Source:Charter of the City of Pensacola, 1895

In 1895, a new charter for the City of Pensacola was set forth by the Florida Legislature. This replaced the Provisional Municipality of Pensacola that had been established in 1885. The 1895 charter was enacted by Chapter 4513 of the Laws of Florida 1895. The act was entitled:

AN ACT to Provide for the Creation of the City of Pensacola, Now Known as the Provisional Municipality of Pensacola, and for Government of Said City of Pensacola, and to Provide for its Officers and Their Terms of Office, and to Provide for the Support and Maintenance of Said Government and Improvement of Said City.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

Introduction

Section 1.

That the inhabitants of the city of Pensacola are hereby created corporate by the name and style of the city of Pensacola, with the power to govern themselves by such ordinances and resolutions for municipal purposes as they may deem proper, not to conflict with this act, nor the constitution and laws of this State, nor the United States; with power to contract and be contracted with; to sue and be sued; to defend and be defended in all courts; to acquire property for municipal purposes by purchase or otherwise; to hold the same and all property and effects now belonging to them, either in their own name or the name of others, to the use of the city, for the purposes and intents for which the same were granted or dedicated; to use, manage, improve, sell, and convey, rent, or lease the said property, and have the like powers over property hereafter acquired; to have a common seal, and change it at pleasure, and act with or without a seal.

Section 2.

In said city there shall be a legislature, an executive and a judicial department. Neither of these departments shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except as permitted in this act.

Legislative.

Section 3.

The legislative power of said city shall be in a board of twelve aldermen which shall be styled the council.

Section 4.

Aldermen shall be selected by the qualified voters of the city as hereinafter provided, and so selected so that three shall be residents of and qualified voters in each of the four election precincts now established. Two aldermen shall be selected from each precinct by the voters of their respective precincts, and one alderman from each precinct shall be elected by the voters of the city at large.

Section 5.

Members of the Council shall hold their office for four years except that at the first election under this act, the alderman elected from each precinct receiving the smallest vote shall serve for two years, and the two aldermen elected at large who receive the smallest votes shall serve for two years, but after this first election under this act the term of all shall be four years. Aldermen shall be at least twenty-four years of age. They shall hold no other civil salaried office or employment, state or federal. They shall not be directly or indirectly interested in any contract with said city, or in any application therefor, or a candidate or hold any office or employment for pay in any company or corporation which holds or is an applicant for any contract with the city under which money is to be paid by the city. No person while in arrears to the city for money collected shall be a member of the council. Before any member shall take his seat in either board, he shall make an oath or affirmation that he has the qualifications and is free from the disqualifications prescribed herein.

Section 6.

The mayor shall preside at meetings of the board. The board shall elect from its members a mayor pro tem, annually. The mayor shall not vote upon any question in meetings of council except in event of a tie.

Section 7.

The board shall judge the eligibility and the election of its members, adopt rules for its proceedings, and punish its members for disorderly conduct. Two-thirds of the members elect concurring, the board may expel a member for malfeasance or misfeasance in office after trial as hereinafter provided or upon conviction of any infamous crime. Vacancies in the board shall be filled by the council until the next regular election when an alderman shall be elected to fill the unexpired term.

Section 8.

A majority of the aldermen shall form a quorum of the board, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day. The attendance of members may be enforced by rules or ordinances with appropriate fines. The council shall meet on the first Thursday succeeding each biennial election. It may adjourn this first meeting for not longer than ten days. The board shall hold their meetings in such rooms in the city as may be provided by ordinance, and the place of meeting shall not be changed except by an ordinance, for which two-thirds of the board have voted.

Section 9.

The board shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and immediately after the adjournment of each session the proceedings thereof, including a monthly statement of collections and disbursements, shall be published once in a daily paper printed in the city.

Section 10.

All ordinances shall be published in a newspaper published in the city once a week, for four weeks.

Section 11.

All official papers, proceedings and records of the former officers, and councils and commissioners, and of the present and succeeding officers, councils and boards of the city, under previous charters, and under this act are hereby declared public records, and as such shall be preserved and be entitled to all faith and credit of public records. Official copies thereof may be read in all courts as public records. The courts in this State shall take judicial cognizance of the ordinances of the city, and the printed copy officially published by the city may be read as evidence in any trial in which the same may be competent evidence without proof of the due passage and approval of said ordinances. Until the publication of the ordinances of the city, a certified copy from the comptroller's office of an ordinance may be read with the same effect as if it had been officially published.

Section 12.

Members of the council shall be exempt from serving on juries, and from military duty during their term. For anything said in debate they shall not be elsewhere questioned.

