§ 48 - Terms of office - Vermont Statutes

§ 3-48. Enumerated

The city council shall have power:

(1) To establish and regulate a market, and to regulate, license, tax or prohibit the selling or peddling of meat, fish, or other provisions on foot or from vehicles about the city, except that the city council shall not have power to license, tax, or prohibit farmers selling the produce of their own farm.

(2) To restrain and prohibit all descriptions of gaming, to order the destruction of all instruments and devices used for that purpose, and to license or tax any such devices or instruments the usage of which is now, or may hereafter be, permissible under the laws of the state, and to license or tax any mechanical or electrical amusement devices or the places wherein the same may be located.

(3) To regulate, license, tax or prohibit the exhibition of common showmen, circuses, menageries, carnivals, and shows of every kind, and all plays, athletic contests, exhibitions or entertainments for money, including the power to tax admissions to the same except such as may be conducted by educational or nonprofit institutions or organizations or wholly for charitable purposes; to provide a system of examination, approval and regulation of motion picture films, reels or stereopticon views or slides and of banners, posters and other like advertising matter used in connection therewith; to create and establish a board of censors to administer such system within the limits of said city and to define and prescribe their duties and powers and to regulate, restrict or prevent attendance of minors at exhibitions of films, reels or stereopticon views.

(4) To regulate, license, tax, or prohibit itinerant vendors, peddlers, street musicians, transient auctioneers and itinerant photographers; provided the city council shall not have the power to license, tax or prohibit farmers selling the produce of their own farm.

(5) To prevent riots, noises, disturbances or disorderly assemblages.

(6) To abate and remove nuisances; to regulate or prohibit the storage and accumulation on premises within the city of garbage, ashes, rubbish, refuse and waste materials; to tax or license for revenue and regulate or prohibit the collection and removal of such materials from such premises and the disposal of the same by private persons or agencies; to compel and regulate the removal and disposal of such materials by owners, tenants and occupants of such premises; to require and provide for the collection, removal and disposal of such materials, by the city at its expense by contract with some private individual or agency, or by some city officer, officers or department either existing, or hereafter created and established by the city council for that purpose; to establish, in case the collection, removal and disposal of such materials is done at the expense of the city, service rates to be paid to the city by the owners, tenants or occupants of premises from which said materials are collected and removed for services rendered by the city in collecting, removing and disposing of such materials, to compensate the city for the cost and expense of those services. All service rates against owners or others shall be collected and enforced under such regulations and ordinances as the city council shall prescribe.

(7) To restrain and suppress houses of ill fame and disorderly houses, and to punish common prostitutes and persons consorting therewith.

(8) To compel the owner or occupant of any unwholesome, noisome or offensive house or place to remove or cleanse the same from time to time, so far as may be necessary for the health or comfort of the inhabitants of said city.

(9) To direct the location and management of all slaughterhouses, markets, steam mills, blacksmith shops, sewers and all private drains, and to compel the construction of drains within the limits of the city, under such inspection regulations as the city council may adopt.

(10) To regulate the use in blasting, the manufacture and the keeping of gunpowder and all other combustible and dangerous materials.

(11) To regulate the making of alterations and repairs of stovepipes, furnaces, fireplaces and other things from which damage by fire may be apprehended, and also to regulate the use of buildings in crowded localities for hazardous purposes; to provide for the preservation of buildings from fires by precautionary measures and inspections.

(12) To establish and regulate a fire department and fire alarm system, and fire companies, except as herein otherwise provided.

(13) To regulate the size, height, material, and manner of erecting and constructing new buildings and repairing of buildings already constructed in said city, or in certain prescribed localities therein; and to regulate the use of streets for building purposes.

(14) To prescribe the duties and powers of inspectors of buildings and fire wardens; and to provide penalties for any refusal or neglect to comply with the orders of said inspectors and fire wardens made by virtue of any resolution or ordinance passed by said city council.

(15) Repealed.

(16) To prevent encumbering the streets, sidewalks and public alleys with firewood, lumber, carriages, boxes or other things.

(17) To provide for the care, preservation and improvement of public grounds, except as herein otherwise provided.

(18) To restrain and punish vagrants.

