Title 45 — Title 45

The first meeting of each newly elected council for induction into office shall be held at 10 o’clock in the morning on the first Monday in October next following its election, after which the council shall meet regularly at such times as may be prescribed by its rules, but not l…

The council shall be the judge of the election and qualifications of its members and for the purpose of investigating such election and qualifications shall have power to subpoena witnesses and require the production of records, but the decision of the council in any such case sh…

The council shall determine its own rules and order of business. History: (Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §3.15.)

The council shall hold regular public meetings as may be prescribed by its own rules, provided that a regular hour and day shall be fixed by the order of the council, and publicly announced. It may hold such adjourned, called, special, or other meetings as the business of the cit…

No ordinance, granting to any person, firm, or corporation any franchise, lease, or right to use the streets, public highways, thoroughfares, or public property of the city shall take effect and be enforced until 30 days after the final enactment of same by the council and public…

The council may provide for the revision and codification of its ordinances and permanent resolutions, or for the adoption of a code or codes. History: (Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §3.19.)

The council shall each month make available in the office of the city manager a detailed statement of all receipts and expenses of the city, and a summary of its proceedings during the preceding month. At the end of each year, the council shall cause a full and complete examinati…

The city manager shall be chosen by the council solely on the basis of his or her executive and administrative qualifications with special reference to his or her actual experience in, or his or her knowledge of, accepted practice in respect to the duties of his or her office as …

(a) The city manager shall be the head of the administrative branch of the city government. He or she shall be responsible to the council for the proper administration of all affairs of the city and, subject to the provisions of any civil service or merit system law applicable to…

To perform his or her duties during his or her temporary absence or temporary disability, the manager may designate by letter filed with the city clerk a qualified administrative officer of the city. In the event of failure of the manager to make such designation, the council may…

There shall be a department of finance, and such other departments as may be established by ordinance upon the recommendation of the manager. History: (Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §4.04.)

At the head of each department there shall be a director, who shall be an officer of the city and shall have supervision and control of the department subject to supervision and control of the city manager. Two or more departments may be headed by the same individual. The city ma…

The work of each department may be distributed among such divisions thereof as may be established by ordinance upon the recommendation of the city manager. Pending the passage of an ordinance or ordinances distributing the work of departments under the supervision and control of …

The fiscal year of the city government shall begin on the first day of each October and shall end on the last day of each September. Such fiscal year shall also constitute the budget and accounting year. As used in this part, the term budget year shall mean the fiscal year for wh…

The city manager, at least 35 days prior to the beginning of each budget year, shall submit to the council a budget proposal and an explanatory budget message in the form and with the contents provided by Sections 45-8A-23.131 to 45-8A-23.134, inclusive. For such purpose, at such…

The budget proposal and budget message and all supporting schedules shall be a public record in the office of the city clerk open to public inspection by anyone. The city manager shall cause sufficient copies of the budget proposal and budget message to be prepared for distributi…

At the meeting of the council at which the budget proposal and budget message are submitted, the council shall determine the date and time of the public hearing on the budget proposal, and shall cause to be published a notice of the place and date, not less than seven days after …

At the time and place specified in the advertisement or at any time at which the public hearing may from time to time be adjourned, the council shall hold a public hearing on the budget proposal, at which time all interested persons shall be given an opportunity to be heard, for …

After the conclusion of such public hearing the council may insert new items or may increase or decrease the items of the budget proposal, except items in proposed expenditures, fixed by law or prescribed by subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), and (i) of Section 4…

After the public hearing prescribed in Section 45-8A-23.124, the council may at its next or any subsequent regular public meeting or any adjournment thereof adopt as the budget, the budget proposal without amendment or change. In this event it shall not be necessary that the coun…

The budget shall be adopted by the favorable votes of at least a majority of the whole qualified membership of the council. History: (Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §5.08.)

The budget shall be finally adopted not later than the twenty-seventh day of November of each year. Should the council take no final action on or prior to such day, the budget proposal, as submitted, shall be deemed to have been finally adopted as the budget by the council. Histo…

Upon final adoption, the budget shall be in effect for the budget year. A copy of the budget, as finally adopted, shall be certified by the city manager and city clerk and filed in the office of the director of finance. The budget so certified shall be printed, mimeographed, or o…

From the effective date of the budget, the several amounts stated therein as proposed expenditures shall become appropriated to the several objects and purposes therein named. History: (Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §5.11.)