Section 13.

No ordinance shall be passed until it shall have been read in full three times, and free discussion allowed thereon; and no ordinance shall be read more than once on the same day unless by consent of two-thirds of the members present.

Section 14.

No member of the council, during the term for which he was chosen, shall be eligible to any office, by appointment, or by election of said council.

Section 15.

All officers or agents of the city, in any of its departments not herein required to be otherwise elected or appointed, shall be elected or appointed in such manner as may be prescribed by ordinance.

Section 16.

Executive and ministerial officers, unless otherwise provided in this act, shall be removable by the board of aldermen, sitting as a court, under oath or affirmation, upon charges preferred by the mayor or any two members of the board, and, in case of the mayor, upon charges preferred by a majority of the board. No person so tried shall be removed from office without the concurrence of two-thirds of the aldermen; and when a person has been so removed from office, he shall be ineligible thereto during the term for which he has been elected.

Section 17.

The council shall have power to pass ordinances imposing fines not exceeding five hundred dollars for any designated misdemeanor, or imprisonment for not exceeding sixty days, or both.

Section 18.

Th» council shall have power to pass, for the government of the city, any ordinance not in conflict with the constitution of the United States, the constitution of Florida, and statutes thereof.

Executive.

Section 19.

The executive power shall be vested in the mayor and in the board and departments authorized by this act. The mayor shall be elected by the qualified voters of the city on the first Tuesday of June, 1895, and at the regular election every two years thereafter as hereinafter provided.

Section 20.

The mayor shall be the chief executive officer of the city. Any person shall be eligible to the office who is twenty-five years of age, and who has been a citizen and resident of the State three years, and a resident of the city two years next before the election.

Section 21.

No person shall be mayor who is, directly or indirectly, interested in any contract with the city as principal or surety.

Section 22.

If two or more candidates for mayor receive the same number of votes, and this number of votes is greater than the number of votes cast for any other candidate, one of them shall be chosen mayor by a vote of the majority of all the members of the council, in session, immediately after its organization.

Section 23.

When a vacancy shall take place in the office of mayor the mayor pro tempore chosen by the council, by the votes of a majority of the members elected, shall perform the duties of mayor. The mayor pro tempore chosen by the council shall serve until the regular election for mayor.

Section 24.

Should the mayor be temporarily absent, or unable to discharge his duties, his office shall be administered by the mayor pro tem, who shall continue to discharge the duties of the office during the continuance of the disability, or the absence of the mayor. His compensation shall be the same as the mayor, and the sum so paid must be deducted, in whole, from the salary of the mayor.

Section 25.

The mayor shall take office on the first Thursday after the first Tuesday in June, or as soon thereafter as is practicable, his predecessor acting until he qualifies.

Section 26.

It shall be the duty of the mayor:—

First—To be vigilant and active in causing the ordinances of the city and the laws of the State to be executed and enforced.

Second—To communicate to the council, at least once a year, a statement of the finances and general condition of the affairs of the city, and also such information in relation to the same as the council may from time to time require.

Third—To recommend by message, in writing, to the council all such measures connected with the affairs of the city as he shall deem expedient.

Fourth—To fill, with the consent of the board of aldermen, all vacancies in executive and ministerial offices not herein provided for. He shall with the consent of the board appoint the city clerk.

Fifth—He shall act an police judge as hereinafter provided.

Section 27.

He shall exercise a general supervision over all the executive and ministerial officers of the city, and see that their official duties are honestly performed. He may require from them statements in writing concerning the discharge of their duties.

Section 28.

He may, by a written order, giving his reasons therefor, remove from office any head of a department, or other officer or employee appointed by him. A copy of said order shall be sent to the board of aldermen at its next meeting. Unless such order be disapproved by the board of alderman within thirty days, said order shall stand. He may suspend any officer or employee of the city for cause provided he files within twenty-four hours for action of council written charges, and convenes the board within forty-eight hours for the purpose of considering same.

Section 29.

Except a resolution to adjourn, every proposed ordinance or resolution which has passed the council shall be presented to the mayor, and if he approves it, he shall sign it, and then it shall be obligatory; but if he disapproves it, he shall return it with his objections in writing to the board, and said board shall then reconsider the same, and if two-thirds of the members-elect concur in adopting it again, it shall be obligatory; but in such cases the votes in the board shall be taken by yeas and nays, and recorded in the journal. Should the mayor withhold a proposed ordinance or resolution beyond the next regular meeting after its presentation to him, it shall be obligatory as if signed.

Section 30.

