[Amended 6-7-2016 by L.L.
No. 1-2016]
The City has formed a permanent library district and the public
library or libraries therein shall be entitled to all the rights,
powers, privileges, public moneys and other benefits conferred upon
public libraries by law or other state authority and shall, except
as otherwise provided in this Charter, be subject to all the rules,
regulations, powers of inspection and superintendence prescribed by
law applicable to public libraries in the State of New York.
The name of the "Oneonta Public Library," a corporation created
by the regents of the State of New York in 1893, has been duly changed
to "the Huntington Memorial Library" pursuant to the request of Mr.
Henry E. Huntington who has already made valuable gifts to the City
of Oneonta for library and park purposes and who proposes to endow
the same in memory of his parents.
The affairs of the Huntington Memorial Library shall be managed
by a board of five members to be appointed in the manner provided
in this Charter, which board shall be known and designated as the
"Board of Trustees of the Huntington Memorial Library," Said Board
and its successors shall possess all the powers conferred, and discharge
all the duties imposed by this Charter or by any general law relating
to public libraries.
The title to all real and personal property belonging to said
library shall remain vested in said Board of Library Trustees, but
all moneys and funds belonging to said library shall be paid over
and delivered to the Director of Finance and credited by him to the
library fund of the City.
The Mayor, subject to the approval of the Common Council, shall
annually in the month of January appoint a citizen of the City a member
of the Board of Trustees of Huntington Memorial Library and shall
also appoint a citizen of the City to fill any vacancy in the membership
of said Board caused by death or otherwise, whenever such vacancy
shall occur. Each person so appointed shall hold office for the term
of five years, except when appointed to fill a vacancy, and in such
case to fill the unexpired term caused by such vacancy.
The Board of Library Trustees shall have power to elect one
of their members President, and one of said members to act as Secretary,
and each shall perform the duties usually pertaining to their respective
offices, and subject to the provisions of this Charter and to the
laws and regulations pertaining to public libraries in the State of
New York, said Board of Library Trustees shall have power and it shall
be its duty:
A.
Control of property. To have the exclusive care, custody, management
and control of the public library of the City, and of all property
pertaining thereto.
B.
Provision of facilities. To provide suitable rooms or buildings for
said library and to appoint a librarian and such other persons as
may be necessary for the proper care and maintenance of the library.
C.
Purchase, sale repairs. To purchase, sell or exchange, improve and
repair books for the library, library appurtenances and fixtures.
D.
Payment of salaries, expenses. To pay the salaries of its librarian,
assistants or persons employed by said Board, and for books, library
apparatus and fixtures, and all other expenses in the care and maintenance
of the library, out of the moneys appropriated or provided by law
for that purpose, by orders upon the Director of Finance.
E.
Application for state funds. To apply to the state for public library
moneys and when received to pay the same over to the Director of Finance
and the Director of Finance shall include the same in the library
funds.
F.
Receipt of property, investment thereof. To receive all property,
real and personal, that may be given, bequeathed or devised to the
Huntington Memorial Library and to have power to invest and reinvest
and to care for and control the same, but all moneys, incomes and
funds received from such gifts, bequests or devises shall be paid
to and disbursed by the Director of Finance upon the order of the
Board of Library Trustees.
It shall be the duty of the Board of Library Trustees, on or
before the last day of January in each year, to make to the Common
Council a detailed report of the manner in which it shall have expended
the money provided for and appropriated to library purposes from any
source during the fiscal year of said Board of Library Trustees; and
such report shall be published by the Common Council in connection
with, and as part of, the annual report of the financial transactions
of the City. The Board of Library Trustees shall also make such reports
to the Education Department of the State of New York as shall be required
by law.
A.
Submission of statement of anticipated expenses. On or before the
first day of October of each year, the Board of Library Trustees shall
prepare a statement of such sums of money as it shall deem necessary
during the next fiscal year which shall begin January 1, annually.
Before the meeting of the Board at which said statement is prepared,
the Board shall give the Mayor official notice thereof, and the Mayor
shall attend said meeting and be accorded the right to inquire into
all the items of said statement and all the privileges in said meeting
of the members of said Board, except the privilege of voting.
B.
Action by Mayor. Whenever the Board shall finally have determined
on the statement of expenses for the ensuing year, it shall present
the same to the Mayor or Acting Mayor of the City. If the Mayor, or
Acting Mayor, approves such statement he shall sign it and immediately
file the same with the City Clerk; if he does not approve of any item
therein he shall, within five days, return the statement with his
objections endorsed thereon or annexed thereto, to the Clerk of the
Board of Library Trustees and the Board shall then proceed to reconsider
such statement and if 4/5 of the members then in office agree to sustain
the statement as made it shall stand as if it had been approved by
the Mayor and shall be immediately filed with the City Clerk. If 4/5
of the members of the Board do not agree to sustain the statement
as made, it shall be modified so as to conform to the views expressed
by the Mayor in his objections and he shall sign it and file it with
the City Clerk. But if he does not approve any item thereof, he shall,
within 24 hours, return the same with his objections as before, and
the Board of Library Trustees shall continue to present statements
as aforesaid until the Mayor's approval be obtained or until 4/5 of
the members of the Board agrees to pass the same over his objections;
and said statement when thus approved shall be filed with the City
Clerk. If the Mayor, or Acting Mayor, fails to sign a statement of
moneys required as herein provided, or fails to return, within five
days after its submission, said statement with his objections thereto
to the Board, said statement shall be filed with the City Clerk in
the same manner as if it had been approved.
C.
Tax levy. When such statement is filed with the City Clerk, the Common
Council shall then include the amount thereof in the annual levy for
City taxes, and the same shall be collected by the Director of Finance
under the same terms as other taxes, who shall credit the same when
received to the library fund of the Huntington Memorial Library and
who shall disburse the same upon orders of the Board signed by the
President and Secretary thereof.
