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New bond.

Consolidation of

or towns.

receive for their services, and require of them an oath of office and a bond, with surety, for the faithful discharge of their duties. The election of any such officers shall be at the regular annual election, and no appointment of any officer shall continue beyond one week after the qualification of the members of the succeeding board of trustees.

SEC. 6. In the event that the official bond of any officer of a city or town shall, after the taking and approval thereof, become insufficient by reason of the death or insolvency of any of the sureties thereon, the city council or board of trustees of such city or town may require such officer to procure additional sureties, or to give a new bond, and may designate the time when such additional sureties, or new bond, shall be furnished, which shall not be less than ten days; and, in the event that the additional sureties, or new bond, are not furnished within the time so designated, the office shall be declared vacant, and the vacancy shall be filled by election or appointment, as provided by law.

SEC. 7. When two or more contiguous cities or incorcontiguous cities porated towns shall desire to consolidate with each other, the council or board of trustees of such cities or towns shall appoint, from the officers or citizens thereof, three commissioners, to arrange and report to such council or board of trustees, respectively, the terms and conditions on which the proposed consolidation can be made. These terms and conditions shall, among other things, provide the name for the consolidated city or town, and in case of a city, shall provide the number of wards into which the new city shall be divided, which may be any number not to exceed the entire number of wards contained in all of the corporations so consolidated, prior to the consolidation, and shall also fix the boundaries of such wards. If the council or trustees of each of such cities or towns approve of the terms and conditions proposed, they shall, by proper ordinance, which may be passed at any one regular or special meeting, called for the purpose, so declare, and thereupon the council or board of trustees of each of said cities or towns shall, by ordinance, submit the question of consolidation upon the said terms and conditions so proposed, to the electors of their respective cities or towns.

Vote upon consolidation.

Notice of Election.

SEC. 8. In case the ordinance of approval is passed by such council or board of trustees less than thirty days, and more than fifteen days prior to the general annual election in such city or town, the submission to the electors shall be

at such general annual election, otherwise the council or board of trustees shall, in the ordinance of approval, order a special election, to be held not less than fifteen nor more than thirty days from that date, for the purpose of determining the question of such consolidation, specifying at the same time, the time and place, or places, for holding the same, and appointing the judges and clerks of the election. The mayor, or in case there is no mayor, the presiding officer of the council or board of trustees, shall at once issue a proclamation, giving notice of such election, and of the terms upon which it is proposed that the consolidation shall take place, and of the time and place, or places, of holding such election; which proclamation shall be published at least once a week for two successive weeks in some newspaper published in such city or town; and if there be none published therein, then such proclamation Notice may be shall be published by posting a copy thereof in five public posted. places within the corporate limits of such city or town; but such question shall not be submitted oftener than once a year. At such election, those who desire to vote in favor of the proposed consolidation shall deposit a ballot with the words "For consolidation;" those desiring to vote against it shall deposit a ballot with the words, "Against consolidation." The election shall be conducted in other respects as elections for corporation officers are conducted. The abstract of votes shall be returned to the city council or board of trustees, who shall canvass the same and declare the result, which shall be entered upon the journal. If a majority of the votes cast at such election in each of the cities or towns proposed to be consolidated, shall be for consolidation, the proposition shall be carried. If any one or more of the municipalities proposed to be consolidated was a city, the consolidated corporation shall be a city of the highest class to which any of the cities thus consolidated belonged prior to such consolidation.

officers after consolidation.

SEC. 9. In case the proposition for consolidation is Election of carried in all of said towns or cities, the mayors or presiding officers of the councils or boards of trustees, as aforesaid, shall at once issue a joint proclamation, giving notice of an election to be held for officers of the consolidated city or town, stating the time and the place or places of holding such election, and the officers to be chosen thereat, and shall at the same time appoint judges and clerks for said election, and designate a polling place, or polling places, for said election. If the consolidated corporation is a city, there Voting places.

Tenure.

Canvass of returns.

Certificates of election.

shall be at least one polling place in each of the wards of said consolidated city. At said election there shall be chosen a board of trustees, if the consolidated corporation is a town, and if it is a city, there shall be chosen a mayor, and two aldermen for each ward of the consolidated city. And there shall be elected in addition such other officers as under the law are or may be elected by the electors in municipalities of the class to which the consolidated corporation belongs.

SEC. 10. All officers chosen at such election, except aldermen, shall hold their respective offices until the next regular annual municipal election. in the case of either one of two aldermen elected for each of the wards of the consolidated city shall hold office until the next annual municipal election, and the other for one year longer, and the two aldermen thus chosen shall decide by lot who shall hold for the long and who for the short term. At the first annual municipal election succeeding the consolidation, and at each succeeding annual municipal election thereafter, there shall be elected one alderman for each ward of said city, who shall hold his office for the term of two years.