The budget message submitted by the city manager to the council shall be explanatory of the budget of the budget proposal and shall contain an outline of the proposed financial policies of the city for the budget year and shall describe in connection therewith the important featu…

As a part of the budget message, with relation to the proposed expenditures for down payments and other proposed expenditures for capital projects stated in the budget proposal, the city manager shall include a statement of pending capital projects and proposed new capital projec…

The city manager shall also include in the budget message, or attach thereto, a capital program of proposed capital projects for the five fiscal years next succeeding the budget year, prepared by the planning board, if any, together with his or her comments thereon and any estima…

Attached to the budget message shall be such supporting schedules, exhibits, and other explanatory material, in respect to both current operations and capital improvements, as the city manager shall believe useful to the council. History: (Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §5.15.)

The budget and budget proposal shall provide a complete financial plan for the budget year. It shall contain in tabular form: (a) A general summary; (b) Detailed estimates of all anticipated revenues; (c) Detailed estimate of all proposed expenditures. The total of such anticipat…

In the budget and budget proposal anticipated revenues shall be classified as “surplus,” “miscellaneous revenues,” and “amount to be raised by property tax”; miscellaneous revenues shall be sub-classified by sources and shall be estimated as prescribed in this subpart. History: (…

In the budget and budget proposal in parallel columns opposite the several items of anticipated revenues there shall be placed the amount of each such item in the budget of the last completed fiscal year, the amounts of such items actually received during the last completed budge…

Surplus shall include: (a) Revenue receipts made available by the lapsing of unencumbered appropriation balances at the beginning of the budget year; (b) Receipts from unanticipated miscellaneous revenues of the preceding fiscal year; (c) Receipts from anticipated miscellaneous r…

Miscellaneous revenues shall include anticipated revenues from the collection of taxes other than the general property tax; the amount of state aid to be received; the amount by which the city is expected to benefit from taxes collected by the state; the amounts estimated to be r…

Other Public Service Enterprise. The anticipated revenues and proposed expenditures of each utility or other public service enterprise owned, or operated, by the city, shall be stated in a separate section of the budget (each bearing the name of the utility); and as to each such …

No miscellaneous revenue from any source shall be included as an anticipated revenue in the budget in an amount in excess of the average of the amount actually realized in cash from the same source in the next preceding fiscal year, and that actually realized in the first 10 mont…

In the budget and budget proposal revenues from the collection of special assessments on property specially benefited shall not be stated in an amount which is in excess of the amount of the receipts so derived which it is estimated will be held in cash on the first day of the bu…

No revenue from a new source not stated in the budget for the current budget year shall be included in the budget unless the city manager shall determine that the facts clearly warrant the expectation that such revenue will be actually realized in cash during the budget year in t…

In the budget and budget proposal the proposed expenditures shall be itemized in such form and to such extent as shall be provided by law, and in the absence of such provision, by regulations established by ordinance. Separate provision shall be included in the budget and budget …

In the budget and budget proposal in parallel columns opposite the several items of proposed expenditures, there shall be placed the amount of each such item in the budget of the last completed fiscal year, the amount of such items actually expended during such year, the amount o…

In the budget and budget proposal under the special caption of “down payments on capital projects,” as provided in subsection (1) of Section 45-8A-23.144, there shall be separately stated as to each capital project for which it is expected that bonds will be authorized during the…

At the head of the budget and budget proposal shall appear a brief summary. History: (Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §5.28.)

There shall be a department of finance, the head of which shall be the director of finance, who shall, with the advice and consent of the council, be appointed by the city manager, subject to the provisions of any merit or civil service system applicable to the city. History: (Ac…

The director of finance shall have knowledge of municipal accounting and taxation and shall have had experience in budgeting and financial control. History: (Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §6.02.)

The director of finance shall provide a bond with such surety and in such amount as the council may require by ordinance. History: (Acts 1953, No. 404, p. 472, §6.03.)

The director of finance shall have charge of the administration of the financial affairs of the city, and to that end he or she shall have authority and shall be required to: (1) Compile the current expense estimates for the budget for the city manager; (2) Compile the capital es…

Before the beginning of the budget year, the head of each office, department, board, or agency shall submit to the city manager, when required by him or her, a work program for the year, which program shall show the requested allotments of the appropriations for such office, depa…

Revision. The city manager shall file a copy of the original allotments and of each revised allotment with the director of finance, who shall authorize all expenditures for the offices, departments, boards, and agencies to be made from the appropriations on the basis of approved …

The city manager may at any time transfer any unencumbered appropriation balance or portion thereof between general classifications of expenditures within an office, department, board, or agency, subject to paragraphs a. to j., inclusive, of subdivision (2) of Section 45-8A-23.09…

The director of finance shall have power and shall be required to: (1) Prescribe the forms of receipts, vouchers, bills, or claims to be used by all the offices, departments, boards, and agencies of the city government; (2) Examine and approve all contracts, orders, and other doc…

No officer, department, or agency shall, during any budget year, expend or contract to expend any money or incur any liability, or enter into any contract which by its terms involves the expenditure of money, for any purpose, in excess of the amounts appropriated for that general…