(1)
General powers. The council shall have the power to pass all such
ordinances not contrary to the Constitution and laws of the State
of Maryland or this charter as it may deem necessary for the good
government of the town; for the protection and preservation of the
town's property, rights, and privileges; for the preservation of peace
and good order; for securing persons and property from violence, danger,
or destruction; and for the protection and promotion of the health,
safety, comfort, convenience, welfare, and happiness of the residents
of the town and visitors thereto and sojourners therein.
(2)
Specific powers. The council shall have, in addition, the power to
pass ordinances not contrary to the laws and Constitution of this
State, for the following specific purposes:
(3)
Advertising. To provide for advertising for the purposes of the town,
for printing and publishing statements as to the business of the town.
(4)
Aisles. To regulate and prevent the obstruction of aisles in public
halls, churches and places of amusement, and to regulate the construction
and operation of the doors and means of egress therefrom.
(5)
Amusements. To provide in the interest of the public welfare for
licensing, regulating, or restraining theatrical or other public amusements.
(6)
Appropriations. To appropriate municipal monies for any purpose within
the powers of the council.
(7)
Auctioneers. To regulate the sale of all kinds of property at auction
within the town and to license auctioneers.
(8)
Band. To establish a municipal band, symphony orchestra or other
musical organization, and to regulate by ordinance the conduct and
policies thereof.
(9)
Billboards. To license, tax and regulate, restrain or prohibit the
erection or maintenance of billboards within the city, the placing
of signs, bills and posters of every kind and description on any building,
fence, post, billboard, pole, or other place within the town.
(10)
Bridges. To erect and maintain bridges.
(11)
Buildings. To make reasonable regulations in regard to buildings
and signs to be erected, constructed, or reconstructed in the town,
and to grant building permits for the same; to formulate a building
code and a plumbing code and to appoint a building inspector and a
plumbing inspector, and to require reasonable charges for permits
and inspections; to authorize and require the inspection of all buildings
and structures and to authorize the condemnation thereof in whole
or in part when dangerous or insecure, and to require that such buildings
and structures be made safe or be taken down.
(12)
Cemeteries. To regulate or prohibit the interment of bodies within
the municipality and to regulate cemeteries.
(13)
Codification. To provide for the codification of all ordinances which
have been or may hereafter be passed.
(14)
Community services. To provide, maintain, and operate community and
social services for the preservation and promotion of the health,
recreation, welfare, and enlightenment of the inhabitants of the town.
(15)
Cooperative activities. To make agreements with other municipalities,
counties, districts, bureaus, commissions, and governmental authorities
for the joint performance of or for cooperation in the performance
of any governmental functions.
(16)
Curfew. To prohibit the youth of the town from being in the streets,
lanes, alleys, or public places at unreasonable hours of the night.
(17)
Dangerous conditions. To compel persons about to undertake dangerous
improvements to execute bonds with sufficient sureties conditioned
that the owner or contractor will pay all damages resulting from such
work which may be sustained by any persons or property.
(18)
Departments. To create, change, and abolish offices, departments,
or agencies, other than the offices, departments, and agencies established
by this charter; to assign additional functions or duties to offices,
departments, or agencies established by this charter, but not including
the power to discontinue or assign to any other office, department,
or agency any function or duty assigned by this charter to a particular
office, department, or agency.
(19)
Disorderly houses. To suppress bawdy houses, disorderly houses and
houses of ill fame.
(20)
Dogs. To regulate the keeping of dogs in the town and to provide,
wherever the county does not license or tax dogs, for the licensing
and taxing of the same; to provide for the disposition of homeless
dogs and dogs on which no license fee or taxes are paid.
(21)
Elevators. To require the inspection and licensing of all elevators
and to prohibit their use when unsafe or dangerous or without a license.
(22)
Explosives. To regulate or prevent the storage of gunpowder, oil,
or any other explosive or combustible matter; to regulate or prevent
the use of firearms, fireworks, bonfires, explosives, or any other
similar things which may endanger persons or property.
