agement, administration and supervision, of the charities, almshouses, hospitals, houses of correction and grounds, and all other similar institutions, the control or government of which is intrusted to the city. The head of this department shall keep a correct, complete record of all the proceedings, which shall always be open to the inspection and examination of the city recorder, and of any committee appointed by councils, or either branch thereof, and shall appoint all officers and servants required for the several institutions under his management. Councils shall have power to provide, by general ordinance, for all things needful for the proper and efficient management of the said institutions and the said department, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, and all able-bodied paupers, vagrants and other persons admitted or committed to any of the said institutions, may be required to work upon the public streets or roads or elsewhere. ARTICLE XI. Sinking Fund Commission. Head of departrecord of all proceedings. ment to keep full To appoint ofvants. ficers and ser commission, how constituted. Section 1. The Sinking Fund Commission shall con- sinking fund sist of five persons. Those first appointed under this act shall divide themselves into classes, by lot, so that the terms of one of the members shall expire Classification of. each year. All vacancies shall be filled by appointment, for the term of five years. All moneys appli of commission. cable to sinking funds shall be under the charge of Funds in charge the Commission, and shall be used for the extinguishment of the city debt. Such funds as are not immedi ately applicable for such purpose shall be invested in Investment of. the purchase of loans of the city, or if the same cannot be procured to advantage, then in bonds of the United States or the State of Pennsylvania. Councils shall make all necessary rules for the government of this department. The Commission shall from time to time, and without unreasonable delay, invest all balances remaining to the credit of the several sinking funds. of said cities, and not immediately applicable to the extinguishment of the city debt, in loans of said cities or the loans of the United States or the loans of the State of Pennsylvania, and the income derived from Income from insaid investment shall be credited to the several sinking funds, respectively, to which the same belong, and be invested in the same manner. vestment. stamped. All bonds held in the sinking funds, or by any com- Bonds to be mission, shall be stamped in a conspicuous manner, so as to show that they have been purchased for that purpose; and shall never be re-issued or sold, except when bonds may that bonds so held, other than those of the city itself, may, if necessary, at or immediately before the ma be reissued or sold. be cancelled. Transfers. When cash balance is insufficient. turity of the bonds for which they were held, be so, in pursuance of an ordinance passed for that purpose, in order to raise money to pay such bonds. Whenever the bonds of such cities mature, all such matured Matured bonds to bonds held in sinking fund belonging to the matured issue shall be cancelled; any other bonds held in such sinking fund may be transferred to any other sinking fund, in exchange at par; any of the matured bonds held by them respectively, and any money in such sinking fund, may be transferred to such other sinking fund in purchase of such bonds held by them, and the matured bonds so purchased or exchanged shall also immediately be cancelled. If the balance of cash in the sinking fund provided for such maturing debt, and in the general sinking fund of the city, be insufficient to pay the balance of bonds maturing, the balance shall, as far as possible, be purchased out of any cash in the other sinking funds belonging to said cities, respectively. The bonds so purchased to be conspicuously stamped, as hereinbefore provided, aud the interest thereon to continue, and be credited annually to the proper sinking fund, until the general sinking fund of said cities shall be sufficient to pay said matured bonds, when the same shall be transferred to the proper sinking fund and such bonds cancelled. The issue of new Whenever any new bonds shall be issued by any of said cities, they shall be made payable in annual installments, equal to the tax levied therefor, and shall be paid annually from the funds so provided. And, on any such new issue of bonds, the city shall invest the uninvested balances in its sinking fund therein, except so much as may be required for the payment of any bonds which may mature during the fiscal year in which such bonds were issued, taking by preference the bonds which will mature at or before the sinking funds to which such balances belong. bonds. Uninvested balances of sinking fund. Departmental officers. Term of. ARTICLE XII. Election and Appointment of Departmental Officers, Section 1. The city recorder shall nominate and, by and with the advice and consent of the select council, appoint the following officers, who shall hold office during the term for which the city recorder was elected, and until their successors shall be respectively appointed and qualified: I. The Director of the Department of Public Safety. IV. The City Solicitor. V. The Director of the Department of Charities and Correction. elected. VI. The members of the Sinking Fund Commission. VII. The Board of Assessors, the City Treasurer, officers to be and City Controllers shall be chosen by the qualified electors of the city, at the regular municipal elections, at the end of the term of the present incumbent of these offices, for the term of three years, and until the election of their successors. Section 2. The directors or chief officers of departments shall appoint all subordinate officers, clerks and employes. subordinate of Appointment of cers, clerks, etc. The directors or chief officers of departments may, by written order giving their reasons therefor, remove Removal or suspend subordinate officers and clerks: Provided, The same is not done for political reasons. pension of. In case of such removal, the director shall appoint Vacancies. a successor, who shall hold office, subject to confirmation within ten days after such appointment by the select council, if then in session, or within ten days after the beginning of the next succeeding session, if such appointment be made during a recess. regulated. or sus Section 3. All officers, clerks and employes in the several departments and sub-divisions thereof, or any board attached thereto, shall be appointed by the Appointments head of the said department; but from and after the passage of this act, no such appointment, or any promotion of any subordinate officials, excepting