require bonds with sufficient penalty and surety or sureties It CHAP. 71 bonds intrusted with required of all persons funds of city. of money, how SECT. 30. All officers and boards having authority to expend Appropriations money shall annually, before the twentieth day of April, made. furnish to the mayor an estimate of the money required for their respective departments and offices for one year beginning with the last Monday in March preceding, and the mayor shall submit the same with his recommendations thereon to the city council as soon as practicable after receiving the The city council shall as soon as practicable thereafter make the appropriations for the current municipal year. same. SECT. 31. All meetings of the qualified voters for the purpose of voting at elections or for the transaction of municipal affairs, whether in city or ward meetings, shall be holden in pursuance of warrants for that purpose, which shall be issued by the board of aldermen, specifying the time and place at which the meeting shall be held, and stating in distinct articles the business to be acted upon at such meeting. Said warrants shall be directed, and return of notice made thereon, in the same manner as provided in the case of warrants for town meetings; and such meeting shall be notified by the person to whom the warrant is directed, by posting an attested copy thereof in some public and conspicuous place in the ward wherein the meeting convened under such warrant is to be held, or, in the case of a city meeting, in each ward of the city, at least seven days before the meeting, unless the city council has appointed by vote at a regular session thereof a different mode, which said city council is hereby authorized to do. No meeting of the voters of any ward shall be notified to be held without the limits of said ward. The time and place of all meetings of the qualified voters as aforesaid, when not fixed by law, shall be determined by the board of aldermen. Meetings, for municipal election and purposes, how called and held. SECT. 32. For election purposes, said city shall be divided Wards. into five wards, each to contain as nearly as may be convenient, -wardens and clerks, powers and duties. CHAP. 71 consistently with well-defined boundaries, an equal number of the inhabitants of said city; and it shall be the duty of the city council, once in ten years and not oftener than once. in five years, to revise, and, if alteration is deemed necessary, to alter the boundaries of said wards in such manner as to preserve as nearly as convenient an equal number of inhabitants in each ward. A warden and a clerk shall be elected for each ward by the qualified voters thereof, as hereinafter provided, and shall each be, at the time of such election, a resident in the ward for which he is chosen, and a qualified voter of said city; and a vacancy in either office may be filled for the unexpired term thereof by a new election called for that purpose. The oath required of them may be administered to them by any justice of the peace in said city, and a certificate of the administration of such oath shall be entered by the clerk of said ward on the records of the ward; and any ward clerk may record the fact that he was sworn, and when and by whom, and such record shall be sufficient evidence of the administration of the oath as therein recorded. The warden shall preside at each meeting of his ward, and shall have the powers of a moderator of a town meeting. If any meeting the warden shall not be present, or shall refuse or neglect to preside, a warden, pro tempore, shall be chosen, and during such choice the ward clerk shall preside. If in such case the clerk be not be present, any legal voter in the ward may preside until a clerk, pro tempore, shall be chosen and qualified. The ward clerk shall record all the proceedings and certify the votes given, and shall deliver to his successor all records, journals, and other documents, papers, and property held by him in such capacity. The voters at any ward meeting may choose two persons to assist the warden in receiving, sorting and counting the votes. When a clerk, pro tempore, is chosen for a ward meeting, he may perform all the duties of the ward clerk for that meeting, and record and certify the votes and doings thereof as in the case of a ward clerk. Annual meetings, and proceedings. SECT. 33. On the Monday next preceding the last Monday in March of each year, the qualified voters of each ward, at ward meetings duly called for that purpose, shall ballot for a mayor, one alderman, three councilmen, a warden, and a clerk. said officers shall be elected by written ballot, by a plurality of votes cast for candidates for the particular office, except as All herein otherwise provided; and the voters at such meetings CHAP. 71 shall give in their votes for the officers named in this section, or so many thereof as the voter determines to vote for, on one list or ballot, designating the intended office of each person thus voted for. All the votes given for said officers respectively shall be sorted, counted, declared and registered in open ward meeting, by causing the names of the persons voted for, and the number of votes given for each, to be written in the ward records in words at length. The ward clerk, within twenty-four hours after such election, shall deliver to the ward officers elected, including aldermen and councilmen, certificates of their election, and shall forth with deliver to the city clerk a certified copy of the record of the election held in the ward, which shall be transcribed upon the records of the city. If the choice of any ward officer, including alderman and councilmen, is not effected on the day appointed for such meeting, the meeting shall be adjourned from day to day until such choice is effected. SECT. 34. The board of aldermen shall, as soon as conveniently may be, examine the copies of the records of the several wards certified as aforesaid, and shall at once cause the person whom it determines therefrom to have been elected mayor to be notified in writing of his election. If it shall appear that no person has been so elected by a plurality of votes cast in all the wards, the board of aldermen shall issue its warrants for ward meetings for a second balloting for