(23)
Filth. To compel the occupant of any premises, building or outhouse
situated in the town, when the same has become filthy or unwholesome,
to abate or cleanse the condition; and after reasonable notice to
the owners or occupants to authorize such work to be done by the proper
officers and to assess the expense thereof against such property,
making it collectible by taxes or against the occupant or occupants.
(24)
Finances. To levy, assess, and collect ad valorem property taxes;
to expend municipal funds for any public purpose; to have general
management and control of the finances of the town. Farm homes or
residences shall be taxable under this law, using the same taxable
base and coding of the Calvert County laws concerning the taxation
of homes and residences on farm property.
(25)
Fire. To suppress fires and prevent the dangers thereof and to establish
and maintain a fire department; to contribute funds to volunteer fire
companies serving the town; to inspect buildings for the purpose of
reducing fire hazards, to issue regulations concerning fire hazards,
and to forbid and prohibit the use of fire-hazardous buildings and
structures permanently or until the conditions of town fire-hazard
regulations are met; to install and maintain fire plugs where and
as necessary, and to regulate their use; and to take all other measures
necessary to control and prevent fires in the town.
(26)
Food. To inspect and to require the condemnation of, if unwholesome,
and to regulate the sale of, any food products.
(27)
Franchises. To grant and regulate franchises to water companies,
electric light companies, gas companies, telegraph and telephone companies,
transit companies, taxicab companies, and any others which may be
deemed advantageous and beneficial to the town, subject, however,
to the limitations and provisions of Article 23 of the Annotated Code
of Maryland. No franchise shall be granted for a longer period than
fifty years.
(28)
Garbage. To prevent the deposit of any unwholesome substance either
on private or public property, and to compel its removal to designated
points; to require slops, garbage, ashes and other waste or other
unwholesome materials to be removed to designated points, or to require
the occupants of the premises to place them conveniently for removal.
(29)
Grants-in-aid. To accept gifts and grants of federal or of State
funds from the Federal or State governments or any agency thereof,
and to expend the same for any lawful public purpose, agreeably to
the conditions under which the gifts or grants were made.
(30)
Hawkers. To license, tax, regulate, suppress and prohibit hawkers
and itinerant dealers, peddlers, pawnbrokers and all other persons
selling any articles on the streets of the town, and to revoke such
licenses for cause.
(31)
Health. To protect and preserve the health of the town and its inhabitants;
to appoint a public health officer, and to define and regulate his
powers and duties; to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases
into the town; to establish quarantine regulations, and to authorize
the removal and confinement of persons having contagious or infectious
diseases; to prevent and remove all nuisances; to inspect, regulate,
and abate any buildings, structures, or places which cause or may
cause unsanitary conditions or conditions detrimental to health; provided,
that nothing herein shall be construed to affect in any manner any
of the powers and duties of the State Board of Health, the county
board of health, or any public general or local law relating to the
subject of health.
(32)
House numbers. To regulate the numbering of houses and lots and to
compel owners to renumber the same or in default thereof to authorize
and require the same to be done by the town at the owner's expense,
such expense to constitute a lien upon the property collectible as
tax monies.
(33)
Jail. To establish and regulate a station house or lock-up for temporary
confinement of violators of the laws and ordinances of the town or
to use the county jail for such purpose.
(34)
Licenses. Subject to any restrictions imposed by the public general
laws of the State, to license and regulate all persons beginning or
conducting transient or permanent business in the town for the sale
of any goods, wares, merchandise, or services; to license and regulate
any business, occupation, trade, calling, or place of amusement or
business; to establish and collect fees and charges for all licenses
and permits issued under the authority of this charter.
(35)
Liens. To provide that any valid charges, taxes or assessments made
against any real property within the town shall be liens upon such
property, to be collected as municipal taxes are collected.
(36)
Lights. To provide for the lighting of the town.
