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performance of their several duties, and for the accounting for and paying over all moneys by them received respectively, the common council may require any officer or any person who is or may be appointed by them, or by the mayor, to give like bonds, with sureties such as the mayor may approve, conditioned as the council may direct, and the common council may, whenever it deems proper, require additional further security of any officer or person after the giving of the bond first mentioned. The city of Binghamton may sue for and recover for any breach of such bond or bonds. Whenever by this act the sureties to any bond are to be approved by the mayor, his approval shall be indorsed on such bond.

8417. Additional allowances. No allowance or compensation, in addition to the salary or compensation prescribed by law or authorized by this act or otherwise by law, shall be paid to any officer or employee of the city or to any person paid out of city funds, nor shall any amount in excess of the sum payable under any contract be paid on account thereof.

8 418. Books and papers to be public records. All books and papers and documents filed with or constituting a part of the records of proceedings of any officer, board or department of the city, shall be deemed to be public records and shall, during office hours, be open to public inspection.

§ 419. Inhabitants not incompetent. Upon the trial of any issue or the prosecution of any proceeding, or upon the taking or making of any inquisition, appraisal or award, or upon the judicial investigation of any facts whatever, to which issue proceedings, inquest, investigation or award the city is a party, or in which the city may, in any way, be interested, no person shall be deemed incompetent as a judge, referee, commissioner, witness or juror by reason of his being an inhabitant, freeholder or taxpayer of the city.

§ 420. Witnesses not to be excused from testifying.- No witness shall be excused from testifying in any criminal proceedings or in any investigation or inquiry before the common council, or any committee thereof, or before any officer conducting an investigation, touching the knowledge of such witness as to any offense committed in violation of the provisions of this act or of any law of the state or ordinance of the city; but such testimony shall not be used against such witness in any criminal prosecution or proceeding whatever.

§ 421. Double costs, when.- Every person elected or appointed to any office under this act, who shall be sued for any act done or commenced to be done by virtue of his office, and who shall have final judgment rendered in his favor, whereby he shall be entitled to costs, shall recover twice the amount of his taxed costs.

422. City boundaries may be marked; no adverse title obtained by encroachments. The common council shall have power to cause the boundaries of the city to be surveyed and permanent monuments to be placed to indicate the same, and a map to be made thereof. No encroachments on any sidewalk, alley, street, highway or public grounds in said city, shall operate to confer any right upon any person or corporation adverse to the city, but such encroachment shall be deemed a nuisance, and the city may, at any time, cause the same to be removed.

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8 423. Notice to one owner, notice to all. Whenever any real estate in said city shall be owned by two or more persons jointly, or as tenants in common, a notice served on one of such persons shall be sufficient notice to all, for any purpose requiring a notice under this act.

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424. City to be regarded as a town for certain purposes. The city shall be regarded as a town, under the provisions of the code of civil procedure respecting the return of jurors, and the supervisors, or a majority of them, and the clerk of said city shall perform the duties therein enjoined upon the supervisors, assessors and town clerks of the several towns of the state, except that a duplicate of the return of jurors made by them shall be filed in the office of the city clerk. Each ward of the city shall be regarded as a town, under the provisions of the town law relative to fence viewers, and the supervisor and aldermen of each ward shall be fence viewers, and shall possess all the powers and authority in respect to division fences or walls in their ward, which are given by said law to town fence viewers with respect to division fences. For all other purposes except those provided for in this act, the city shall be regarded as one of the towns of Broome county.

8 425. Refusal of officer to deliver property to successor; penalty. If any person elected or appointed to any office under this act shall refuse on request to deliver to his successor all property, books, papers and effects in his possession or under his control, belonging to the city or appertaining to his office, he shall forfeit

and pay to the use of said city the sum of one hundred dollars, besides all damages caused by such refusal. And the person so refusing may be compelled to make such delivery by an order to be made, upon affidavit, by the county judge, or a justice of the supreme court, and may be punished as for a contempt for disobeying such order by the judge or justice granting it.

§ 426. Duty of jailer of Broome county. Whenever the city shall have a contract with the board of supervisors of Broome county, it shall be the duty of the jailer of Broome county to receive and safely keep any person committed, with or without warrant, to the county jail, for any offense committed within the city, the expenses on account of which are chargeable to the city, and he shall be entitled in every such case to receive from the city the following and no greater fees, in the following cases: For every person committed to jail, twenty cents; and for every person discharged from jail, twenty cents; and for every meal actually furnished, twenty cents. The expense of apprehending, examining, trying and committing offenders against any law of the state, in said city, and of their confinement, properly chargeable against the county of Broome, shall be audited, allowed and paid by the supervisors of said county, in the same manner as if such expenses had been incurred in any town of said county of Broome.

