Municipal office

“ No public functionary, appointed by the king, and in the exercise of his functions, shall be nominated to the office of alcalde, regidor, or town proctor. Those persons who serve in the militia are not included in this article.
Art. 319. No one, without a legal cause, can excuse himself from exercising the aforesaid municipal offices.
Art. 320. Each municipal council shall elect, by an absolute majority of votes, one secretary, who shall be paid out of the funds of the corporation. ”

“ All other employees including municipal and municipal district officials shall be appointed by the Commissioner concerned, upon the recommendation of the proper chief or director of bureau or office, from the list of eligibles as certified by the Director of Civil Service, but in the case of municipal mayors and municipal council members, the recommendation of the governor concerned shall be sufficient. ”

“ City officials have confined their efforts to the routine affairs of their office, and have so often spent their spare time and the city's money freely for the satisfaction of their personal interests that municipal government has gained the reputation of being notoriously corrupt, and has been left to ward politicians by the better class of citizens. Nevertheless, municipal government represents the principle of control and stands in the background as the preserver of the interests of all the people. ”

“ All state, district, county, precinct, township and other officers, by the constitution or laws made elective by the people, except school district officers, and municipal officers in cities, villages and towns, shall be elected at a general election to be held as aforesaid. An incumbent of any office shall hold over until his successor is duly elected and qualified. ”

“ To this end it seems to me desirable that when municipal offices are to be filled the discharge of the duties of which requires professional knowledge, skill and experience, the selection should be confined to professional men of good standing. Let us take for an example a department about which there may be some doubt in this respect, the department of public works, meaning the department which has in its charge the matter of drainage, of water supply, of street paving and similar things. It is certainly one of the most important branches of the municipal government. ”

“ It shall be proper for said cities to provide, by ordinance, for the exercise of all rights and powers herein conferred upon the City Planning Commission, by a park commission, or kindred municipal bureau or commission, authorized under existing laws. And no person holding office under the government of any of said cities, except the mayor, members of councils, or commissioners, shall be ineligible to serve as a member of a City Planning Commission. ”

“ We are now on the eve of the first municipal election under the amended Constitution. The importance of the crisis is magnified by the fact that the municipal officers to be elected at the coming election will have the care of the business interests of the great municipality created by the new charter, their administration extending over a greatly enlarged territory, and their constituents being a population numbering upward of three millions of souls. The importance of the selection of proper officers for the management of the affairs of this imperial city cannot be exaggerated. ”

“ That in all cases the municipal officers who administer the local affairs of the people, are to be selected by the people, and that wherever officers of more extended jurisdiction are to be selected in any way, natives of the islands are to be preferred, and if they can be found competent and willing to perform the duties, they are to receive the offices in preference to any others. ”

“ They are, however, still further subdivided; and amongst the municipal officers are to be found parish commissioners, who audit the expenses of public worship; different classes of inspectors, some of whom are to direct the citizens in case of fire; tithing-men, listers, haywards, chimney-viewers, fence-viewers to maintain the bounds of property, timber-measurers, and sealers of weights and measures [6] .
There are nineteen principal offices in a township. Every inhabitant is constrained, on pain of being fined, to undertake these different functions ”

“ Whether the board of public works is also a part of and an agency of the municipal corporation is the question before us.
1. The authorities state, and our own knowledge is to the effect, that the care and superintendence of streets, alleys, and highways, the regulation of grades, and the opening of new and closing of old streets, are peculiarly municipal duties. No other power can so wisely and judiciously control this subject as the authority of the immediate locality where the work is to be done. ”

“ This municipal assembly shall be the Council of Administration, which shall establish for the entire extent of its jurisdiction the rules of the common regime, and shall decide on all that concerns the municipal police, its internal security, sanitary policy, the management and use of municipal revenues, local expenditures, and generally all that is within the jurisdiction of the municipalities.
Art. 43. The active power shall be entirely, and for all the extent of the municipal district, in the hands of the mayor and his lieutenant, who shall be elected immediately by the primary assemblies. ”

“ The law names certain things which each city charter shall provide, and imposes certain restrictions on the powers of cities. There must be an elected Mayor and a body vested with legislative power; the clerk, treasurer, and assessors, and other officers may be elected or appointed. This permits the establishment of a commission system, or of a Mayor and council with distinct powers. Provision must be made for the levy, collection, and return of State, county, and school taxes, for annual appropriations for municipal purposes, and for a system of accounts. ”

“ People's councils of municipalities directly under the central authority, and of municipalities divided into districts may set up bureaux, divisions, committees or commissions to take charge of civil affairs, public security, justice, supervision, planning, finances, food, taxation, industry, commerce, labour, culture, education, public health, physical culture and sports, projects of municipal construction, and public services ”

“ This is the most extraordinary campaign I ever witnessed; a struggle for good municipal government, in which we have to choose between two candidates for the Mayoralty who, both honorable men, profess to aim at the same ideals of municipal administration. ”

“ A municipal corporation may act through its mayor, though its common council, or its legislative department by whatever name called, its superintendent of streets, commissioner of highways, or board of public works, provided the act is within the province committed to its charge. Nor can it in principle be of the slightest consequence by what means these several officers are placed in their position,-whether they are elected by the people of the municipality, or appointed by the President or a governor. The people are the recognized source of all authority, state and municipal ”

