Title 40 — Municipal Government

In this title, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires: 1. "City" includes cities incorporated under the city council form and city commission system of government, unless the contrary shall appear. 2. "Executive officer" means the mayor in council cities or the p…

Municipalities shall be bodies politic and corporate under the name and style of "city of __________" and under such name may sue and be sued, contract and be contracted with, acquire and hold real and personal property for corporate purposes, and have an official seal which may …

All rights and property of every kind and description vested in any municipal corporation previous to any change in its form of organization shall be vested in the same municipal corporation upon its being incorporated under a different type of organization as provided by this ti…

A change in the form of organization of a municipality shall not change its legal identity as a municipal corporation. All ordinances and resolutions in force therein at the date of such change shall continue in full force and effect until repealed or amended.

All bonds, contracts, and conveyances of a municipality, except as otherwise provided, shall be signed by the executive officer and countersigned by the auditor or clerk, as the case may be.

Lands, houses, moneys, claims receivable, and property and assets of every kind and description belonging to a municipality shall be exempt from taxation and from sale on execution. 40-01-08. Removal of building when taxes and special assessments or share of bonded indebtedness a…

The official newspaper as chosen by the electors of the county shall be the official newspaper of the municipality in which it is published, and such official notices and legal publications as the municipality is required to publish by law shall be published therein. In municipal…

Beginning with the 1996 biennial municipal elections, and every four years thereafter, all cities in North Dakota, regardless of their form of government, must put on the ballot the question of whether the minutes of its governing body shall be published in its official newspaper…

No account or claim against a municipality to be paid from any fund, including a municipal utilities fund, shall be allowed by the governing body thereof until a full itemized statement in writing has been filed with the governing body or unless otherwise authorized by the govern…

No account or claim shall be paid by a municipality unless the same has been audited and allowed by the governing body thereof. Approval by the governing body shall be recorded in the record of its proceedings and this shall be sufficient to indicate approval without requiring a …

All cities in North Dakota shall be governed by the provisions of this title.

No city or other political subdivision within the state shall adopt daylight saving time or any other seasonal standard of time which varies from the time in effect in such city or political subdivision during the greater portion of the year. All ordinances, resolutions, or other…

The executive officer of a city and a sixty percent majority of the members-elect of a city's governing body at a regular meeting of such body may remove any member of an appointive agency, board, or commission which has spending, borrowing, or eminent domain powers and acts in a…

All immunity of the state from the provisions of the Sherman Antitrust Act [Act July 2, 1890, c.647; 26 Stat. 209; 15 U.S.C. 1 et seq.] is hereby extended to any city or city governing body acting within the scope of the grants of authority contained in sections 40-05-01, 40-05-0…

Notwithstanding section 39-10-34 or any other provision of law, a city, by resolution, may permit permanent, on-duty or off-duty, full-time firefighters employed by the city or volunteers serving the city to solicit charitable contributions from motorists under the following cond…

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a city may not adopt or enforce an ordinance, resolution, or policy that prohibits or impedes, or has the effect of prohibiting or impeding, the connection or reconnection of an electric, natural gas, propane, or other energy utility se…

Any contiguous territory in this state, not exceeding four square miles [1036.00 hectares] in area, not already included within the corporate limits of any incorporated municipality, may become incorporated as a city whether such territory is located in one or more counties, unde…

Prior to the commencement of any proceedings to incorporate territory as a municipality, the persons intending to submit the petition for incorporation shall cause a census of the resident population of the territory to be taken not more than sixty days previous to the time when …

The persons intending to make application for the incorporation of a municipality as provided in this chapter shall cause to be made an accurate survey and map of the territory intended to be embraced within the limits thereof. The survey shall be made by a practical surveyor and…

The survey, map, and census required under the provisions of this chapter, when completed and verified, shall be left for a period of not less than thirty days at some convenient place within the territory described therein for examination by those having any interest in the appl…

Before hearing the petition, the board of county commissioners shall require proof, either by affidavit or by oral examination of witnesses before it, that notice as required by section 40-02-05 was given and that the survey, map, and census were subject to examination in the man…

Any final action taken by a board of county commissioners on a petition for incorporation may be appealed to the district court in accordance with the procedure provided in section 28-34-01. The review on appeal extends only to the determination of whether the board of county com…

The board of county commissioners to which a petition is submitted under this chapter shall give notice of the election on the question whether or not the municipality described in the petition shall be organized. The notice shall be published in one issue of a newspaper or newsp…

At the election called to vote on the question of incorporation of a municipality under this chapter, the polls shall be opened at nine a.m. on the day specified in the notice and shall be kept open until seven p.m. At such election, the voters first shall proceed to the election…

