ARTICLE XVIII.

Fire Department.

SECTION I. There shall be and is hereby established in Kansas City a Fire Department which shall have charge, management and control of all the city's fire engines and means and apparatus used or provided for the extinguishment and prevention of fires and of all buildings, houses and places of the city used in keeping and preserving the same.

SEC. 2. Said Fire Department shall be under the control of a board to be known as the Board of Fire Commissioners which shall be composed of three members to be appointed by the mayor all of whom must have resided in Kansas City at least five years next before their appointment and be tax-paying citizens holding no other office in the state and shall serve without any compensation. Forthwith after this charter takes effect the mayor shall appoint the first three members of said Board of Fire Commissioners, one for a term of one year, one for a term of two years and one for a term of three years; and as their respective terms of office shall expire the successors of each of them shall be appointed for terms of three years. Said Commissioners shall serve until their successors are appointed and qualified and in case of a vacancy the mayor shall appoint a commissioner to fill such vacancy for the unexpired term only. In making appointments under this article the mayor shall be governed solely by considerations of fitness of the appointee to discharge the duties of a member of said board and not more than two members of said Board shall belong to the same political party, and not more than one member of said board shall be engaged in or in any way connected with the fire insurance business.

SEC. 3. Forthwith after their appointment the said Board shall organize by the election of one of their members as president of the board and by the appointment of a secretary to serve during the pleasure of the board, who shall be paid such salary as may be fixed by the board and shall keep a faithful record of the official proceedings of the Board and perform such duties

and render such services in the Fire Department as may be prescribed and from time to time required of him by the Board. Suitable accommodations for said board and secretary shall be provided and kept at the fire department headquarters. The president shall be elected annually.

SEC. 4. Said Board shall organize fire, hose, ax, chemical, hook and ladder and other fire fighting companies and employ a suitable number of able and reputable inhabitants of the city as firemen to take the care and management of the engines and apparatus and implements used and provided for the extinguishment of fires and shall prescribe the duties of firemen and make rules and regulations for their government and impose reasonable penalties for violation of the same. Said Board shall from time to time determine and fix the quantity, kind, character and quality of all equipment, apparatus and supplies needed by said Fire Department and make requisition therefor on the Board of Public Works and it shall thereupon become and be the duty of said Board of Public Works to purchase the same for said Fire Department in accordance with such requisition and when so purchased the same shall be paid for by said Fire Department out of the funds appropriated for said Fire Department by the common council.

SEC. 5. Said Board shall, appoint a Fire Chief to serve during the pleasure of the Board and shall fix his salary. It shall also from time to time divide the places of employment and service in the Fire Department into positions, naming them, graded according to the importance of the duties to be performed by the employee occupying such position and shall fix the salary or compensation attached to each position. The present Chief of the Fire Department and all other persons now in the service of the city's fire department shall upon the taking effect of this charter be deemed to have been appointed to and employed in their present positions and places of employment by said Board of Fire Commissioners at the same compensation without further or additional appointment or employment, except that the said Chief of the Fire Department shall henceforth be known as Fire Chief.

SEC. 6. Except as provided in the next preceding section of this article, and with the exception of the Fire Chief, no person shall be taken into the service of the Fire Department otherwise than through the civil service laws, rules and regulations contained in or provided for by this charter. All employments in

the Fire Department shall, in the first instance, be for a probationary period of six months, during which time such proba-' tioners shall perform substitute duties in the department and shall receive such per diem compensation for the actual time engaged in the performance of such duties as the Board shall prescribe. Such probationers shall be numbered by the Fire Chief in the order in which according to merit they are certified for employment from the eligible list of the Civil Service Commission, and each probationer, who by such actual experience manifests his fitness for duty as a fireman shall be selected for regular employment in the department in the same relative order.

