Secretary of boards, duties. R. O. p. 43. Assessment districts. R. O. pp. 43, 44. Assistant assessors, duties. R. O. p. 44. Abatements of Tax-bills, when made, and to state certain rates. R. O. p. 44. records of, to livered with bills SECT. 4. The secretary of the board of assessors shall also be the secretary of the board of assessors and assistant assessors, and he shall keep the records and doings of both said boards in the same book, in the order in which the meetings occur, always designating the board to whose doings each record relates. SECT. 5. The number, location, and boundaries of the assessment districts shall, until otherwise ordered, remain as at present established; and the board of assessors shall require all valuations and methods of assessment to be in conformity to law and uniform in their operation throughout the city. SECT. 6. The first assistant assessors shall assist the assessors in estimating the value of personal property, and shall, in their respective districts, with one of the assessors or second assistant assessors, appraise the value of the real estate in such districts, and take lists of the polls therein, and report the same to the board of assessors. In taking the list of polls the full and correct names of citizens shall be obtained, together with their previous residences. The second assistant assessors shall perform such duties as may be required of them by the board of assessors. SECT. 7. Abatements of taxes shall be made and recorded by the board of assessors, and the record of such abatements shall contain the names of all persons whose taxes have been abated in whole or in part, with the amount originally. assessed to each, the amount of the abatement, and the reason for which it was made. The board of assessors may require the attendance of any of the first or second assistant assessors at any hearing for the abatement of taxes; and when a petition for abatement is refused, and the petitioner appeals to the board of street commissioners, the record of such refusal shall accompany the appeal. A record of each abatement made by the board of street commissioners shall, at the time when it is made, be transmitted by their clerk to the board of assessors, but the reasons for the abatement may be omitted from such record. SECT. 8. The board of assessors shall make out and deliver to the city collector, on or before the first day of October in each year, tax-bills for all taxes assessed on persons or estates, and such bills shall have printed on them the rate for each thousand dollars of property assessed that has been required for state, county, and city taxes respectively, and also the proportion of the rate for the city tax which has been rendered necessary by the expenditures for the public schools. SECT. 9. Before delivering such tax-bills to the city colbe made and de- lector the board of assessors shall have them recorded in to city collector. books prepared for the purpose, and shall have the amounts thereof added together and footed at the end of each book, R. O. p. 44. amounts to be and the aggregates of all the books also added together, so as to show the total amount of the taxes assessed; and the said books shall be delivered, with such bills, to the city collector. SECT. 10. The said board shall render to the city auditor, Tax-bills, abateat the time when the tax-bills are delivered to the city collec- ments, etc., tor, a statement of the amount of said bills; and upon the first rendered to city of every month the said board shall also render to said auditor collector. a statement of the amount of all additional or supplementary R. O. pp. 44, 45. assessments made during the preceding month, so far as the amount thereof has not been included in any statement previously rendered, and such monthly statement shall also include the amount of taxes abated, determined to be void, or remitted, which have been certified to the assessors during said month, giving also the year in which such taxes were laid. years to be SECT. 11. On or before the fifteenth day of January Valuations for annually the board of assessors shall transmit to the city preceding five council a statement of the assessors' valuation of the taxa- transmitted anble property in the city of Boston for the preceding five nually to city years, and of the abatements thereon allowed previous to the council. thirty-first day of December preceding the date of such statement; and the average of said valuations reduced by said abatements shall likewise be stated. NOTES. The general statute provisions regarding the assessment and collection of taxes are to be found in chapters 11-13 of the Public Statutes. By section 37 of the city charter the city council is authorized" to provide for the assessment and collection" of taxes, and to " elect such assessors and assistant assessors as may be needful, or provide for the appointment or election of the same, or any of them, by the mayor and aldermen, or by the citizens, as in their judgment may be most conducive to the public good." See also P. S. c. 27, §§ 65-68. By St. 1885, c. 266, §§ 1, 2. the principal assessors are to be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the board of aldermen, and are removable by the mayor; and the assistant assessors are to be appointed by the principal assessors subject to confirmation by the mayor, and are removable by the principal assessors upon assignment of causes. St. 1884, c. 123, confirms the existing provisions of ordinance establishing the term of office of the assessors for three years, and authorizes the city council to fix the term of office of the assessors and assistant assessors by ordinance at not exceeding three years. The main powers and duties of the assessors and assistant assessors of taxes in addition to those prescribed by this chapter, are defined in P. S. c. 11; and others are defined in P. S. c. 6, §§ 8, 9, 29; c. 12, § 5; c. 13, § 14; c. 14, § 7; St. 1874, c. 60, § 5; St. 1878, c. 243, §§ 1, 6. St. 1880, c. 225, § 1; St. 1883, c. 91. St. 1885, c. 355. Penalties for knowingly making an over-valuation of property for the purpose of evading laws limiting indebtedness and taxation are imposed by St. 1885, c. 355, § 3. Assessors are public officers, and not agents of the city, which is not liable in