prohibit die throwing or depositing of offal, garbage, refuse, or other offensive matter in the same, and to provide for its collection and disposition; to reflate die openings therein for the laying of gas, water sewer, and other pipes therein, the building and repair of tunnels, sewers, and drains, and all structures dierein and thereunder, and the erecting of poles and stringing wires therein; to provide for and regulate crosswalks, curbs, and gutters therein; to name and change the names of the same and provide for and regulate the numbering of houses and lots fronting diereon; to construct, maintain, and regulate die use of bridges, viaducts and culverts; to prevent aid regulate amusements having a tendency to annoy persons using the streets or public places, or to frighten horses aid other animals; and to regulate die speed of horses and other animals, vehicles, and locomotives wi diin 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 construction, 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 akk territories within the drainage area of such water supply, and within one hundred meters of any reservoir, conduit, 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 sane affects the public health and the health of domestic animals. To require any land or building which is in an insanitary condition to be cleaned 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 building. To fill up or require to be filled up to a grade necessary for proper sanitation my 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 rsay require. To construct and keep in repair public drains sewers, and cesspools, aid 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 funerals and the disposal of the dead. To establish or authorize the establishment of slaughterhouses 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, vegetables, aid 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 violations of such regulations; and to adopt such other measures to prevent the in trodu ction aid 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 the 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; aid to make and enforce all necessary police ordinances, with the view to the confinement and reformation of vagrants, disorderly persons, mendicants aid prostitutes, and personsconvicted of violating any city ordinance. (ee) To establish, regulate, and maintain city departments, and prescribe the powers and duties thereof and readjust the same. (ff) To oonstnict, erect, and establish a public light, heat and power supply and installation system, aid to that end to purchase, 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 samsior any part thereof; to replace worn or useless parts, machinery, poles, aiimals, vehicles, trucks, wires, and other equipment; and to operate, control, and manage 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 alter into contract with, and to supply electric light, heat, current and other services to residents, merchants, businessmen, and manufacturers in and about the city at rates and for prices not less than sufficient properly 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 extensions, improvements, enlargements, alterations, or changes thereof and therein. (jj) To eiter into con tract of lease and to rent or least any electric light, heat or power supply or installation system whether erected, constructed, and established by the City Council, or acquired by it through purdiase, grant, or conveyance or in any other manner, to any person or persons, or to aiy corporation, for proper and sufficient consideration subject to the right of supervision and control by the City Council over the operation of such system and over the amount of heat, light, power and current delivered, and the character of other services rendered and of the rates and amounts charged therefor. (kk) To fix penalties for violation of ordinances, but no single penalty shall exceed a fine of two hundred pesos or imprisonment for six months, or both, but imprisonment shall be imposed in lieu of unpaid fines at the rate of one day's imprisonment tor each peso of the fine. Persons undergoing imprisonment lor violation of ordinances may be required to labor for the period of imprisonment upon public works of the city in such manner as may be directed by the City Council. Whenever a person is imprisoned for nonpayment of a fine he shall be released upon payment of such fine, less the 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 wi th the general provisions of law, to await the judgnent of the appellate court. (ll) To make such further ordinances and reflations 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 for the 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.