(37)
Livestock. To regulate and prohibit the running at large of cattle,
horses, swine, fowl, sheep, goats, dogs or other animals; to authorize
the impounding, keeping, sale and redemption of such animals when
found in violation of the ordinance in such cases provided.
(38)
Markets. To obtain by lease or rent, own, construct, purchase, operate,
and maintain public markets within the town.
(39)
Minor privileges. To regulate or prevent the use of public ways,
sidewalks, and public places for signs, awnings, posts, steps, railings,
entrances, racks, posting handbills and advertisements, and display
of goods, wares, and merchandise.
(40)
Noise. To regulate or prohibit unreasonable ringing of bells, crying
of goods or sounding of whistles and horns.
(41)
Nuisances. To prevent or abate by appropriate ordinance all nuisances
in the town which are so defined at common law, by this charter, or
by the laws of the State of Maryland, whether the same be herein specifically
named or not; to regulate, to prohibit, to control the location of,
or to require the removal from the town of all trading in, handling
of, or manufacture of any commodity which is or may become offensive,
obnoxious, or injurious to the public comfort or health. In this connection
the town may regulate, prohibit, control the location of, or require
the removal from the town of such things as stockyards, slaughterhouses,
cattle or hog pens, tanneries, and renderies. This listing is by way
of enumeration, not limitation.
(42)
Obstructions. To remove all nuisances and obstructions from the streets,
lanes and alleys and from any lots adjoining thereto, or any other
places within the limits of the town.
(43)
Parking facilities. To license and regulate and to establish, obtain
by purchase, by lease or by rent, own, construct, operate, and maintain
parking lots and other facilities for off street parking.
(44)
Parking meters. To install parking meters on the streets and public
places of the town in such places as they shall by ordinance determine,
and by ordinance to prescribe rates and provisions for the use thereof,
except that the installation of parking meters on any street road
maintained by the State Roads Commission of Maryland must first be
approved by the Commission.
(45)
Parks and recreation. To establish and maintain public parks, gardens,
playgrounds, and other recreational facilities and programs to promote
the health, welfare, and enjoyment of the inhabitants of the town.
(46)
Police force. To establish, operate, and maintain a police force.
All town policemen shall, within the municipality, have the powers
and authority of constables in this State.
(47)
Police powers. To prohibit, suppress, and punish within the town
all vice, gambling, and games of chance; prostitution and solicitation
therefor and the keeping of bawdy houses and houses of ill fame; all
tramps and vagrants; all disorder, disturbances, annoyances, disorderly
conduct, obscenity, public profanity, and drunkenness.
(48)
Property. To acquire by conveyance, purchase or gift, real or leasable
property for any public purposes; to erect buildings and structures
thereon for the benefit of the town and its inhabitants; and to convey
any real or leasehold property when no longer needed for the public
use, after having given at least twenty days' public notice of the
proposed conveyance; to control, protect and maintain public buildings,
grounds and property of the town.
(49)
Quarantine. To establish quarantine regulations in the interests
of the public health.
(50)
Regulations. To adopt by ordinance and enforce within the corporate
limits police, health, sanitary, fire, building, plumbing, traffic,
speed, parking, and other similar regulations not in conflict with
the laws of the State of Maryland or with this charter.
(51)
Sidewalks. To regulate the use of sidewalks and all structures in,
under or above the same; to require the owner or occupant of premises
to keep the sidewalks in front thereof free from snow or other obstructions;
to prescribe hours for cleaning sidewalks.
(52)
Sweepings. To regulate or prevent the throwing or depositing of sweepings,
dust, ashes, offal, garbage, paper, handbills, dirty liquids, or other
unwholesome materials into any public way or onto any public or private
property in the town.
(53)
Taxicabs. To license, tax and regulate public hackmen, taxicab men,
draymen, drivers, cabmen, porters and expressmen, and all other persons
pursuing like occupations.
(54)
Vehicles. To regulate and license wagons and other vehicles not subject
to the licensing powers of the State of Maryland.
(55)
Voting machines. To purchase, lease, borrow, install and maintain
voting machines for use in town elections.