an action of tort for their acts in illegally assessing a poll-tax. Alger v. Easton, 119 Mass. 77. SECT. 5. The power of determining the location and boundaries of the assessment districts is vested in the board of assessors, as a part of the administrative business of their department, by St. 1885, c. 266, § 6. SECT. 7. The statute provisions relative to the abatement of taxes are contained in P. S. c. 11, §§ 69–77. SECT. 8. As to liability of assessors to the city, in a civil action for neglect to commit the tax-list to the collector or for other negligence, see Lincoln v. Chapin, 132 Mass. 470, 473. Sherburne v. Fiske, 8 Cush. 264, 266. SECT. 11. See St. 1885, c. 178, §§ 1, 2. Upon the question of domicile for purposes of taxation, see Thayer v. Boston, 124 Mass. 132-144, et seq., and cases cited; Wright v. Boston, 126 Mass. 161; Borland v. Boston, 132 Mass. 89. R. O. p. 46. SECTION 1. The fire department of the city shall consist How composed. of a board of three fire commissioners, who shall have as subordinates a clerk, a chief engineer, a superintendent of fire-alarms, thirteen assistant engineers, and other officers, enginemen, telegraph operators, and members, to the number of seven hundred men. Fire commis. SECT. 2. There shall be annually appointed by the mayor, sioners, appointsubject to confirmation by the board of aldermen, one person ment, term of to be a member of the board of fire commissioners, and to office, etc. hold office for the term of three years from the first Monday R. O. p. 46. in May in the year of his appointment. The members of said board shall devote their time to the duties of their office, and shall not actively engage in any other business, and the clerk of said board shall not be a member thereof. rules and regula general powers and duties. SECT. 3. The said board shall make such rules and may make regulations for their own government, and for the govern- tions, etc. ment of all the officers and members of the fire department, R. O. p. 46. as they may deem expedient; and they shall make suitable regulations under which the officers and men of the said department shall be required to wear an appropriate uniform and badge, by which in case of fire and at other times their authority and position in the department may be known. SECT. 4. The duty of extinguishing fires and of protecting life and property in case of fire, within the city, shall be R. O. pp. 46, 47. intrusted to the said board. They shall divide the city into fire districts; shall organize companies and battalions to work the apparatus for the extinguishing of fires; and shall establish a fire patrol by detail from the permanent force of the department, which patrol shall render such services in connection with the police department and with the department for the inspection of buildings as the said board may direct. Said board shall also have and exercise all the powers and duties given to the city council by chapter forty-five of the statutes of the commonwealth of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-eight. monthly and R. O. p. 47. SECT. 5. The said board shall make to the city council a annual reports. monthly report of the location and of the number of fires that have occurred in the preceding month, the causes of such fires, and the amount of property destroyed thereby; and they shall annually, in May or June, submit in print a brief summary of matters of interest concerning their depart Chief engineer and assistants, powers and duties. R. O. p. 47. ment. SECT. 6. The chief engineer and the assistant engineers of the fire department shall, under the direction of said board, examine all places where shavings or other combustible materials are collected or deposited, and shall report to said board from time to time the condition in this respect of the district to which they are respectively assigned; and, when said board deem that said materials so collected or deposited are liable to cause fires, they shall order the tenant or occupant of the place where they are deposited to remove them; and if such tenant or occupant neglects or refuses to comply with such order the said board shall cause such materials to be Penalty for non- removed at his expense. Whoever neglects or refuses to bustible mate- remove such materials, or obstructs the said board or said tion of commis- engineers in the discharge of the duties hereby imposed upon them, shall be liable to a penalty of not less than five nor more than fifty dollars. removal of com rials or obstruc sioners or en gineers. Penalty for tam. nal-boxes. R. O. p. 47. SECT. 7. Whoever opens a signal-box connected with a pering with sig fire-alarm telegraph for the purpose of giving, or causing to be given, a false alarm of fire, or interferes in any way with such a box by breaking, cutting, injuring, or defacing the same, or by pulling the slides therein, except in case of fire; and whoever without authority opens, tampers, or meddles with such a box, or with any part or parts thereof, or with the fire-alarm telegraph wires, or with anything connected therewith, shall be liable to a penalty of not less than five nor more than fifty dollars for each offence. Certificates for seven years' service. SECT. 8. Every person who serves in the said department for seven successive years shall be entitled to certificate to R. O. pp. 47, 48. that effect, signed by the mayor, which certificate shall be issued by the mayor upon receiving from the board of fire commissioners a written notification that the person is entitled thereto. NOTES. The power of the city council to establish a fire department, to create a board of fire commissioners, and to make the ordinances contained in this chapter, was originally given by St. 1850, c. 262. That statute has been amended by St. 1854, c. 375, and by St. 1873, c. 374, § 2. See also St. 1881, c. 229, § 2. The general statute provisions relative to fire departments and the extinguishment of fires are to be found in P. S. c. 35; P. S. c. 14, § 5; P. S. c. 102, §§ 49, 50, 67; P. S. c. 203, §§ 1–9; P. S. c. 206, § 13; P. S. c. 170, § 2. Special statutes relating to the fire department and to the extinguishment of fires in the city of Boston are to be found in St. 1873, c. 374; St. 1873, c. 258; St. 1877, c. 171; St. 1878, c. 45. |