The mayor may disapprove of any item or items of any bill making appropriations, and the part or parts of the bill approved shall be the law, and the item or items disapproved shall be void, unless repassed according to the rules and limitations prescribed by law for the passage of bills over the mayor's veto.

Section 31.

The mayor shall, as often as he may think proper, appoint a competent person to examine, without notice, the affairs and accounts of any city department, trustees, officer or employee, and the money, securities and property belonging to the city in the possession or charge of such department, trustee, officer or employee, and report to him the result of such investigation.

Section 32.

The mayor may convene the council at any time.

Section 33.

The mayor shall have the same power to administer oaths or affirmations that justices of the peace and other judicial officers of the state have.

Section 34.

The mayor shall receive a salary not exceeding twelve hundred dollars a year.

Section 35.

The mayor shall have power to purchase all articles needed by the city in its several departments. If the amount to be expended be over one hundred dollars, the council must approve before the purchase is made. He shall report the purchases made by him at each meeting of council.

Executive Boards.

Section 36.

The following executive boards are hereby established in said city: A board of public works and a board of public safety. The first members of said boards shall be elected by the council on the first Thursday after the first Tuesday in the month of June, 1895, for a term of years as follows: The board of public works shall consist of three members, the mayor ex-officio and two members elected as provided herein, one for two years, and one for four years, at the first election under this act, and their successors for four years. The board of public safety shall consist of five members, the mayor ex-officio, and four members elected as herein provided: two for two years and two for four years, and their successors for four years. Both boards shall serve without pay. The members of said boards shall have the same qualifications as to age as members of the council. No member or officer of the council shall be eligible to membership in said boards except the mayor, who shall be ex-officio, a member of both boards without extra pay and without a vote except in the event of a tie.

Section 37.

Each board shall have the power to prescribe rules, not inconsistent with any statutes or ordinances, regulating its own proceedings, and the conduct of its officers, clerks and employees, the distribution and performance of its business, and preservation of the books, records, papers and property under its control. No extra compensation shall he allowed any person for indexing its records.

Section 38.

All official business of both boards shall be transacted at the offices thereof, and a continuous indexed record or minute shall be kept at such offices respective of such business. Each board shall cause a complete journal of its proceedings to be kept, and shall also cause all its receipts and disbursements to be faithfully entered in books to be kept for that purpose.

Section 39.

Each board shall elect one of its members (not the mayor) chairman, and shall make rules governing the time and place for holding regular and called meetings.

Section 40.

No member of either board shall have any power to act on behalf of same, except pursuant to an order of the board regularly made at a meeting at which a majority of said board shall have been present.

Section 41.

The members of said boards shall have seats in the council, and be entitled to take part in the proceedings and deliberations thereof on all matters under their charge, and no other, subject to such rules as the council shall, from time to time prescribe, but without the right on the part of the members of said board to vote. At least one member of each board may be compelled to attend each meeting of council by order of the respective boards.

Section 42.

The members of said boards shall have the power to administer oaths.

Section 43.

Said boards shall have the right to employ such officers and agents as may be necessary, and subject to such limitations as the council may prescribe, may fix the compensation of such officers and agents. The city clerk may be required to act as clerk for each board with or without compensation, as the council may determine.

Section 44.

Each of said boards may appoint, and at pleasure, remove, a chief of each department under its control. Subordinate officers and employees may be removed or punished by the board on the recommendation of the chief of the department concerned for cause, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by ordinance or by the board. The cause for the removal of any subordinate as aforesaid must be stated in writing, and bee transmitted to the board, and the board may, in its discretion, retain or dismiss such subordinate. No officer or employee shall be removed for political causes. Interference in elections by any officer or employee of said boards shall be cause for instant removal.

Section 45.

No officer or employee of said boards, except the regular police of the city, shall receive for his own use, directly or indirectly, any fees, perquisites, commissions, percentages, or money paid to him in his official capacity, but all fees, perquisites, commissions, percentages and money paid out, and received by, or for any such officer or person, shall be the property of the city, and shall be paid by or for him to the city treasurer.

Section 46.

Any officer, except policemen, or persons in the employment of said boards, who shall receive any fees, perquisites, or other things of value belonging to the city, shall, before receiving his salary or compensation, make under oath, a detailed statement, and shall report to the chairman of his board, in such form as may be prescribed, the aggregate amount of all such receipts since the last preceding statement; and he shall deposit with the said board all such fees, perquisites, percentages or other things of value, due to said city as aforesaid.

Section 47.

Said boards, or any member thereof, may require the officers employed by said boards to make such statements and returns if they be not made as herein provided, and may examine such officers or persons under oath touching the matter herein provided for.