(19) To make regulations respecting paupers, except as herein otherwise provided.

(20) To restrain or regulate the keeping and running at large of poultry, cattle, horses, swine, sheep, goats and dogs. And in addition to the tax now imposed by the laws of this state upon the owner or keeper of dogs, to impose upon or require of the owner or keeper of any dog or dogs, such additional tax or license fee for the keeping thereof, and prescribe such penalties in default thereof, as may be deemed necessary. And all moneys received hereunder shall be paid into the city treasury and belong to said city.

(21) To provide a supply of water for the protection of the city against fire and for the distribution and sale of water for private and public purposes to persons and corporations both within and without the city, and to regulate the use of the same; to establish and maintain reservoirs, aqueducts, water pipes, hydrants, or any other apparatus necessary for such purposes, upon, in and through the lands of individuals and corporations both within and without the city, on making compensation therefor; but the city council, in providing such supply of water and establishing and maintaining reservoirs, aqueducts, water pipes, hydrants and other apparatus, as hereinbefore provided, for the distribution and sale of water outside of the city, shall not incur any expense for the same that cannot be paid from the current net earnings of the water resources department above the necessary operating expenses, and the necessary cost of maintaining, improving and adding to the property and equipment of that department within the city, unless authorized by the legal voters so to do, and to raise the necessary funds to pay for the same.

(22) To regulate and determine the time or place of bathing in any of the public waters within said city, or adjacent thereto, and to prevent the same.

(23) To compel all persons to remove from the sidewalks and gutters in front of the premises owned or occupied by them all snow, ice, dirt and garbage, and to keep such sidewalks and gutters clean, and to compel the owners or occupants of any land or premises in the city to cut and remove from the streets and sidewalks in front of such land or premises all grass, brush, thistles and weeds growing or being thereon, under such regulations as may be prescribed therefor, except as herein otherwise provided.

(24) To regulate and license innkeepers, keepers of saloons, victualing houses, billiard saloons, billiard tables, bowling alleys, places of amusement and auctioneers, or to tax the same, under such regulations as shall be prescribed therefor; and all moneys paid for such licenses or taxes shall belong to the city, and be paid into the city treasury.

(25) To regulate or restrain the use of rockets, squibs, firecrackers, or other fireworks in the streets or commons, and to prevent the practicing therein of any amusements having a tendency to injure or annoy persons passing therein or to endanger the security of property.

(26) To regulate gauging; the place and manner of selling and weighing hay, packing, inspecting and branding meats and produce; and of selling, measuring and weighing wood, lime, coal, and petroleum products; and to appoint suitable persons to superintend and conduct the same.

(27) To regulate and license porters and cartmen who receive or discharge their loads within the city; to regulate and license the owners and drivers of taxicabs, jitneys, and motor vehicles for hire, receiving or discharging passengers, with or without baggage, within the city, whether or not such vehicles are engaged in carrying passengers entirely within the city; to prescribe the duties and privileges of such owners and drivers; to fix and regulate rates of fare, including maximum and minimum rate or rates, for any such transportation of passengers within the city; to license and regulate all such vehicles; to rescind any and all licenses granted hereunder, and to prohibit the operation of such vehicles upon the streets of the city when either the owners or the drivers thereof have not complied with all the provisions of ordinances duly enacted hereunder; provided, however, that no license shall be granted hereunder unless the applicant has first complied with all the requirements of the laws of the State of Vermont relative to the registration and operation of motor vehicles to enable the applicant to use the license for which he applies; and to limit and restrict the use of its streets and highways by such motor vehicles in such manner as will promote the safety and general welfare of the public.

(28) To prescribe the powers and duties of watchmen and policemen of said city.

(29) To regulate, establish and alter the grade of streets and the grade and width of sidewalks, and the construction thereof, and prescribe the material to be used therein.

(30) To provide for lighting of the city.

(31) To provide for removing and trimming shade, fruit and ornamental trees in the public streets and parks whenever the public good or convenience requires the same to be done, except as herein otherwise provided.

(32) To prohibit and punish wilful injuries to shade, ornamental and fruit trees standing on public or private lands.