“ In some cities the mayor has received an absolute power of appointment; the departments, especially the boards of health, have large ordinance-making powers; statutes passed by the state legislature determine (excepting the states where cities can make their own charters) the principal lines of municipal policy, and the real control over appropriations and taxes is occasionally found vested in a board of estimate, consisting of the mayor, comptroller (the chief financial officer) , and a few other administrative officials. ”

“ If there is a corrupt council, the remedy is not its supersession by an independent executive. Such an executive is the abrogation of popular government. “Good and efficient government is possible under almost any form of organization. More depends upon men than devices.... But ... if we believe that the functions of deliberation or determination of municipal policy and of administration [Pg 63] or the execution or carrying out of that policy should be kept distinct, we cannot avoid the conclusion that a city council is a necessary part of the municipal organization.” ”

“ The main elective officers of the city are the mayor, treasurer, comptroller, two municipal judges, and the members of the city council, twenty-six in number, two from each ward elected for four years, one being chosen in each ward at every biennial election. The council is a unicameral body. The mayor, treasurer, and comptroller are elected for two years. The mayor's veto may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the council. There are also the following elective boards: Library board, park board, and board of education. ”

“ The mayor presides over the council meetings, serves commonly as an ex-officio member of committees, and represents the municipality upon ceremonial occasions. The office is not one of power, although it is possible for an aggressive and tactful mayor to wield real influence. The permanent officers of the council include a clerk, a treasurer, a medical official, a secretary for education, and a variable number of inspectors and heads of administrative departments. ”

“ The legal validity of any act by the city, such as the issuing of bonds, the contracting for a municipal waterworks or the granting of a municipal franchise, is not determined by the expressed desire of its citizens, but by the voice of the legislature as set out in some statute. The real seat of municipal authority, therefore, is not in the citizens, but in the state legislature; the city lives and moves and has its being in the will of the state. ”

“ Out of this grew a city-manager form of commission government, which the National Municipal League recommended to charter-makers, then multiplying in great numbers due to the growing dissatisfaction with existing conditions. A second “municipal programme” formally adopted by the National Municipal League in 1914, definitely embodied the city-manager plan and later recommended that the council or legislative body be elected on the principle of proportional representation.
The city-manager movement is justly regarded as the best fruit of the movement for better municipal government. ”

“ The Provincial Councils and the City Councils are still functioning. The administrative framework of the country survives. The municipal organization, so solidly rooted, has not ceased to exercise power. ”

“ The mayor shall have exclusive jurisdiction in all cases arising under the ordinances of the corporation, and shall issue such process as may be necessary to carry said ordinances into execution and effect, appeals may be had from any decision or judgment of said mayor, or aldermen, arising under the city ordinances, to the municipal court, under such regulations as may be presented by ordinance. ”

“ In some localities the inhabitants have met together and voluntarily formed a municipal organization for the purposes of local government, adopting the form of a municipal constitution and charter, under which said officials have been appointed; and ordinances creating and regulating a police force, a fire department, a department of health, and making provision for the care of the insane and indigent poor and sick and for public schools, have been passed. ”

“ All these functionaries are nominated by the high commissioner. The prefects are assisted by departmental councils. The system of municipal and communal government remains practically unchanged. The island is divided into 86 communes, each with a mayor, an assistant-mayor, and a communal council elected by the people. The councils assess within certain limits the communal taxes, maintain roads, bridges, &c., and generally superintend local affairs. ”

“ The judicial power, except as it is exercised by municipal mayors, is more a State than a municipal function, and will not be further considered, except to note the existence of municipal police courts for the prompt trial of persons arrested for misdemeanors or crimes. The legislative functions of municipal governments are exercised primarily by the council, and the executive, by various officers and boards, with the mayor as the chief executive officer. ”

“ The municipalities are in their area under their own responsibility the only public body responsible for the whole local public administration. They can take over any public duty if it is not by explicit legal regulation assigned exclusively to other bodies in urgent public interest.
(2) The municipal unions have within their legal responsibilities the same position.
(3) The right to self-administer their matters are provided to the municipalities and municipal unions by the state. The overseeing of the state is restricted to ensuring that the administration is in conformance with the laws. ”

“ The municipal governments shall have assemblies as their deliberative body. The mayors, the members of the assembly, and such other local officials as may be determined by law shall be elected by direct popular vote within each municipality. ”

“ The city council shall have power to appoint a recorder, treasurer, assessor, marshall, supervisor of streets, and all such other officers as may be necessary, and to prescribe their duties and remove them from office at pleasure. ”

“ Municipalities are established in the district or sub-district capital towns, and wherever there is a population sufficiently large and enlightened to be entitled to municipal rights.12 A president (mayor) , vice-president, or councillor must be between twenty-six and sixty-five years of age, and must intelligently speak, read, and write Spanish, English, or the principal local dialect. Ecclesiastics, soldiers in active service, and persons receiving emolument from public funds are debarred from these offices. ”