8427. Annual reports of departments. The several heads of departments shall present to the mayor, annually, on or before the first Monday of December, a report of their proceedings during the preceding year, and he shall transmit the same to the common council with any recommendations he may think proper to make. But nothing in this section contained shall be so construed as to relieve such heads of departments from furnishing information required by the mayor or common council at any other time.

$428. Printed copies of reports, etc.; cost thereof Upon payment of ten dollars a year to the treasurer, any taxpayer of the city may have one copy of the following publications, which shall be delivered to him by the city clerk immediately after they are respectively printed, at any place within the city designated by him, within one-quarter of a mile from the place where the common council shall hold its meetings. The printed minutes of the meetings of the common council, of the board of estimate and apportionment, and of the board of contract and supply, as they from time to time appear, and the bound and indexed volume of

each at the end of each year, and claims against the city presented by the comptroller as they from time to time appear in their printed form, and the comptroller's annual published statement of the financial condition of the city.

8429. Charges against officers. Charges against any city officer may be of disability for service, in which case the examination shall be one of inquiry, and the decision may be for honorable discharge from service; or of neglect, or violation of law or duty, inefficiency, intemperance, disobedience of orders, or unbecoming official or personal conduct, in which case the examination shall be a trial, and the offender may be punished as in this act provided. § 430. Officers, trustees of public property. The common council and the several members thereof, and all officers and employees of the city are hereby declared trustees of the property, funds and effects of said city respectively, so far as such property, funds and effects are or may be committed to their management or control, and every taxpayer residing in said city is hereby declared to be a cestui que trust in respect to the said property, funds and effects respectively; and any cotrustee or any cestui que trust shall be entitled as against said trustees and in regard to said property, funds and effects to all the rules, remedies and privileges provided by law for any cotrustee or cestui que trust; to prosecute and maintain an action to prevent waste and injury to any property, funds and estate held in trust; and such trustees. are hereby made subject to all the duties and responsibilities imposed by law on trustees, and such duties and responsibilities may be enforced by the city or by any cotrustee or cestui que trust aforesaid. The remedies herein provided shall be in addition to those now provided by law.

431. Creation of debt. No person shall have power to make any purchase or contract any debt on the part of the city, unless especially authorized by the provisions of this act.

§ 432. Public act. This act is intended to be and shall be deemed and held in all courts and jurisdictions to be a public act, of which the courts shall take judicial notice. This act shall be construed not as an act in derogation of the powers of the state but as one intended to aid the state in the execution of its duties, and shall be liberally construed so as to carry into effect the objects and purposes thereof.

8433. When act takes effect. Except as otherwise provided, so much of this act as pertains to the holding of general elections

and the election of officers shall take effect September first, nineteen hundred and seven; the remainder of the act shall take effect. January first, nineteen hundred and eight.

§ 434. Laws repealed.— Chapter two hundred and fourteen of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, and all acts amendatory thereof; chapter three hundred and forty-two of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-eight; chapter four hundred and seventy-six of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-nine; chapter two hundred and seventy-five of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-seven; chapter seven hundred and seventeen of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-seven; chapter three hundred and thirty-seven of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninetynine; and chapter five hundred and thirty-two of the laws of nineteen hundred and two; and all other laws and city ordinances inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. Such repeal shall not revive any act or ordinance repealed by a law or ordinance hereby repealed, but shall include all laws amendatory of the laws repealed, except as provided in this section. Such repeal shall not affect any right already existing or accrued, or any liability incurred by reason of any violation of a law or ordinance heretofore existing, or any suit or proceeding already instituted, or action had under the laws or ordinances, unless expressly provided in this act. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect any of the acts or parts of acts to regulate and improve the civil service of the state of New York.

8435. Saving clause. Nothing contained in this act shall be construed to repeal any statute of the state or ordinance of the city, or rule or regulation of the board of health, or the rules and regulations adopted by the water commissioners of the city, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, and the same shall remain in full force and effect when not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, to be construed and operated in harmony with the provisions of this act. The powers which are conferred and the duties which are imposed upon any officer or department of the city under any statute of the state, or any city ordinance which is in force at the time of the taking effect of this act, shall, if such office or department be abolished by this act, be thereafter exercised and discharged by the officer, board or department upon whom is imposed corresponding or like functions, powers and duties under the provisions of this act. Where any contract has been entered into by the city, prior to the time of taking effect

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