(33) To prevent and punish trespasses or wilful injuries to or upon public buildings, squares, commons, cemeteries, fountains, statues, or other property.

(34) To establish and maintain a public library.

(35) To regulate the time and manner in which examinations of public documents, land records and other public records shall be made.

(36) To establish, manage, and control public cemeteries, parks, commons, or any other public place in said city, and to regulate the use of the same by the public, except as herein otherwise provided.

(37) To permit, regulate, license, tax or prohibit, except as herein otherwise provided, the suspending, putting up, or continuance of any sign or awning in or over any street, lane, alley, common or other public place in said city; and whenever the public good may require, to order and direct that any such sign or awning heretofore erected or suspended as aforesaid shall be changed, taken down or removed; and to order and direct the removal of any sign or awning upon which any license fee or tax levied under the provisions hereof shall not have been paid.

(38)(A) To provide for assessing owners of land and buildings thereon abutting any street, alley or lane in said city such sum as said land and buildings shall be benefited by raising or lowering the surface of said street or highway; and also to award such damages to such owners as they shall suffer in consequence of raising or lowering the surface of said street or highway as aforesaid.

(B) The same proceedings shall be had in respect to said award of damages and assessment, as are herein provided in case the owners of lands are dissatisfied with the award of damages or amount of assessment in laying out or altering streets or highways; and said assessment shall be a lien in the nature of a tax on the lands and buildings so assessed, and may be collected or enforced in the same manner herein provided for assessments made in laying out, altering or resurveying any street or highway in said city.

(39) To provide for indexing any part or all of the records of deeds and of any or all public records of said City of Burlington, and like records of the former Town of Burlington, by the "card index," so-called, or any other like system. Such "card index" or other like system may be employed in addition to or in lieu of the manner of indexing now required by the laws of this state.

(40)(A) To fix, demand, impose and enforce such terms, conditions and regulations for the use or occupation of any street or highway in said city by any street railroad, traction, telegraph, telephone, electric, gas, electric lighting, electric power, or other company or any person enjoying the privileges, or exercising the functions of any such company aforesaid, as shall be just and reasonable, including any sum or sums of money to be paid to said city for the use of any street or highway by any or all of said companies for the purpose of laying, maintaining and operating any street railway therein, or for the purpose of therein erecting and maintaining any poles, wires or any other apparatus in or under the surface of said street; and to prohibit the use of such street by any such company or person until such terms have been complied with.

(B) In case any such company or person cannot agree with said city upon such terms, said company or person may apply by petition to the county court within and for the County of Chittenden, and said court shall thereupon, after hearing all parties interested therein, fix such terms as shall be just and reasonable and make all necessary orders for carrying its decision therein into effect.

(C) Provided, however, that no special franchise shall be granted by said city council for a longer term than thirty years, and further provided that at the expiration of any franchise, or at any time thereafter, the city shall have the right to acquire the title to and take over the property employed or used in the business for which such franchise was granted, upon the payment to the owner of the same of the fair value of the physical properties at that time employed or used in such business, and that in case the city is unable to agree with the owners as to the value of such physical properties, then said property may be condemned and taken for public use, and the value thereof ascertained and awarded as compensation therefor to the owner of the same in the manner, as near as may be, provided in the general laws of the state for the determination of the damages to be awarded persons aggrieved or damaged by the construction or operation of a street railway, and further provided that the grant of every such special franchise shall contain provisions embodying the foregoing conditions and limitations. Provided, notwithstanding the foregoing, the city council shall not have authority to increase the level of any franchise fee enacted pursuant hereto without first receiving approval by a majority of the voters present and voting at an annual or special city meeting duly warned for this purpose.

(41) To prescribe the duties of the inspector of electrical wiring apparatus and the installation and maintenance thereof; to regulate and require licenses for all persons engaged in the business or trade of selling electrical apparatus and supplies and in the business or trade of installing and repairing electrical wiring and apparatus but not including telephone or telegraph wires or apparatus, and to regulate and require licenses for all persons engaged in the business or trade of plumbing or house drainage within the limits of said city and to fix and impose the terms, conditions and fees for all such licenses.

(42) To purchase, construct and maintain a public wharf.

(43) Reserved.

