person to fill such vacancy. The person so appointed to such vacancy, it the office be not made elective by the constitution, shall hold office for the balance of the unexpired term. If the office be made elective by the constitution, the term of office of the person so appointed shall be until the commencement of the political year next succeeding the first annual election after the happening of the vacancy at which a successor can be elected, and a successor for the balance of the unexpired term, if any, shall be chosen at the next city election happening not less than twenty days after such vacancy occurs. If a vacancy shall occur in an appointive office of the city, otherwise than by expiration of term, the office, officers, board or body authorized to make appointment to office for the full term shall appoint a person to fill such vacancy for the balance of the unexpired term.

Second Class Cities Law, § 15.

Official undertakings in second class cities.

No person elected or appointed to a city office shall enter upon or continue in the discharge of the duties of his office until he shall have executed and filed with the city clerk the official undertaking, if any, required to be given and the same shall have been approved as to its form and validity by the corporation counsel and as to the sufficiency of the sureties by the mayor. All such undertakings shall be recorded in the office of the city clerk. In addition to the city officers required in this chapter, or otherwise by law, to give official undertakings, the common council may require any other city officer to give an official undertaking in such penal sum and with such conditions and sureties as it shall direct and approve. It may also, in a proper case, require an undertaking of any officer in addition to that required by law. The mayor shall examine the sufficiency of the proposed sureties of any officer or person from whom an official undertaking is required and may require such sureties to be examined on oath as to their property qualifications and habilities. The deposition of each surety shall be reduced to writing, subscribed by him, certified by the officer administering the oath and annexed to and filed with the undertaking. In case any city officer shall fail to file the required official undertaking, if an elective officer, within thirty days after receipt of his certificate of election, and if an appointive officer, within fifteen days after receipt of notice of his appointment, the office shall be deemed to be vacant and the vacancy shall be filled in the manner herein provided for the filling of a vacancy therein happening otherwise than by expiration of term. The official undertaking of a city officer shall not be a lien upon real estate owned by him or the sureties on such undertaking.

Second Class Cities Law, § 18.

Acting mayor in second class cities.

Whenever there shall be a vacancy in the office of mayor, or whenever by reason of sickness or absence from the city the mayor shall be prevented from attending to the duties of the office, the president of the common council shall act as mayor and possess all the rights of mayor during such period of disability or absence. In case of a vacancy in the office of mayor he shall so act until noon of the first day of January next succeeding the election at which the mayor's successor shall be chosen. It shall not be lawful for the president of the common council when acting as mayor in consequence of the absence or sickness of the mayor to exercise any power of appointment or removal from

office unless such sickness or absence shall have continued for a period of thirty days; or to sign, approve or disapprove any ordinance or resolution unless such sickness or absence shall have continued for a period of at least nine days.

Second Class Cities Law, § 51.

Police justice in second class cities.

There shall be one justice of the court to be known as the police justice. Said office shall be filled by election by the electors of the city at the city election. The term of the police justice shall be six years and he shall receive an annual salary, to be fixed by the board of estimate and apportionment, provided, however, that if the city does not have or is not authorized by law to have more than one officer possessing the jurisdiction of a court of special sessions, such salary shall be fixed at not less than thirty-five hundred dollars per annum. If a police justice in any city shall have served as such for more than twelve consecutive years, the board of estimate and apportionment may, notwithstanding the provisions of section seventy-four of this chapter, increase the salary of such justice, from time to time, during his term of office, to take effect at the time of any such increase or from the first day of January of the current calendar year, as the board may determine. No person shall be eligible for election to the office of police justice unless he be an elector and has been an attorney of the supreme court of the state for five years. In case of the absence or disability of the police justice or of a vacancy in the office, any city judge or judge of the municipal court shall perform the duties of the office until the police justice returns, his disability ceases or the vacancy is filled.

Second Class Cities Law, § 181. Amended by L. 1914, ch. 85, in effect March 25, 1914.

Police justice vacancy, how filled in second class cities.

When a vacancy shall occur, otherwise than by expiration of term, in the office of police justice, the same shall be filled, for the balance of the unexpired term, at the next city election happening not less than thirty days after such vacancy occurs. Until such vacancy shall be so filled, the mayor may appoint a qualified attorney to fill the same, who shall hold office until the first day of January after the election at which his successor is elected.

Second Class Cities Law, § 182.

ᏢᎪᎡᎢ 8.

TOWN MEETINGS AND ELECTIONS, TENURE AND QUALIFICATION OF TOWN OFFICERS.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

Town Meeting.

The electors of a town shall, biennially, on the second Tuesday of February, assemble and hold meetings at such place in the town as the electors thereof at their biennial town meeting shall, from time to time, appoint. If no place shall have been fixed for such meeting, the same shall be held at the place of the last town meeting in the town or election district, when town meetings of a town are held in election districts. The board of supervisors of any county may, by resolution, fix a time when the biennial town meetings in such county shall be held, which shall be either on some day between the first day of February and the first day of May, inclusive, or on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of an odd numbered year.

Town Law, § 40.

Changing date of town meeting.

A town may change the date of its town meeting to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, known as general election day, by adopting a proposition therefor at a regular town meeting. Such proposition may be submitted by the town board on its own motion, and shall be submitted by such board on the written application of twenty-five taxable voters of the town. The proposition must be submitted, voted on, and the result canvassed as prescribed by section forty-eight. If it be adopted a certificate to that effect shall be filed by the town clerk within ten days thereafter in the office of the county clerk and also with the clerk of the board of supervisors. If the proposition be adopted the first town meeting shall be held on general· election day in the next calendar year, and the terms of all officers, except justices of the peace and assessors, elected on the day of the adoption of the proposition shall expire on the last day of December in the next calendar year. Thereafter town meetings in such town shall be held biennially on general election day in the manner prescribed by this chapter, except that after five years from the first meeting, the town meeting may in like manner change from such general election to any other day authorized by law. The term of office of all officers, except justices of the peace, in a town which under this section changes its town meeting to general election day, shall be two years beginning the first day of January succeeding their election, except that the term of an assessor elected on such day shall be for two or four years, as the case may be, beginning the first day of January succeeding their election.

Town Law, § 41, as amended by L. 1910, ch. 271; L. 1920, ch. 14.

Place of town meeting.

The electors of a town may, upon the application of fifteen electors therein, to be filed with the town clerk twenty days before a biennial town meeting is to be held, determine at such meeting, by ballot, where future town meetings shall be held. Where town meetings in any town are held in separate election districts, the electors of each district may, at a biennial town meeting, deter

1 L. 1918, ch. 6, § 1. The town board of any town in which a biennial town meeting is to be held in the year nineteen hundred and eighteen at a different time from the general election and not earlier than ten days after this act takes effect, and in which the town meetings are not now held in two or more election districts, may determine, by resolution, that the biennial town meeting in such year shall be held in the several existing election districts of the town and conducted therein by the inspectors of election thereof instead of by justices of the peace of the town. The provisions of sections sixtyfive and sixty-six' of the town law shall apply to such town meeting with the same force and effect as though town meetings were held in such town in its election districts pursuant to a vote of the electors at a town meeting.