Title 40, Municipal Government

In this chapter, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires: 1. "Governing body" means the city council, board of city commissioners, park commissioners, or city manager. 2. "Municipality" means any city or park district in this state.

The fiscal year of each municipality shall commence on the first day of January of each year and shall terminate on the thirty-first day of December of that same year.

The governing body of each municipality, annually on or before August tenth, shall make an itemized statement known as the preliminary budget statement showing the amounts of money which, in the opinion of the governing body, will be required for the proper maintenance, expansion…

The preliminary budget must include a detailed breakdown of the estimated revenues and appropriations requested for the ensuing year for the general fund, each special revenue fund, and each debt service fund of the municipality. The revenue and expenditure items for the precedin…

On or before August tenth of each year, after the governing body has prepared the preliminary budget statement, the auditor of the municipality shall: 1. Set a public budget hearing date no earlier than September seventh and no later than October seventh for the purpose of adopti…

The governing body shall meet at the time and place set pursuant to section 40-40-06 and shall hear any and all protests or objections to the items or amounts set forth in the preliminary budget statement. At the hearing, the governing body shall make any changes in the items or …

After completing the final budget on or before October seventh, the governing body shall proceed to make the annual tax levy in an amount sufficient to meet the expenses for the ensuing year as determined at the budget meeting. In determining the amount required to be levied, the…

Immediately after the completion of the final budget and the adoption of the annual tax levy by the governing body of a municipality in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, and in no case later than October tenth, the auditor of the municipality shall send to the count…

After the county auditor has available the data showing the total taxable valuation of a municipality, the auditor shall calculate the necessary tax rates to produce the sums called for in the final budget. If the auditor finds that any amount or amounts called for in the levy ca…

The county treasurer shall collect all municipal taxes, together with the interest and penalties thereon, if any, in the same manner as the general taxes are collected, and shall pay over to the city auditor, on or before the tenth working day of each calendar month, all taxes so…

The city auditor shall apportion the amounts received for taxes from the county treasurer and shall credit each fund with its proportion or share according to the levy made by the governing body of the municipality. The county treasurer, at the time of paying over such funds, sha…

Except as otherwise provided in section 40-40-18, no municipal expenditure may be made nor liability incurred, and no bill may be paid for any purpose in excess of the appropriation made therefor in the final budget. Expenditures made, liabilities incurred, or warrants issued in …

Upon good and sufficient information presented to the state's attorney by any taxpayer in the municipality or obtained from any other source, the state's attorney of the county in which the municipality lies shall bring suit to recover from the members of the governing body, join…

Upon the happening of any emergency caused by the destruction or impairment of any municipal property necessary for the conduct of the affairs of the municipality, or by epidemic or threatened epidemic, or by the entry by a court of competent jurisdiction of a judgment for damage…

Except as otherwise provided in this chapter or in section 40-05-05, no contract shall be made by the governing body of a municipality and no expense shall be incurred by any officers or departments of the corporation unless there shall have been a previous appropriation providin…

At the end of the fiscal year, the balance to the credit of each annual appropriation becomes a part of the general unappropriated balance in the municipal treasury, except that the unused balance to the credit of the equipment replacement fund provided for in section 40-40-05 do…

Upon the trial of an action for the recovery of damages by reason of an injury from the defective, unsafe, dangerous, or obstructed condition of any street, crosswalk, sidewalk, culvert, or bridge, the claimant shall not be permitted to prove any time, place, cause, manner, or ex…

All municipalities in this state shall be exempt from all liability to any person for damages for injuries suffered or sustained by reason of the accumulation of snow and ice upon the sidewalks within the municipality unless actual knowledge of the defective, unsafe, or dangerous…

If a final judgment is obtained or a settlement is made of a claim against any municipality in this state, the governing body of the municipality, by resolution, may provide for the levy and collection of an annual tax upon all the taxable property within the municipality for the…

When warrants payable from special assessments made to pay the cost of a local improvement have been or shall be issued by a municipality and the holder or holders of all or any portion of the issue of such warrants shall procure a final judgment against the municipality in damag…

This chapter creates additional powers and optional and alternative methods for the single and specific purpose of enabling municipalities to pay and to compromise judgments, to issue bonds to fund and satisfy the same, to levy taxes in amounts necessary for such purposes without…

The governing body of any city having a population of more than four thousand inhabitants according to the latest official federal or state census may adopt, by ordinance, a civil service system for the selection, employment, classification, advancement, suspension, retirement, o…