(44) To acquire voting machines, so-called, and prescribe the use thereof in any or all elections held within said city.

(45) To order any streets or part of a street sprinkled, sprayed or treated with water, tarvia or any other materials when in its judgment the public good requires.

(46) To enact and enforce rules for its government and for the government of the board of aldermen.

(47) To appropriate money in excess of the amount required by law to be raised for highways, which a town may now vote to raise at its annual meeting or at a special meeting duly warned for that purpose, according to the provisions of the laws of the state relating to highways; and to assess upon the grand list of the city a tax sufficient to raise the amount of money so appropriated.

(48) To regulate the exposing for sale in the city and conveying through the streets of the city of foodstuffs intended for human consumption to prevent contamination thereof.

(49) To fix, impose and establish the terms, conditions and regulations under which any person or persons may exclusively occupy specified portion of any public street, lane, alley, or other thoroughfare used for public travel, for the storage or sale of oil or other merchandise, or for any other private purpose not affected with a public interest, to fix and collect a fee for such occupancy, and to prohibit use or occupancy of such specified portion for any other purpose.

(50) To acquire and hold by lease, purchase or gift and to maintain within the limits of said city, or within the limits of an adjoining town, a public aviation field and municipal airport and to properly equip the same for use; to regulate the use of said field and its equipment and to charge, receive, demand and collect from time to time reasonable compensation for use thereof and to manage and control such field and its equipment, appoint proper officers to have charge of the same and to define their duties; to provide for the establishment and maintenance of an airport police force to provide security and law enforcement within the limits of the airport premises and to lease to private parties for aviation purposes such part of said field and buildings as in the judgment of the city council is not for the time being required by the city for the purposes of a public aviation field or municipal airport and for such time as in the judgment of said council the same is not so required.

(51) To acquire and hold by lease, purchase or gift, and to maintain and operate within or without the limits of said city, a stone quarry, a sand and gravel pit, and an asphalt plant, and all lands and interests in lands, required for such purposes, and to properly equip the same for use, and to engage the city in the business of selling stone from such quarry, sand and gravel from such pit, and asphalt from such plant, to persons and corporations both within and without said city and for public or private purposes, said city being hereby authorized to maintain and operate such stone quarry, sand and gravel pit, and asphalt plant, for such purposes.

(52) To regulate and license junk dealers.

(53) To receive and hold grants, gifts, or bequests of money or other property, in trust, the income or interest of which is to be used for the care, improvement, embellishment and repairs of its burial grounds, or of private lots within any such burial ground.

(54) To receive and hold grants, gifts, or bequests in money or other property, in trust, for any governmental purpose, under the charter, and manage and use the same, its income, or interest, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the trust.

(55) To provide for, create, establish, maintain and regulate an insurance sinking or reserve fund to be used for the purpose of compensating the city for any and all losses and damages to city property by reason of fire, tornado, wind, flood or other casualty and for the purpose of paying to city employees, their dependents, executors, administrators and heirs, any and all compensation that may become their due from the city under the provisions of the laws of the state relating to workmen's compensation.

(56) To control and regulate the use of any present or future harbor on Lake Champlain in said city and to make and put into force and effect by proper ordinances all reasonable rules and regulations not in conflict with the jurisdiction of the federal government, governing the use of the waters of Lake Champlain within the city limits and the use of any public pier, wharf or dock within said city, the mooring and anchorage of vessels within said harbors and at piers, docks or wharfs within the city, trespasses and nuisances upon public and privately owned wharfs, docks and piers, and all other proper and reasonable rules and regulations in the premises, tending to promote the public safety, health, morals, convenience, utility and the public welfare, and to fix, determine, collect and enforce reasonable charges for the use of any public wharf, pier or dock owned by the city, and to prescribe and enforce penalties for violation of any and all of such rules and regulations.

(57) To enter into any agreement on behalf of the city with the United States, or any department, subdivision, or agency thereof, to accept grants, loans and assistance from the United States, or any department, subdivision or agency thereof to make public improvements within the city, or upon property of the city outside its corporate limits, and to make appropriations consistent with the provisions of this charter to accomplish such purpose.