mayor; and all proceedings in relation to such second meetings and to the determination of the result of such second balloting shall be the same as hereinbefore provided in the case of the first meetings. If at such second balloting no one person shall have a plurality of the votes cast, then the city council elect shall, after its members have taken the oath of office, and after the two boards composing said council shall have been organized, forthwith hold a joint convention, to be presided over by the president of the board of aldermen, or in his absence by the city clerk, or in his absence by any member chosen for that purpose by a majority of the members qualified to sit in such convention, and shall elect from the persons receiving the four highest numbers of votes, at said second balloting, if so many there be, a mayor for the ensuing municipal year. If before being sworn as mayor the ward clerk, persons elected, election. shall deliver to certificates Aldermen shall be notified of cause mayor to election. proceedings, in case no person is elected on second balloting. CHAP. 71 Oaths of office, by whom and when administered. person elected shall die or refuse to accept the office or become by reason of unsoundness of mind incapable of performing the duties of mayor, the board of aldermen shall make a record of the fact upon its journal, and forthwith issue its warrants for a new election, and the same proceedings shall be had as are herein provided for the original election. SECT. 35. The mayor, the aldermen, and the councilmen shall, before entering upon their offices, be duly sworn to the faithful performance of their respective duties; and for that purpose they shall meet in convention on the last Monday in March in each year, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, at the building now known as the town hall in said town of Old Town, or in such other suitable place as may be fixed by a city ordinance; when such oath may be administered to the mayor elect by a judge of any court of record in said state, or by any justice of the peace; and to the aldermen elect and the councilmen elect by the mayor, he being first sworn as aforesaid, or by the clerk of said city, or by any justice of the peace or judge of a court of record as aforesaid. The city clerk shall preside at such convention until the mayor elect is sworn, when said mayor shall preside. After the administration of the oaths as aforesaid, the two boards shall separate, and the common council shall at once be organized by the election of a president and a clerk, the city clerk or clerk of common his deputy or in their absence any member of said common council presiding during said election; and the clerk thus elected shall be sworn, and may record the proceedings of the meeting, including the administration of the oath to himself; but if said clerk elect is not present, a clerk, pro tempore, shall be chosen and sworn, who shall record the proceedings of such meeting. The clerk of the common council shall keep the journal of its acts, votes and proceedings, and perform such other duties in said office as the common council requires; and he may be removed by the common council by a majority vote. The board of aldermen shall also at once, the mayor or in his absence the city clerk or his deputy or in their absence any member of said board presiding, choose a president, who in the absence of the mayor shall preside at all meetings of said board and all joint conventions of the two boards. Said president of the board of aldermen shall not -election of president and council. -election of president and board of aldermen. mayor and councilmen. lose his right to vote in said board by reason of exercising CHAP. 71 the duties of said office or of the office of acting mayor; nor shall the president of the common council lose his right to vote by reason of his said office. If the mayor or any alder- oaths of man or councilman elect shall not be present on the last Monday in March to take the oath required, such oath may be administered to the mayor or aldermen at any meeting of the board of aldermen, and to the councilmen at any meeting of the common council, thereafter. A certificate that any oath mentioned in this section has been taken shall be entered in the journals of the board of aldermen and common council respectively; but such certificate as to any oath taken after said last Monday in March need be entered only on the journal of the board before which it was taken. Such certifi cate thus entered shall be sufficient evidence that such oath was administered. SECT. 36. No removal of any person holding any city or ward office from one ward to another, and no change of ward boundaries, shall create a vacancy in any such office. If any such officer shall take up his permanent residence without the limits of said city, the office held by him shall thereby become vacant. Removal of any warder from one to another shall not create a vacancy. SECT. 37. Said city shall have a seal, which shall be in Seal. the custody of the clerk, and said seal shall bear as its principal device the head of an Indian chief, and for its inscription the name of said city and the date on which said city's existence shall begin under this act. General meetings, may SECT. 38. General meetings of the inhabitants qualified to vote in city affairs may from time to time be held for any be held. constitutional or legal purpose. Such meetings may, and upon written request of fifty qualified voters of said city shall, be duly convened by the board of aldermen. The city clerk shall act as clerk of such meetings, and record the votes and doings of the citizens thereat upon the city records. SECT. 39. The selectmen of the town of Old Town, as soon as may be after this act shall have been accepted by the voters of said town, shall divide said town into five wards in such manner as to include, as nearly as conveniently may be, consistently with well defined boundaries to each ward, an equal number of the inhabitants of said town in each ward. The division thus made shall be entered by the clerk of said town upon the town records, and shall also be entered as a Selectmen of Town shall divide town into wards and define boundaries.] division shall published in be recorded and |