inspectors. it shall be the duty of the city clerk, at least five days prior to Notice to the first meeting of the boards of registry for the registration of voters for any such election to give written or printed notice, through the post-office in said city, to the inspectors of election of the several election districts, of the polling places in their respective districts, of the time of holding each meeting of the board of registry prior to said election and of the time of holding said election. § 2. Section seven of said title three is hereby amended to read as follows: elections and regis § 7. The inspectors of election shall thereupon proceed in refer- Conduct of ence to said election and the registration of voters therefor as tration. provided by the general laws of this state in relation to public elections. The polls shall be opened at seven o'clock in the morn- Opening and closing ing on the day of said election and remain open till five o'clock of polls. in the afternoon of the same day. § 3. Section nine of said title three is hereby amended to read as follows: § 9. The electors shall vote by ballot in the manner prescribed Ballots. by the provisions of the election law; and the ballot shall be a paper ticket, conforming to the requirements of said chapter, its amendments and additions. § 4. Section twelve of said title is hereby amended to read as follows: election in case of tie certain § 12. If at any annual election, the mayor, a police commis. Special sioner, an assessor, a justice of the peace, an alderman or a super- vote for visor shall not have been chosen by reason of two or more can- officers. didates having received an equal number of votes for the same office, a special election, to be held in said city or in any ward thereof, as the case may require, shall within five days after the canvass of the votes of said election, as provided in the last section be ordered by the common council, to be held on a day named by it, not more than forty days after said order. The pro- applicable. visions of this act in respect to the annual election, as far as may be, shall be applicable to such special election. The common council shall meet for the purpose of declaring the result of said election on the Tuesday next after the election. In case any Election of other elective officer than those above specified in this section cers by shall not for said reason have been chosen, the common council, which shall be organized next after said annual election, shall, Provisions other offi council. Powers of council. Maps and surveys. Street by a vote of a majority of all those elected thereto, proceed upon their organization, to elect as such officer one of the persons receiving the highest number of votes, at the annual election, as such officer. § 5. Subdivisions seventeen and forty of section seven of title four of said chapter six hundred and seventy-one are hereby amended to read as follows: 17. To make or cause to be made maps of the city and of the several wards thereof, and to sell, or cause to be sold, copies of the same for the benefit of the contingent fund of the city; to survey, lay out, and establish streets, highways and public grounds numbers. of said city; and to designate and alter the names of streets, avenues and alleys, and the numbers of all lots and buildings. 40. To appoint a board of health, as provided by law. names and Board of health. removal of for cause. § 6. Section eight of title five of said chapter is hereby amended to read as follows: Assessors, § 8. Any of said assessors may be removed from office by the supreme court for official misconduct or omission to perform the duties of his office, for inattention to such duties or incompetency well and faithfully to execute the same, on charges preferred by the common council, or by at least four resident tax payers. Such charges shall be contained in a written complaint setting forth the same at length, and, when the charges are preferred by taxpayers as herein provided, such complaint shall be duly verified as in an action in said court. Personal service of such complaint shall be made on such assessor and an opportunity of being heard in his defense shall be given him in such manner as said court or a judge thereof may direct. In case such assessor shall deny such charges, or take issue thereon the said court shall proceed to examine and try the whole matter involved in such charges, and shall render judgment removing such assessor from office, or dismissing the charges against him as the court may determine. Interest in contracts, etc., prohibited. § 7. Section fifty-four of said title five of said chapter is hereby amended to read as follows: § 54. No person, except a commissioner of deeds, elected or appointed to or in office, under any of the provisions of this act, shall, unless otherwise in this act provided, be directly or indirectly interested in any contract to which the city or any of the boards or departments thereof is a party, or in any account against the city, or any board or department thereof, for supplies or materials furnished; and any contract in which any such officer shall be or become so interested shall be void. § 8. Section three of title ten of said chapter is hereby amended to read as follows: assessors. Assess ment-roll. § 3. The assessors shall ascertain, in the manner provided by Duties of law for the performance of like duties by town assessors, the names of all taxable inhabitants of said city, and also all taxable real and personal property therein. The common council shall cause to be prepared duplicate assessment-rolls, in separate columns of each of which the assessors shall set down, according to the best information they can obtain, all such names, the quantity of land to be taxed to each person, the full value of such land and the full value of all taxable personal property owned by such person, less the just debts owing by him. Said assessors shall also designate on such assessment-rolls as "farm lands" all lands occupied as such, and all agricultural lands, properly so called, situated in whole or in part within said city, and keep the same in a separate column of each of said assessment-rolls. Such assessment-rolls Completion shall be completed on or before the first day of July in each year. Except as modified by this act, the laws of this state shall govern the making of all such assessments and assessment-rolls. § 9. Section eight of title eleven of said chapter is hereby aniended to read as follows: of