SEC. II. If the proclamation is issued less than thirty days, and more than fifteen days prior to the annual municipal election, the said election shall be held at the time of holding said annual municipal election, otherwise not less than fifteen nor more than thirty days from the date of the issuing of said proclamation, which shall be published, as is hereinbefore provided for the publication of the notice of the election to determine the question of consolidation.

SEC. 12. The returns of said election shall be made to the mayor, or presiding officers who called the same, and shall be opened by them on the third day after the election, when they shall make out an abstract and ascertain the candidate elected, in all respects as required by law for the canvass of the returns of county elections, and shall in like manner make out a certificate as to each candidate so elected, and cause the same to be delivered to him, or to be left at his place of abode. The members of the council, or board of trustees elected at such election, shall, on the second Monday after the election, meet and organize the city council or board of trustees of the consolidated town or city, and from that time the consolidation shall be deemed complete, and the consolidated town or city shall thenceforth exist

with the same powers and duties and subject to the same regulation as other towns or cities of the class to which it belongs, and the towns or cities so consolidated shall then and there be merged in the consolidated corporation, and the terms of office of each and all of the officers of the towns and cities so consolidated shall cease.

How ordinauces

may be first

SEC. 13. The council, or board of trustees of the consolidated town or city may, at the first meeting, or as soon adopted. thereafter as possible, pass a resolution adopting in a body the ordinances of some one of the towns or cities forming the consolidated town or city, as such ordinance existed at the date of consolidation, and upon the passage of the said resolution, the whole of the ordinances of the town or city so designated as they existed at the date of consolidation shall become the ordinances of the consolidated town in the same manner as if they had been regularly passed and published by the council of the consolidated town, and shall so remain until amended or repealed, and they shall also, by ordinance, make appropriation for the expenses of the then unexpired portion of the current fiscal or municipal year.

SEC. 14. All licenses or other privileges issued or Licenses. granted by any of the consolidating towns or cities prior to consolidation, shall remain in full force and effect until the expiration of the same, according to the terms thereof.

SEC. 15. All bonded indebtedness due or owing by any Bonded town or city prior to consolidation shall, after consolidation, indebtedness. remain the debt of that portion of the consolidated town or city comprised within the former limits of the town or city which owed such indebtedness prior to consolidation, and no tax shall be levied or collected for the payment of the principal and interest of such indebtedness except upon and from persons or property residing or situated within the former limits of the town or city owing such indebtedness; but the council or board of trustees of the consolidated city or town shall make such levies, and take such other measures for the payment of such principal and interest out of property within such limits as it would have been the duty, or within the power of the council or board of trustees of the town or city owing such indebtedness to do had no such consolidation taken place; and if any one or more of the towns or cities consolidated owed any floating indebtedness at the date of consolidation, the council or

Floating indebtedness.

Property, real and personal,

board of trustees of the consolidated' town or city shall ascertain the amount of such indebtedness owed by each of said towns prior to consolidation, and shall, at the next annual levy of taxes succeeding consolidation, make a special levy upon property situated within the former limits of the town or city owing such indebtedness, sufficient for the payment of the same; Provided, however, That the terms of consolidation may make other provisions for said bonded or floating indebtedness.

SEC. 16. All property, real or personal, belonging to belonging to con- either of the towns or cities prior to consolidation, shall, solidated towns. unless the agreement for consolidation otherwise provide,

Suits.

Special tax.

immediately upon the accomplishment of consolidation, vest in and become the property of the consolidated town or city; and all indebtedness, claims, demands or rights owing or belonging to any of said towns or cities prior to consolidation, shall, in like manner, vest in and become due to the consolidated town or city, which shall thereafter have the right to demand, have, sue for, recover and enforce the same in its own name.

SEC. 17. If any action, suits or proceedings are pending against any one of the towns or cities at the time of the consolidation, the consolidated town shall be substituted as plaintiff or defendant in such action, suit or proceeding, and the same shall thenceforth proceed as if the claim, right, debt or demand upon which said action, suit or proceeding was founded, had originally existed in favor of, or against such consolidated town or city; and, in like manner, any person who, at the date of consolidation, had any claim, demand or right of action against any one or more of the towns or cities so consolidating, may, after such consolidation, bring any action, suit or proceeding necessary for the collection or enforcement thereof against the consolidated city or town, in the same manner as though the claim, demand or right of action had originally existed against such consolidated town; but in no case shall any tax be levied upon or liability incurred by any property or persons on account of such actions, suits, proceedings, debts, liabilities or rights of action, except such persons and property as would have been liable for the same in case no consolidation had taken place; and the council or board of trustees of the consolidated town shall have power to levy a special tax upon persons and property within the former limits of the town or city against which such action, suit, proceeding,

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