defined. SECTION 1. The financial year of the city shall begin on Financial year the first day of May and end on the last day of April, and the city treasurer and city collector shall make up their annual accounts to the last-named date. necessary ap SECT. 2. Every board or officer in charge of a depart- Estimates of ment shall annually, before the fifteenth day of February, propriations to send to the mayor and the city auditor an estimate in detail of be sent to city the appropriations which will be needed to meet the expendi- auditor. tures to be incurred by such board or officer, during the next financial year, and also an estimate of all income to be received from any source by such board or officer during said year. R. O. p. 34. penditures for. SECT. 3. No expenditure shall be made or liability in- Excessive excurred on behalf of the city, until a loan has been duly author- bidden. ized or an appropriation has been made by the city council, R. O. p. 34. sufficient to meet such expenditure or liability, together with all prior unpaid liabilities which are properly chargeable to the same appropriation. be reported to SECT. 4. When the estimates for the performance of a Insufficient apwork for which a board or officer is authorized by the city propriations to council, or by either branch thereof, to contract, exceed in city council, amount the appropriation made for such work; or when the etc. sum appropriated for any purpose has been expended before R. O. pp. 34, 35. such purpose has been fully accomplished, the board or officer in charge of the department shall report to the city council, or to the branch thereof from which their authority is derived, a detailed statement of the causes of the insufficiency of the appropriation to meet the purposes for which it was made, and an estimate of the additional appropriation which they judge will be required fully to effect such purposes; and they shall not conclude any contract nor incur further Certificates of indebtedness; of interest. R. O. p. 35. expense in the premises, until they are authorized so to do by the city council or by the branch thereof from which their authority is derived. SECT. 5. When the city treasurer is authorized by the signing, regis city council to borrow money and to give certificates of tration, and rate indebtedness therefor, such certificates shall be signed by the mayor, the city treasurer, and the city auditor, and shall be registered both in the office of the city treasurer and in that of the city auditor. The rate of interest to be paid on any loan, unless prescribed by the vote of the city council authorizing the same, shall be fixed by the mayor, the treasurer, and the auditor. Loans, negotia tion of. Bonds and cou. of. Whenever any loan is so authorized, unless the commissioners of the sinking-funds or the trustees of any of the public funds of the city shall desire to purchase the bonds, it shall be the duty of the treasurer to solicit, by advertisement in the daily papers and in such other manner as the mayor shall approve, sealed proposals to purchase said bonds, reserving the city's right to reject all bids. All such bids shall be publicly opened, at a time and place to be stated in the said advertisements and other notices, by the treasurer, in the presence of the mayor and the auditor, and the highest bid made by a responsible party for the entire loan shall be accepted unless all are rejected. If no bids are made for the entire loan the loan or any part thereof shall be awarded to the several parties making the highest bids therefor unless all are rejected. The treasurer shall preserve all rejected bids and other papers relative thereto. SECT. 6. Whenever any bond or coupon issued by the pons, payment city has become due the treasurer shall pay the same on presentation and shall cancel the same. He shall transmit the bonds so paid daily, and the coupons so paid twice in each month, to the auditor, who shall have the custody of the same thereafter. Bills and demands due the SECT. 7. Each board, department, and officer of the city city to be deliv. government shall, within the first ten days of every month, ered to city col- deliver to the city collector bills of all dues which in the lector monthly. course of the preceding month have become payable to the city, through or on account of such board, department, or officer; and they shall, as often as such moneys amount to one hundred dollars, and also on the last day of each month, pay over all moneys received and all fees collected by them for or on account of the city, and shall, at the time of such payment, render a statement explanatory thereof. In case no return of same to city is received from any officer who has usually made one, the collector shall notify the mayor of the omission. When bills or moneys are delivered or paid to the city collector, as before provided, a statement of the aggregate amount of such bills or moneys shall at the same time be rendered to the city auditor. also statement auditor. R. O. p. 35. put in suit. SECT. 8. When a debt due to the city is not paid within Debts to city sixty days after demand is made for such payment the city overdue, to be collector shall, if no other provision for its collection is made, R. O. p. 36. place the claim in the hands of the city solicitor, who shall forthwith put the same in suit; and the mayor may in any case, when in his judgment the interests of the city require it, direct a suit to be brought upon a claim before the expiration of said sixty days. revenue from SECT. 9. All excess of revenue derived from liquor Excesses of licenses, excess of income and taxes over estimated income liquor licenses, and taxes, and excess of appropriations over expenditures at taxes, and apthe close of each financial year, shall remain in the city propriations, treasury, to be used and applied for such purposes as the R. O. p. 36. city council may order. disposal of. receipts to be SECT. 10. All moneys received by the city from the sale Certain other of real estate, from payments on account of the principal applied to reduc. sum secured by any bond or note, or from payments on tion of city debt. account of any betterment assessment, shall, unless other- R. O. p. 37. wise specially directed by the city council, be paid by the Ord. 1883, c. 12. city treasurer to the commissioners of the sinking-funds, and applied by them to the reduction of the city debt. water-rates to SECT. 11. All excess of income from water-rates over Excess of inthe amount required to pay the expense of carrying on the come from water-works and to pay the interest and exchange, if any, on be applied to the water debts, shall be paid to the commissioners of the reduction of sinking-funds, and by them added to the sinking-funds for water debt. said debts. R. O. p. 37. ment of. SECT. 12. The city treasurer is authorized to pay all Executions and executions or judgments of court against the city when duly Judgments, paycertified as correct by the city solicitor, and special drafts to cover the same shall be made by the mayor, duly certified by the city auditor; and if the appropriation for the special object to which the amount of the execution is chargeable is not sufficient, the execution shall, nevertheless, be paid by the city treasurer, who shall immediately give notice of the fact of the over-draft upon the execution to the department incurring the obligation. 