(56)
Zoning. To exercise the powers as to planning and zoning, conferred
upon municipal corporations generally in Article 66B of the Annotated
Code of Maryland, subject, however, to the limitations and provisions
of said Article.
(57)
Saving Clause. The enumeration of powers in this section is not to
be construed as limiting the powers of the town to the several subjects
mentioned. (Res., March, 1963, sec. 20; Res. January 26, 1968; Res.
September 24, 1971; P.L.L. 1963, sec. 24.)
For the purpose of carrying out the powers granted in this subtitle
or elsewhere in this charter, the council may pass all necessary ordinances.
All the powers of the town shall be exercised in the manner prescribed
by this charter, or, if the manner be not prescribed, then in such
manner as may be prescribed by ordinance. (Res., March, 1963, sec.
21; P.L.L. 1963, sec. 25.)
To ensure the observance of Ordinances and Resolutions of the
Town, the Town Council shall have the power to provide that violations
thereof shall be punishable as misdemeanors unless the violation is
declared to be a felony by State law or otherwise specified as a muncipal
[municipal] infraction but no penalty shall exceed a fine of $1,000.00
and imprisonment for six (6) months. Any person subject to any fine,
forfeiture, or penalty has the right of appeal as is provided under
the general laws of the State. Where the act or omission is of a continuing
nature and is persisted in, a conviction for one offense shall not
be a bar to a conviction for a continuation of the offense subsequent
to the first or any succeeding conviction. (Res., March, 1963, sec.
22; Res. 78-2, August 25, 1978; Res. 2-90, October 5, 1990; Res. R-93-6,
2-4-94; P.L.L. 1963, sec. 26.)
1.
The Council may provide that violations of any municipal Ordinance
shall be a municipal infraction unless that violation is declared
to be a felony or misdemeanor by the laws of the State or other Ordinance.
A municipal infraction is a civil offense.
2.
A fine not to exceed $1,000.00 may be imposed for each municipal
infraction. If a citation is served without a summons, the fine is
payable to the municipality by the person charged in the citation
within 20 calendar days of service of a citation. If a citation is
served with a summons, the fine is payable to the municipality by
the person charged in the citation on or before the date set forth
in the citation.
3.
If a citation is served without a summons, the person charged in
the citation may elect to stand trial for the offense by notifying
the Town in writing of the person's intent to stand trial. The written
notice shall be given at least 5 days prior to the date of payment
as set forth in the citation. Failure to pay the fine on or before
the date set forth in the citation or failure to provide timely notice
of the intent to stand trial shall make the person charged liable
for the assessed fine and the municipality may double the fine in
an amount not to exceed $1,000.00. Any person served with a summons
and citation who fails to pay the fine as provided in the citation
and fails to appear in District Court as provided in the summons,
shall be liable for the assessed fine and the municipality may double
the fine in an amount not to exceed $1,000.00.
4.
Adjudication of a municipal infraction is not a criminal conviction
for any purpose, nor does it impose any of the civil disabilities
ordinarily imposed by a criminal conviction. (Res. 78-2, August 25,
1978; Res. 3-90, October 5, 1990; Res. R-93-5, 2-4-1994.)
The Town Council may provide by ordinance that the violation
of a municipal law shall be a civil code violation and subject the
offender to a civil fine, to the extent the town is given the statutory
authority under Maryland law to impose civil fines for violations
of the subject matter regulated by the municipal law. Any civil fines
provided pursuant to this section shall be limited to any amount set
forth in the statutory authorization of the Maryland Annotated Code
and shall be imposed in a manner consistent with the scope and limitations
provided by the statutory authorization. The provisions of this section
shall not apply to any civil offense which is defined by Maryland
law to be a municipal infraction. The citation, prosecution, and punishment
of civil code violations authorized by this section shall be performed
in the same manner as a municipal infraction, except as specifically
modified by the statutory authorization of Maryland law upon which
the civil code violation is based. (Res. R-04-5, 2-4-2005.)
