KS 13187.23.6 * ✓ COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE CITY OF CHARLESTOWN. BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre sentatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: SECT. 1. The inhabitants of the town of Charlestown shall continue to be a body politic and corporate, under the name of the city of Charlestown, and as such shall have, exercise and enjoy all the rights, immunities, powers and privileges, and shall be subject to all the duties and obligations, now incumbent upon and appertaining to said town as a municipal corporation. SECT. 2 The administration of all the fiscal, prudential and municipal affairs of said city, with the government thereof, shall be vested in one principal officer, to be styled the mayor; one council of six, to be called the board of aldermen; and one council of eighteen, to be called the common council, which boards, in their joint capacity, shall be denominated the city council, and the members thereof shall be sworn to the faithful performance of the duties of their respective offices. A majority of each board shall constitute a quorum for doing business, and no member of either shall receive any compensation for his services. SECT. 3. It shall be the duty of the selectmen of the town of Charlestown, as soon as may be after the passage of this act, and its acceptance by the inhabitants, as hereinafter provided, to divide said town into three wards, as nearly equal in number of inhabitants as may be consistent with convenience in other respects. And it shall be the duty of the city council, once in five years, to revise, and, if it be needful, to alter said wards in such manner as to preserve, as nearly as may be, an equal number of voters in each ward. SECT. 4. On the second Monday in March, annually, there shall be chosen by ballot, in each of said wards, a warden, clerk, and three inspectors of elections, who shall hold their offices for one year from the first Monday in April following said second Monday in March, and until others shall have been chosen in their places. And it shall be the duty of such warden to preside at all ward meetings, with the powers of moderator of town meetings. And, if at any meeting the warden shall not be present, the clerk of such ward shall call the meeting to order and preside, until a warden, pro tempore, shall be chosen by ballot. And if at any meeting the clerk THE BUSINESS HISTORICAL fansferred by Business School Library to Harvard College Library SOCIETY INCORPORATED, shall not be present, a clerk, pro tempore, shall be chosen by ballot. The clerk shall record all the proceedings, and certify the votes given, and deliver over to his successors in office all such records and journals, together with all other documents and papers held by him in said capacity. And it shall be the duty of the inspectors of elections, to assist the warden in receiving, assorting and counting the votes. And the warden, clerk and inspectors, so chosen, shall respectively make oath or affirmation, faithfully and impartially to discharge their several duties, relative to elections, which oath may be administered by the clerk of such ward to the warden, and by the warden to the clerk and inspectors, or by any justice of the peace for the county of Middlesex. And all warrants for meetings of the citizens for municipal purposes, to be held either in wards or in general meetings, shall be issued by the mayor and aldermen, and shall be in such form, and shall be served, executed and returned in such manner, and at such times, as the city council may by any by-law direct. SECT. 5. The mayor and six aldermen, two aldermen to be selected from each ward, shall be elected by the inhabitants of the city at large, voting in their respective wards, and six common council men'shall be elected from and by each ward, being residents of the wards in which they are elected; all said officers shall be chosen by ballot, and shall hold their offices for one year from the first Monday in April, and the mayor, until another shall be elected and qualified in his place. SECT. 6. On the second Monday in March, annually, the qualified voters in each ward shall give in their votes for mayor, aldermen and common council men, warden, clerk and inspectors, as provided in the preceding sections; and all the votes so given, shall be assorted, counted, declared, and registered in open ward meeting, by causing the names of persons voted for, and number of votes given for each, to be written in the ward records in words at length. The clerk of the ward, within twenty-four hours after such election,shall deliver to the persons elected warden, clerk, inspectors and members of the common council, certificates of their election, signed by the warden and clerk, and by a majority of the inspectors of elections, and shall deliver to the city clerk a copy of the records of such election, certified in like manner: provided, however, that if the choice of warden, clerk, inspectors or common council men cannot be conveniently effected on that day, the meeting may be adjourned, from time to time, to complete such election. The board of alderman shall, as soon as conveniently may be, examine the copies of the records of the several wards, certified as aforesaid, and shall cause the person who may have been elected mayor, to be notified in writing of his election; but if it shall appear that no person has received a majority of all the votes, or if the person elected shall refuse to accept the office, the board shall issue their warrants for a new election, and the same proceedings shall be had as are hereinbefore described, for the choice of mayor, and repeated, from time to time, until a mayor is chosen. In case of the decease, resignation or absence of the mayor, or of his inability to perform the duties. of his office, it shall be the duty of the board of aldermen and the common council, in convention, to order by vote an entry of that fact to be made in their records, and then to elect a mayor for the time being, to serve until another is chosen, or until the occasion causing the vacancy is removed. And, if it shall appear that the whole number of aldermen have not been elected, the same proceedings shall be had as are hereinbefore directed for choice of mayor. And each alderman shall be notified in writing of his election, by the mayor and aldermen for the time being. The oath prescribed by this act, shall be administered to the mayor by the city clerk, or any justice of the peace for the county of Middlesex. The aldermen and common council men elect, shall, on the first Monday of April, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon, meet in convention, when the oath required by this act shall be administered to the members of the two boards present, by the mayor, or by any justice of the peace for the county of Middlesex, and a certificate of such oath having been taken, shall be entered on the journal of the mayor and aldermen, and of the common council, by their respective clerks. And whenever it shall appear that no mayor has been elected previously to the said first Monday in April, the mayor and aldermen for the time being, shall make a record of that fact; an attested copy of which the city clerk shall read at the opening of the convention to be held as aforesaid. After the oath has been administered as aforesaid, the two boards shall separate; and the common council shall be organized by the choice of a president and clerk, to hold their office during the pleasure of the common council, and to be sworn to the faithful performance of their duties. |