Section 48.

Whenever there is any dispute as to the powers or duties of said boards, or the officers thereof, the matter may be referred by either of them to the city attorney, who shall examine and determine the question involved, and his decision shall be subject to an appeal to the council.

Section 49.

It shall be the duty of each of said boards, annually, to submit to the mayor a minute report on all things under its control, with an estimate of the amount of money required for its departments for the ensuing fiscal year, stating with as great particularity as possible, each item thereof. Said report shall be transmitted by the mayor to the council for consideration and for appropriate action, with such recommendations as he may think proper.

Section 50.

It shall be the duty of the mayor and the council, in their annual levy of taxes, to set aside such sum as in their judgment, shall be necessary and advisable, and the amount so set aside shall be carried to the credit of the said, executive boards when collected respectively, and shall not be diverted from said boards, or used by the mayor and council for any other purpose; but the same shall remain as a separate fund in the hand of the treasurer of the city. Said boards shall not divert the sum set aside by the mayor and council from the purposes of the department for which it was levied.

Section 51.

Whenever any written contract is made by either board it shall be executed under the seal of the corporation, and be filed in the office of the board, and a copy of said contract shall be transmitted to the comptroller for record.

Section 52.

No member, officer or employee of either board shall be directly or indirectly interested in any contract or work of any kind whatever, done under its direction.

Section 53.

No money shall be paid at any time, to any person claiming under a contract with the board, until such person shall have first filed with the board his statement, under oath, disclosing the names of persons directly or indirectly interested in the contract, or the profits thereof, declaring that no persons other than those named are interested, and that no person forbidden by this act has any interest in the same.

Section 54.

No executive board, officer or employee thereof, shall have power to bind the city by any contract or agreement, or in any other way, to any extent beyond the amount of money already appropriated by ordinance for the purpose of the department under the control of said boards.

Section 55.

Any city official who shall issue any bond, certificate, or warrant for the payment of money upon the city beyond the unexpended balance of any appropriation made for such purpose, or who shall attempt to bind the city by contract, agreement or in any other way, to any extent, beyond the amount of money at the time already appropriated by ordinance for such purpose and remaining at the time unexpended, shall be liable to any person injured thereby.

Section 56.

Whenever it becomes necessary for either of said boards to make an expenditure by a contract, written or oral, of an amount less than one hundred dollars, said contract must be made with the approval of the mayor, unless otherwise provided by ordinance. When the expenditure is to exceed one hundred dollars the contract shall not be made without the approval of the mayor and the council. If supplies and other forms of personal property are to be purchased, they shall be purchased by the mayor, subject to the provisions of this act.

Section 57.

Real estate may be purchased by the mayor with the consent of the council when requested to do so by either of said boards for the use thereof.

Board of Public Works.

Section 58.

The board of public works shall consist of three members. Each member of said board shall serve without pay.

Section 59.

The board of public works shall have exclusive control over the construction, reconstruction, cleaning, repairing, platting, grading, improving, sprinkling, lighting and using of all streets, alleys, avenues, lanes, market-houses, bridges, sewers, drains, ditches, culverts, canals, streams and water courses, sidewalks, curbing and the lighting of public places.

Section 60.

No public way shall be opened, narrowed, closed, leased, conveyed, or constructed, and no sidewalk shall be required to be constructed except by ordinance recommended by the board of public works.

Section 61.

Said board shall have supervision and control over the construction, leasing, repairing, cleaning, lighting and heating of all public buildings, and over all public improvements of the city, and the control of the work of prisoners on a street force.

Section 62.

Whenever any work is to be done by the employees of the board, a careful estimate shall be made of the cost of such work or material, and said estimate in writing shall be at once placed on file with the records of said board.

Section 63.

Whenever said board shall order any work to be done, which, either by order of said board, or according to law, is to be performed by independent contract, said board shall prepare and place on file in the office of said department complete drawings and specifications of said work. Thereupon said board shall cause a notice to be published in a newspaper published in the city, once in each week, for four weeks informing the public of the general nature of the work, of the fact that the drawings and specifications are on file in said office, and of the nature and extent of the bond or security required, and calling for sealed proposals for said work by a day not earlier than ten days after the last of said publications. The board may in its discretion, fix a later day for receiving said sealed proposals; Provided, Such a date shall be mentioned in said notices. Said board shall, if a satisfactory bid be received, let said contract to the lowest bidder.

Section 64.