The ballots to be used at an election to pass upon the question of the organization of a municipality under the provisions of this chapter shall be in substantially the following form: Shall ______________ (city under the council form of government, or city under the commission s…

The election officials acting in each place in which votes are cast in an election held under this chapter shall return to the board of county commissioners which ordered the election a verified statement of the results of the election showing the number of votes cast for and aga…

If a majority of the votes cast on the question at the election provided for in this chapter favored incorporation as a city, the board of county commissioners that ordered the election shall, if the territory has been incorporated as a city under the council form of government, …

An order of incorporation of a city under the council form of government, under the provisions of this chapter, as made by the board of county commissioners to which the petition for incorporation is addressed, shall be conclusive evidence of the incorporation of the territory de…

The territory embraced within the boundaries of a municipality organized under this chapter shall be divided by the board of county commissioners which made the order of incorporation into election precincts. If the municipality is situated in more than one county, there shall be…

If a municipality is organized under the provisions of this chapter from territory which has been a part of a civil township, any property owned, and any debts owed, by the township prior to the separation shall be divided between the municipality and the township in the proporti…

Any city in this state having a population of not less than five hundred inhabitants may become incorporated as a city under the commission system of government as provided in this section. If one-tenth of the qualified electors of the municipality, based upon the votes cast for …

Notice of an election to be held under this chapter shall be given by the executive officer of the city by publication in the official newspaper of the city as provided in section 40-01-09 for at least twenty days.

The ballots to be used at such election shall be in substantially the following form: Shall the city of ________________ (naming the city) become organized as a city under the commission system of government? Yes ☐ No ☐ 40-04-04. Returns and canvass of election - Certificate to s…

Upon the certification of the matters described in section 40-04-04, the government shall issue letters patent, under the great seal of the state, reciting the facts, defining the boundaries of the city, and constituting the city a body corporate and politic by the name of the ci…

A patent issued by the governor under the provisions of this chapter shall be recorded in the office of the secretary of state. Any patent so issued and recorded and the record thereof, or a certified copy thereof, shall be conclusive evidence in all courts and places of the due …

Within twenty days after the issuance of a patent incorporating any city under the provisions of this chapter, the executive officer of the city voting such incorporation shall call a special election for the purpose of electing the first board of city commissioners. The election…

Any city that has operated for more than six years under or since changing from the city commission system of government may change its governmental organization and adopt the city council form of government or the modern council form of government or revert to the city commissio…

The governing body of a municipality shall have the power: 1. Ordinances. To enact or adopt all such ordinances, resolutions, and regulations, not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this state, as may be proper and necessary to carry into effect the powers granted to such …

Whenever it becomes necessary for the general welfare, public health, fire protection, or public safety to order an owner or occupant of property to do certain work provided for by ordinance, and such owner or occupant refuses to conduct or comply with such order, the work may be…

Repealed by omission from this code.

Every city ordinance regulating the operation or equipment of motor vehicles or regulating traffic shall apply to the private ways, streets, lanes, and alleys of mobile home parks, trailer parks, and campgrounds containing five or more lots for occupancy by mobile homes, travel t…

The city council in a city operating under the council form of government and the board of city commissioners in a city operating under the commission system of government, in addition to the powers possessed by all municipalities, shall have power: 1. Street railway and railway …

Repealed by S.L. 1967, ch. 293, § 5.

1. Any city, through the enactment of an ordinance to such effect, may levy a local excise tax, not in excess of fifty percent, upon the proceeds from gross sales of liquor, as defined by subsection 6 of section 5-01-01, by any nonprofit corporation licensed by the city to sell s…

Repealed by S.L. 1967, ch. 323, § 285.

The governing body of any city may enter into a contract with any person, partnership, association, corporation, limited liability company, or the United States or any department or agency thereof to provide for: 1. The furnishing of electrical energy or gas to the inhabitants of…

1. Except as provided in subsections 2 and 3, the fine or penalty for the violation of any ordinance, resolution, or regulation of a city may not exceed one thousand five hundred dollars, and the imprisonment may not exceed thirty days for one offense. 2. For every violation of a…

Repealed by S.L. 1967, ch. 323, § 285.

No municipality shall impose any license fee or charge against the producer or grower of any agricultural product grown or produced upon lands located in this state nor in any manner limit or restrict the free sale thereof by such grower or producer. This provision, however, shal…

Upon a declaration by resolution duly passed that an emergency exists and that it is desirable and necessary that firefighting apparatus and equipment be acquired for municipal purposes, the governing body of any municipality may enter into a contract or contracts for the purchas…