(58)(A) To acquire and hold by lease, purchase, gift, condemnation under the provisions of sections 2805 through 2812, inclusive of Title 24 of the Vermont Statutes Annotated, as amended, or otherwise, and to maintain and operate within the limits of Chittenden County, a municipal parking lot or lots, and a municipal parking garage or garages, and to alter, improve, extend, add to, construct, and reconstruct such lots or garages, subject, however, to the provisions hereinafter contained in this subdivision. In exercising the foregoing power, and not withstanding the preceding sentence, the city council shall not, except pursuant to subdivision (50) of this section and section 276 of this charter, have authority to acquire any property outside the limits of the City of Burlington through the use of the power of eminent domain or condemnation. The city council shall not be exempt from the responsibility for securing all applicable permits from any community within Chittenden County outside the limits of Burlington in which it desires to construct a parking lot or garage. Any parking lot or garage constructed by the city outside the corporate limits of Burlington shall be subject to the ad valorem property tax of the community in which it is located.

(B) The board of public works commissioners shall have general control, management and supervision of all municipal parking lots and garages. Said board shall have power to make regulations with respect to the use of all such municipal parking lots and garages, including reasonable terms, conditions and charges, and shall also have the power to regulate the parking, operation and speed of vehicles and pedestrian and vehicular traffic on the public highways of the city, including such ways, streets, alleys, lanes or other places as may be open to the public, to erect, maintain and operate coin-operated parking meters for the regulations of parking of vehicles, to govern and control the erection of guideposts, street signs and street safety devices on said highways, and to prescribe regulations and penalties for violation of the same in respect to all of said matters and to remove and impound as a public nuisance, at the expense of the owner, any vehicle found parking on a public highway in violation of any city ordinance or any regulation hereunder, and to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which the owner may redeem such vehicle from the pound, which regulations, when published in the manner provided in section 49 for the publication of ordinances, shall have the force and effect of ordinances of the city, and violations of which shall be subject to the penalties provided in section 50 of this charter. All ordinances of the city, and all regulations of the board of parking commissioners, in effect prior to July 1, 1959, shall remain in full force and effect notwithstanding that the subject matter thereof shall be within the jurisdiction of the board of public works commissioners, unless and until such board shall, by regulation duly adopted and published, alter, amend or repeal the same.

(C) Said board shall also from time to time recommend to the city council the acquisition or construction of municipal parking lots or garages, and the city council shall not authorize such acquisition or construction without such recommendation, nor shall the city council dispose of or lease to others for operation any lot or garage without the recommendation of said board.

(D) All receipts from the operation or lease of said parking lots and garages shall be kept by the city treasurer in a separate fund, which shall not at the end of any fiscal year become a part of the general fund of the city under the provisions of section 65 of this charter, except as hereinafter provided. Expenditures from said fund may be authorized by said board for the purpose of paying any and all operating expenses of said lots, including salaries and rentals. There shall also be credited to said fund by the city treasurer such portion of the receipts of traffic meter installations on the public streets of the city as is not appropriated by the city council for the purpose of purchasing and operating said traffic meter installations or controlling or regulating traffic. At the close of each fiscal year the city treasurer shall credit to the general fund of the city such portion of the balance of said fund, after the payment of operating expenses, as may be required to meet interest payments on any obligations issued for the purpose of acquiring, altering, improving, extending, adding to, constructing or reconstructing such parking lots or garages, and shall further credit to the sinking fund of the city such further portion of said balance as may be required to meet principal payments on any obligations issued for said purpose, provided, however, that any pledge, assignment or hypothecation of net revenues under paragraph (E) shall be complied with before making such credits.

(E) If it shall reasonably appear to said board at any time that the receipts from said lots or garages are in excess of the amounts required for the purposes enumerated in the preceding paragraph, and that the acquisition of further lots or garages is not required, they shall cause rates and charges for the use of said lots and garages, or some of them, to be reduced.

(F) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (C) of this subdivision, the city council may from time to time pledge, assign or otherwise hypothecate the net revenues from said lots or garages, after the payment of operating expenses, and may mortgage any part or all of said lots or garages, including personal property located therein, to secure the payment of the cost of purchasing, acquiring, leasing, altering, improving, extending, adding to, constructing or reconstructing said lots or garages, but the city council shall not pledge the credit of the city for any of said purposes except in accordance with the provisions of section 62 of this charter.