1 SECT. 13. The mayor may settle any claim against the Certain claims, city, arising from the act or neglect of any of its departments, 1 On Jan. 27, 1886, section 13 was repealed, and on Feb. 10, 1886, the following ordinance was passed in its place, to wit: SECT. 13. All claims against the city, arising from the act or neglect of any department, shall be settled by such department, provided the settlement is recommended by a vote of the committee on claims, approved by the mayor, and can be effected for the sum of five hundred dollars or less. The city solicitor shall take such steps and incur such expense as he deems expedient for the prosecution and defence of suits, and may, when recommended by a vote of the committee on claims, approved by the mayor, settle any suit against the city. Every amount paid in settlement of a claim or suit, and every judgment or execution paid by the city treasurer, shall be charged against the appropriation of the department whose act or neglect caused the claim, and shall be reckoned as an expenditure made by such department in all its accounts, balances, and reports. The expense of prosecuting and defending suits shall be paid from the appropriation for incidental expenses. Nothing herein contained shall be construed as preventing any person from petitioning the city council for a settlement of his claim. how settled. provided the settlement is recommended in writing by the corporation counsel, and has been approved by the vote of a majority of all the members of a joint committee of said council after an examination of the claim. Every amount thus allowed, and every judgment or execution paid by the city treasurer, shall be charged against the appropriation of the department whose act or neglect caused the claim, and shall be reckoned as an expenditure made by such department in all its accounts, balances, and reports. NOTES. The purposes for which cities can appropriate money, to be raised by taxation, are set forth in P. S. c. 27, §§ 10-13, and P. S. c. 28, § 13, and St. 1885, c. 189. The language of P. S. c. 28, § 13, the celebration of holidays and other public purposes," has been held to authorize an appropriation for public concerts by a band. Hubbard v. Taunton, 140 Mass. 467. As to the necessity of specifying in a vote appropriating money the purposes for which the money appropriated is to be used, see Freeland v. Hastings, 10 Allen 570, 576; — Woodbury v. Hamilton, 6 Pick. 101, 102. As to the effect of a vote appropriating money in creating a contract on which the city can be held liable, see Paine v. Boston, 124 Mass. 486; Hall v. Holden, 116 Mass. 172; Parks v. Waltham, 120 Mass. 160. SECT. 2. By St. 1885, c 266, § 7, the mayor is required to examine the annual estimates of the departments, and submit the same with his recommendations thereon to the city council. No time is specified within which these recommendations are to be submitted, but they would naturally be sent in with the auditor's estimates, which are required by c. 14, §6 (ante, p. 39), to be laid before the city council in February. By St. 1885, c. 178, § 1, any order or appropriation is void which requires a larger assessment of taxes on property, in any one year, exclusive of the State tax and of the sums required by law to be raised on account of the city debt, than nine dollars on every one thousand dollars of the average of the assessors' valuations for the preceding five years, the valuation for each year being first reduced by the amount of all abatements allowed thereon previous to the last day of the year preceding said assessment. As to the effect of a similar by-law, see Marsh v. Dedham, SECT. 4. 137 Mass. 235. office. SECTION 1. There shall be under the provisions of Public Appointment Statutes, chapter twenty-nine, a board of commissioners of and term of sinking-funds, to consist of six persons to be appointed by R. O. p. 36. the mayor in the month of February, subject to confirmation by the board of aldermen, one-third to be so appointed for one, two and three years, respectively, from the first day of May in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six; and annually in the month of February thereafter there shall be so appointed for a term of three years from the first day of May next ensuing, a number equal to the number whose term of service expires on such first day of May. Any vacancy occurring in the board shall be filled, for the remainder of the unexpired term, in the same manner as the original appointment. duties. SECT. 2. The said board shall have the control of all Powers and sinking-funds established by the city, and shall report to the city council annually, on or before the fourth Monday of May, the exact condition on the first day of said month of Treasurer to the several funds under their control. The treasurer of said keep accounts board shall keep the accounts of the several funds in such and make anform and manner as the said board may direct, and he shall furnish to the city auditor annually, on or before the first day of June, a statement of the condition of the several funds on the last day of the preceding April, which statement shall be printed in the annual report of the said auditor. nual report. R. O. p. 36. appropriations SECT. 3. Appropriations on account of the sinking-funds Sinking-fundsshall be made annually as follows: for debts payable in ten for, how made, years from the time when they were incurred, an appropria- paid over, intion equal to eight per cent. of the amount thereof; for debts vested, etc. payable in twenty years from said time, an appropriation equal R. O. pp. 36, 37. to three and one-half per cent. of the amount thereof; and for debts payable in thirty years from said time, an appropriation equal to two per cent. of the amount thereof. The amount of all said appropriations shall be raised annually by taxation, and shall be paid by the city treasurer to the said board on or before the first day of December in each year and |