If the governing body of any city which is subject to the provisions of this chapter shall fail or refuse to adopt the provisions of this chapter, twenty percent of the qualified electors of the city may file a written petition with the city auditor demanding that the provisions …

At any election held to determine whether a city shall adopt a civil service system under the provisions of this chapter, the question shall be submitted to the electors in substantially the following form: Shall the city adopt the civil service system? Yes ☐ No ☐ If sixty percen…

The governing body may provide and create a civil service commission consisting of three members, or it may appoint a civil service commissioner. It may delegate to the commission or commissioner, as the case may be, such powers and duties relating to the making and enforcing of …

If a commission is created, the terms of office of the three commissioners first appointed shall be one, three, and five years, respectively. Thereafter, original appointments shall be for a five-year term. If a commissioner is appointed, the first appointment and any subsequent …

The compensation of the commissioner or of a member of the commission shall be determined by the governing body of the city for the time actually devoted to the performance of duties of the office, plus the person's actual expenses.

This chapter shall enable, authorize, and empower the governing body of any city having the requisite number of inhabitants to adopt a civil service system adapted to the size and requirements of the city. Such system, if deemed advisable by such body, may consist merely in the s…

In any ordinance creating a civil service system, the governing body shall designate the departments, classes of employees, and the appointive officials of the city who shall come under the system, and it subsequently may add thereto. All full-time paid employees of the fire and …

The governing body of any municipality, subject to the provisions of this chapter, may contract with the governing body of any other municipality in this state or with any state department for the holding of competitive examinations to ascertain the fitness of applicants for posi…

If any city in this state which has established a civil service system in compliance with the requirements of this chapter shall change its form of municipal government, such civil service provisions as previously have been established shall continue under the new form of municip…

After a civil service system has been adopted, the governing body shall not abolish it nor remove any department or employee thereof, or any employee or appointive official, from under the civil service and the provisions of this chapter unless and until civil service has been ab…

Any willful violation of the provisions of this chapter, or any violation of such provisions through culpable negligence, shall be grounds for removal from office of a city official or for summary discharge of a city employee.

Any city having a population in excess of five thousand inhabitants according to the last official federal census and having an organized and paid police department may provide funding for the purpose of creating and maintaining a police pension fund from revenues derived from it…

The governing body of the city may adopt ordinances relating to the composition of and membership in police pension systems subject to the provisions of this chapter.

The board of trustees may take by gift, grant, devise, or bequest any money or real or personal property or other thing of value for the benefit of the police pension fund. All rewards in moneys, fees, gifts, or emoluments of every kind or nature that may be paid or given to any …

All moneys derived from taxes levied to create a police pension fund, all moneys received as membership fees and dues, and all moneys received from grants, donations, legacies, and devises for the benefit of such fund shall constitute a fund to be known and designated as the poli…

At the end of the fiscal year, the board of trustees may invest any surplus left in the police pension fund, but no part of the moneys realized from any tax levy shall be used for any purpose other than the payment of pensions. Such surplus funds may be invested in interest-beari…

Whenever a city which has established a police pension fund under the provisions of this chapter has a sufficient balance in such fund to meet any proper and legitimate charges that may be made against it, such city shall not be required to levy further taxes for the fund.

Every member of the police department shall pay to the treasurer of the pension fund a membership fee to be fixed by the board of trustees in an amount not exceeding twenty-five dollars. Each member shall be assessed and required to pay annually an amount not less than three perc…

Any member of the police department, including officers and police matrons, who shall have served twenty years or more in the department and shall have reached the age of sixty years, or who, while a member of such department shall suffer permanent mental or physical disability s…

Any member of a police department who has resigned therefrom or who shall resign therefrom, or who has been granted or shall be granted a leave of absence to serve in the armed forces of the United States or armed forces reserve thereof, or who shall have been selected for traini…

A member of a police pension fund under this chapter may, prior to retirement, purchase for inclusion in the period of service in the department the time during each legislative session spent serving as a member of the legislative assembly while a member of the pension fund. The …

No member of the police department who shall become unable mentally or physically to perform the person's duties, nor the person's dependents, shall be entitled to receive benefits under this chapter because of such disability unless such member shall have been on active duty wit…

The chief of the police department of the city may assign any member of the department, retired or drawing a pension under the provisions of this chapter, to the performance of light duties in such department.

Upon the death of any active or retired member of the police department of a city maintaining a police pension fund under this chapter, leaving a surviving spouse or minor children or dependent father or mother surviving the deceased member, there shall be paid out of the fund su…