When, in the opinion of the board, it shall become necessary, in the prosecution of any work, to make alterations or modifications in the specifications or plans of a contract, such alteration or modification shall be made only by order of the board, and such order shall be of no effect until the price to be paid for the same shall be agreed upon in writing, and signed by the contractor, and approved by the board.

Public ways.

Section 65.

Public ways, as used in this act, shall mean all public streets, alleys, sidewalks, roads, lanes, avenues, highways and thoroughfares. Improvements, as applied to public ways, shall mean all work and material used upon them in the construction and reconstruction thereof, and shall be made and done as prescribed herein.

Section 66.

When the improvement is the original construction of any street, road, lane, alley or avenue such improvement shall be made in part at the cost of the owners of lots in each square, two-thirds of the cost to be equally appropriated by the board of public works according to the number of front feet owned by them respectively, except that corner lots (say thirty feet front and extending back as may be prescribed by ordinance), shall pay twenty-five per cent more than others for such improvements; Provided, That in those streets where railroad tracks are laid, or may hereafter be laid, said roads shall be required to pave between their rails and for one foot on each side of the same, in which event only the cost of paving the remainder of street shall be apportioned as provided above.

Section 67.

A lien shall exist for the cost of original improvement of public ways, for the construction and reconstruction of sidewalks, for the apportionment and interest thereon, at the rate of six per cent, per annum, against the respective lots. Payments may be enforced against the property bound therefor by proceedings in court; and no error in the proceedings of the council shall exempt from payment after the work has been done as required by either the ordinance or the contract, but the council or the courts in which suits are pending, shall make all corrections, rules and orders, to do justice to all parties concerned; and in no event, if such improvements be made as is provided for either by ordinance or contract, shall the city be liable for such improvement, without the right to enforce it against the property receiving the benefit thereof; but no ordinance for any original improvement mentioned in this act shall pass the council at the same meeting, and at least thirty days shall elapse between the first reading and the passage of any such ordinance.

Section 68.

The cost of making sidewalks, including curbing, whether by original construction, or reconstruction, shall be apportioned to the front foot, as owned by the parties respectively fronting said improvements, except that each corner lot shall pay the cost of its sidewalk intersections.

Section 69.

The board of public works may, in its discretion, upon a petition of a majority of the property owners on the part of the public way proposed to be improved, grant them permission to improve said public way, under the supervision of, and within such time as may be fixed by the board of public works. No street paving or street improvement (except sidewalks and curbing and repairs of same) shall be enforced under this act sooner than 1897, at the cost of any property holders unless sixty per cent of the resident owners of abutting frontage petition for same.

Section 70.

When improvements in public ways have been made, and the contract therefor completed, the board of public works shall, by one insertion in a newspaper published in the city, and by posting notices along such improved way, give notice of at least ten days of the time and place fixed for the inspection and reception of the work by the board, or its deputy or deputies, and such owners, their agents and representatives may appear, and be heard as to whether such improvements have been made in accordance with the ordinance authorizing the same, and the contract therefor.

Section 71.

In all actions to enforce liens, a copy of ordinance authorizing the improvement of work, a copy of the contract therefor, and a copy of the apportionment, each attested by the comptroller shall be prima facie evidence of the due passage, approval, and publication of the ordinance, and of due approval of the contract. In such actions the court shall provide in its order confirming any report of sale that the defendants, or either of them, or any one claiming through or under them, or either of them, or any creditors of theirs, or either of them, may within two years from the date of such order confirming a report of sale, redeem the land sold by paying to the purchaser the purchase price, with the interest thereon from the day of sale, at ten per cent, per annum and all the taxes and assessments on or against such land, paid by such purchaser with interest thereon at the rate of ten per cent, per annum, from the date of such payments; and in event there be no redemption within the time allowed, the order of confirmation shall be final, and a deed shall be executed to the purchaser or his assignee; Provided, however, That the purchaser of land so sold shall cause notice to be served on the owner that he or they have become the purchaser of said land, if owner is a resident of the city, and if a non-resident then the notice shall be published in a newspaper published in the city and a copy mailed to said non-resident's last known address, and the two years in which redemption may be made shall not begin to run until the serving or publication of said notice.

Section 72.

The board of public works shall make out all apportionment warrants for which liens are given for improvement of public ways, as may be required by ordinance, and within two days thereafter, shall enter the same upon a register kept in alphabetical order for that purpose. When the holder of said warrant shall have obtained payment, he shall notify the board of public works, and it shall be marked upon the register as paid. The lien shall exist from the date of the apportionment warrant; but a lien shall not be valid against a purchaser for valuable consideration without notice, unless said lien shall be so entered and registered within ten days of the apportionment warrant.