(59) To fix and establish, and to provide for the collection of, sewer rents and sewage disposal charges, and to alter and amend the same, pursuant to the provisions of the general laws of the state relating thereto. In addition, the city council shall also have the power to fix and establish by ordinance, and to alter and amend from time to time thereafter, reasonable fees to be paid for new or amended uses of lands or buildings which shall require a new or additional allocation of a portion of the city's wastewater collection system capacity, and/or wastewater treatment facilities capacity, such fees to include, but not be limited to, capacity charges, connection fees, impact fees or similar charges related to the sewer system.

(60) To exercise any powers now or hereafter granted to municipalities under the laws of the state, and not inconsistent with the provisions of this charter; provided, however, that in the event so granted to municipalities, excepting only those powers relating to the amount of' taxes which may be assessed upon the grant [grand] list, are more extensive than the powers herein contained, the powers so granted shall control.

(61) To provide by ordinance minimum requirements and standards for the subdivision of lands within the corporate limits of the city, including standards and requirements for streets, services and utilities in such subdivisions; to prescribe penalties for the violation of such standards or requirements; to prohibit such subdivisions, and to prohibit the recording or filing of plans for such subdivisions as do not comply with such standards or requirements; and to designate appropriate city officials to pass upon such compliance; provided, however, that no ordinance shall be adopted hereunder until after public hearing thereon. The term "subdivision" as used herein shall mean the division of a tract or parcel of land into two or more lots for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of sale or building development, excluding development for agriculture purposes, and shall include resubdivision.

(62) To provide by ordinance a procedure for waiver of process and prosecution by an individual, firm or corporation notified or accused of a violation of a City of Burlington ordinance by payment to the city of an amount fixed by ordinance, in lieu of such process and prosecution.

(63)(A) To establish and maintain a unified department of public works, the superintendent of which will be designated public works director, said department to be managed and controlled by the mayor and city council subject to the general laws of the State of Vermont pertaining to the inspection of buildings, plumbing, housing and wiring. The city council may by resolution delegate any of its powers relating to the public works department to the board of public works commissioners.

(B) The board of public works commissioners shall consist of seven legal voters of the City of Burlington, who shall be appointed by the city council to serve for the term of three years, and until their successors are appointed and qualified, except as herein otherwise provided.

(C) The city council with mayor presiding shall appoint to the public works commission seven legal voters of the City of Burlington. On the first Monday in June, 1988, and every three years thereafter, the city council with mayor presiding shall appoint three commissioners to serve a term of three years. On the first Monday in June [,] 1989, and every three years thereafter, the city council with mayor presiding shall appoint two commissioners to serve a term of three years. On the first Monday in June, 1990, and every three years thereafter, the city council with mayor presiding shall appoint two commissioners to serve a term of three years.

(D) The public works director shall have the special and immediate care and practical supervision of the public works department, its personnel and its facilities and equipment, subject to the authority of the mayor as chief executive officer and the orders and ordinances of the city council.

(E) Unless otherwise determined by resolution of the city council, the public works department shall, in addition to the director, consist of a streets division, water division, waste/solid waste division, traffic division, finance division, equipment maintenance division/engineering division, inspection services division, and construction division, each of which shall include a manager who shall be hired as a city employee by the director and shall serve subject to the direction of the director.

(64)(A) Where there is no written rental agreement and notwithstanding subsection 4467(c) of Title 9, to prohibit, by ordinance, a landlord from terminating a tenancy of rental housing within the city for no cause unless the landlord provides to the tenant written notice of at least 90 days when the tenancy has been less than two years and of at least 120 days when the tenancy has been two years or more.

(B) Unless inconsistent with a written rental agreement or otherwise provided by law, and notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 4456(d) of Title 9, to require, by ordinance, tenants who wish to terminate a residential tenancy to give actual notice to the landlord at least two rental periods prior to the termination date specified in the notice.

(65) To prohibit increases in rent for rental housing within the city without advance written notice of at least 90 days.