only of assistants or laborers employed for special or temporary purposes, and professional experts, and such others as are specially excepted by this act, shall be lawful, except when made under and in pursuance of rules and regulations providing for the ascertainment of the comparative fitness of all applicants for appointment or promotion, by a systematic, open and competi- Open and comtive examination for such office, which rules and reg- tion. ulations it shall be the duty of the city recorder and heads of departments to make and promulgate as speedily as possible. One of said rules shall provide that any personal solicitation of the officers of said board or of the appointing power, in favor of any candidate, by any person whomsoever, unless fraudulently done in order to injure him, shall be taken and deemed to have been done at the instance of the candidate himself, and shall disqualify him from competing at any such examination or appointment for and during one year thereafter. ARTICLE XIII. Impeachment of Municipal Officers. petitive examina Personal solicita tion shall disqual ity candidate. of municipal officers Section 1. Municipal officers shall be liable to im Impeachment peachment, suspension and removal from office for 3 Laws. Complaint in writing may be made to court. Charges to be supported by oaths or affirmations. Court may uppoint committee to investigate charges. To be sworn. Authority of. Committee to make written report. The court may suspend accused. Certified copy of record. Select council to assemble as court of impeachment. any corrupt act or practice, malfeasance, mismanagement, mental incapacity or incompetency for the proper performance of official duties, extortion, receiving any gift or present from any contractor, or from any person seeking or engaged in any work for or furnishing material to the city, or from any incumbent or occupant of, or candidate or applicant for, any municipal office, and for wilfully concealing any fraud committed against the city. Complaint in writing may be made to the court of common pleas of the proper county, by not less than twenty freeholders of the city, each of whom shall write his occupation and residence opposite his signature, charging any municipal officer with any offence, setting forth the facts on which the said charge is founded, supported by the oaths or affirmations of at least five of the complainants, according to the best of their knowledge, information and belief. If, in the judgment of the court, there appears to be reasonable ground for such proceeding, the court shall direct the complaint to be filed of record, and grant a rule upon the accused, returnable on a day certain, to appear and answer the same. If, on the return day of the rule, the court shall find a sufficient cause for further proceedings, it shall appoint a committee of five competent and reputable citizens to investigate the charges contained in said complaint, who, having first been severally sworn or affirmed to perform the duties of their appointment with fidelity, shall have full authority, for that purpose, to examine the books of the office held by the accused, and any papers filed therein, and examine witnesses under oath or affirmation, whose attendance the court shall enforce, if necessary, by subpoena and attachment. It shall be the duty of the committee to make a written report to the court of the facts found by them, which shall be filed of record, accompanied by the testimony taken, within three weeks next after their appointment, unless the time shall be extended by the court upon their application. In any stage of the proceedings, if the public interests so require, the court may, by an order to be filed of record in the case, suspend the accused from office until he shall be tried and acquitted. If the committee, or any three of them, shall find that any charge made as aforesaid is well founded, they shall in their report so state, in specific form; and in such case the court shall cause a certified copy of the whole record, with the specification of the charges against the accused, to be transmitted to the select council, which shall be assembled within ten days thereafter, in a special and open session, as a court of impeachment, and the members shall be severally sworn to try and decide the same according to the evidence. A copy of the specification shall be served on the accused or left at his last place of residence, at least five days before the commencement of the trial, and he shall be entitled to be heard therein, in person or by counsel, and to produce evidence in his defence, and the prosecution before the select council shall be conducted on the part of the city by the city solicitor. Copy of specifica tions to be served on accused. A judge to pre The president judge of the said court of common side at trial. pleas, or in his absence an associate judge thereof, shall preside during the trial, and shall decide finally all questions of law and evidence that may arise in the case. He shall have the power to issue subpoenas Powers of judge. for witnesses, and compel their attendance, by attachment, and the production of books, papers and documentary evidence required or called for by the said court of impeachment, and to punish witnesses and others for contempt, as fully as any court of the Commonwealth may lawfully do in any case. court. The decision of the court of impeachment shall be Decision of the entered upon the record of its proceedings, and certified by the clerk to the court in which the complaint was filed. If the accused shall be found guilty on any of the specifications, the said court of common pleas shall enter judgment accordingly, and declare the said office vacant. ARTICLE XIV. Councils. Section 1. The legislative power shall be vested in Legislative power. two bodies, to be designated as the select and common council. Section 2. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to repeal sections one and two of the act of June fourteenth, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, entitled "An act in relation to the gov ernment of cities of the second class," nor the act of May twenty-sixth, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one, entitled "An act fixing the ratio of representation of common councils in cities of the second class." Qualifications of cils. Section 3. Members of select council shall have been residents of the city for at least five years before their members of counelection, and members of common council shall have been residents of the ward which they represent for at least three years. The removal of any member of select council from Vacancies. the ward, or of any member of common council from the ward he represents, shall forfeit the membership |