roll. etc.. of how paid or assessed. § 8. Subject to the restrictions in this title contained, the com- Paving, grading, mon council shall have power to cause any street, alley, lane, high streets. way or public ground, or any part or parts thereof in said city, to be paved, and if necessary, to be properly graded for the purpose of paving the same, or when deemed expedient to be simply graded The expense of all such paving, grading and paving or grading of Expense, public grounds shall be paid by special tax upon the city at large, and collected in the manner, as nearly as may be, and with the fees prescribed in this act for the collection of general city taxes. The expense of all such paving, grading and paving or grading of streets and other ways and places shall be defrayed by special tax, one-half thereof upon the city at large and one-half thereof upon the real estate adjacent and contiguous to that part of the stree or other way paved, graded and paved or graded, and upon the owners thereof according to the number of lineal feet of such rea’ estate owned by each person along such street or way, except that sessments and certifi cates. the city at large shall be taxed for and shall pay the expense of paving, grading and paving or grading the crossings of streets and other ways, and except that every street railway now or hereafter operated in said city shall be taxed for and shall pay the expense of paving, grading and paving or grading that portion of every street or other way paved, graded and paved or graded, covered by its road, and a space two feet in width outside of and adjoining its track on either side; and no part of the expense of paving, grading and paving or grading any street or other way, or part of a street or other way, shall be taxed upon lands not adjacent and contiguous to that part of the street or other way paved, graded Special as- and paved or graded, except as herein otherwise provided. When the common council shall have caused any street or other way to be paved, graded and paved or graded, the assessors, upon being notified by the common council so to do shall forthwith proceed to make a special assessment and certificate, entering therein the names of all owners of land adjacent and contiguous to that part of the street or other way paved, graded and paved or graded, and the name of every street railway operated on such street or other way, and designating therein the parcels of such land owned by non-residents, according to their best knowledge and information. They shall make a just and equitable assessment of the proper proportion of the expense of such paving, grading and paving or grading against such lands and owners, and against such street railway, if any, operated on such street or other way, assessing upon the several parcels of real estate adjacent and contiguous to that part of the street or other way paved, graded and paved or graded, and upon the respective owners thereof, such portion of the whole of said expense to be so assessed as shall be proportionate to the number of lineal feet of such real estate owned by each person, and upon said street railway the portion of said expense hereinbefore mentioned, and shall enter in said certificate a brief but careful description of each parcel Meeting for assessed and the sum assessed upon it. When such certificate is completed they shall fix the time and place of meeting to correct the same and shall give notice of such meeting, stating where such certificate can in the meantime be seen and examined, by publishing such notice at least once in the official paper. At the Hearing of time and place so appointed, said assessors shall meet and hear grieved. all persons appearing before them who shall feel that they are correction of same. persons ag certificates to council. before County court. aggrieved by said assessment, and after such hearing shall make such corrections, if any, in such certificate, as will, in their judgment, render such assessment more just and equitable. When such certificate shall thus be corrected or when the assessors, after such hearing, shall have determined that it needs no correction, they shall deliver the same and a duplicate thereof, Delivery of both of which shall be signed by a majority or by all of them, to the common council, within twenty days after their first meeting to make the assessment, but such time may be extended by the common council. Any person conceiving himself Hearing aggrieved by said assessment shall have the right to be heard in council, relation thereto before the common council at its first regular meeting after delivery of the certificate as aforesaid, and at its second regular meeting after such delivery the common council shall either confirm or annul such assessment. If it confirm the Appeals to same, any person who shall conceive himself aggrieved thereby may appeal to the county judge of Albany county, within the time and in the manner, as nearly as may be, provided by law for appeals from determinations of commissioners of highways in laying out roads, but if it annul the same, all proceedings of the assessors in relation thereto shall be void, and new proceedings may be taken in the matter in the manner provided in this section. If the assessors, or any or either of them, be interested Freeholdin property liable to be affected by such assessinent, or be from place of any cause incapable of acting, the common council may appoint, in place of each assessor thus disqualified, a disinterested freeholder of said city, residing therein, to perform the duties of such assessor in making such assessment, and every such freeholder, before entering upon the performance of said duties, shall take and subscribe an oath to make the assessment faithfully, honestly and impartially, according to his best judgment. When Dupilcate any such assessment shall be finally confirmed by the common to be filed. council or other competent tribunal, the duplicate certificates thereof hereinbefore mentioned shall be thereupon filed with the clerk and shall both be deemed originals, to the one of which shall Warrant be annexed the warrant for the collection of said taxes, and to the other a copy of said warrant, with a receipt of the chamberlain for such certificate and warrant. The compensation of such Compensa freeholders for their services under this section shall be fixed by the common council and by it added to and made a part of said ers to act in assessors. certificates for collec tion of taxes. tion of freeholders. |