SEC. 7. The Fire Chief shall be responsible for the discipline, good order and proper conduct of the whole fire department, the enforcement of all laws, ordinances, rules and regulations pertaining thereto, and for the care and condition of the houses, engines, hose, carriages and all property of the department. He shall have the superintendence, control and command of all the officers and men belonging to the department, and full power to remove, discharge and suspend them or any of them, and of all the engine houses and other houses used by the department, and of all the engines and fire apparatus belonging to the city. He shall likewise have control of all persons present at fires and to that end shall ex-officio have and exercise all the powers of the chief of police of the city thereat. He shall wear a proper badge of office and shall, when a fire breaks out, take immediate and proper measures for its extinguishment. He shall have power, if need be, to summon any and all persons present to aid in extinguishing any fire, in removing personal property from any building on fire or in danger thereof, and in guarding the same, and any person refusing to obey such summons shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. He shall also have power to order the cutting down and removing of any building, erection, fence or thing if he shall deem it necessary for the purpose of checking the progress of any fire. In case of the absence of said Fire Chief from any fire, the assistant in the department of the highest rank then present shall for the time have the powers and perform the duties of such Fire Chief. The Fire Chief or the assistant in command at any fire may prescribe limits in the vicinity of such fire within which no person, excepting those who reside therein, members of the fire department or of the police department, and those admitted by order of the officers of the fire department, shall be permitted

to come.

SEC. 8. It shall be the duty of the said Board of Fire Commissioners at the beginning of each fiscal year to estimate what sum of money may be necessary for the ensuing fiscal year to enable them to discharge the duties imposed upon them. Such estimate shall embrace the cost of the Fire Department as then organized, also the cost of any increase in the Department which the Board may deem necessary and advisable. The Board shall certify the same to the City Comptroller, and the Common Council is hereby required in the first apportionment ordinance of that fiscal year to set apart and apportion for said Fire Department the amount the Common Council may deem necessary, payable out of the next annual revenue of the city, and the said Board of Fire Commissioners shall have power by warrant, signed by the president or in his absence or disability by any other member of said Board appointed president pro tempore by resolution of the Board and countersigned by the secretary or by some member of said Board appointed secretary pro tempore by resolution of the Board to expend the money appropriated for the use of the Fire Department as aforesaid, and for the expenses of said department. The president and secretary shall each give bond approved by the City Comptroller in such sum as may be required by the Board, conditioned for the faithful discharge of official duties.

SEC. 9. The common council shall have power to provide by ordinance for the creation, maintenance and management of a fund for the pensioning of firemen employed in said fire department crippled or disabled while in the performance of their duties in the service of the fire department and for the relief of the widows and minor children of deceased firemen killed while in the performance of their duties in the service of the fire department, said fund to be taken from the municipal revenue of the city.

SEC. 10. The common council shall have power to pass

all such ordinances not in conflict with this charter or the constitution and laws of the state as it shall deem proper to more fully carry out the objects and purposes of this article.

ARTICLE XIX.

Civil Service.

SECTION 1. Immediately upon the taking effect of this charter, the following named persons, Robert J. Ingraham, Louis A. Laughlin and Henry C. Flower, residents of the city and qualified voters therein, shall constitute a civil service commission, who shall serve as follows: Henry C. Flower until the first day of March, 1906, Robert J. Ingraham until the first day of March, 1907, and Louis A. Laughlin until the first day of March, 1908; and whenever, and as often as the term of office of any commissioner shall expire, the mayor shall appoint one person known to be devoted to the improvement of civil service based on merit, as a successor of the commissioner whose term of office expires in that year, to serve as such commissioner for three years. All appointments or designations of civil service commissioners shall be made in such manner that not more than two shall at any time be adherents of the same political party; none of said commissioners shall hold any other office or employment under the United States, the State of Missouri, or any municipal corporation or political division thereof. Each commissioner, before entering upon the duties of his office, shall take the oath prescribed by the constitution of this State, and shall serve until his successor is duly appointed and qualified. No person shall be appointed as civil service commissioner who has not resided in this city at least five years next preceding his appointment. Said commissioners shall serve without compensation until the first day of March, 1906; from and after that date, each commissioner shall receive an annual salary of twelve hundred dollars until said salary is increased by ordinance.

SEC. 2. Any member of the Civil Service Commission may be removed for the same causes and in the same manner as officers elected by the people. The Mayor shall, within ten days, report in writing any such removal to the city comptroller, with his reasons therefor. Any vacancy in the office of Commissioner shall be filled by appointment by the Mayor for the unexpired term.