Section 1. Municipal officers shall be liable to impeachment, suspension and removal from office for any corrupt act or practice, malfeasance, mismanagement, mental incapacity or incompetency for the proper performance of official duties, extortion, receiving any gift or present from any contractor, or from any person seeking or engaged in any work for or furnishing material to the city, or from any incumbent or occupant of, or candidate or applicant for, any municipal office, and for wilfully concealing any fraud committed against the city.
Complaint in writing may be made to the court of common pleas of the proper county, by not less than twenty freeholders of the city, each of whom shall write his occupation and residence opposite his signature, charging any municipal officer with any offence, setting forth the facts on which the said charge is founded, supported by the oaths or affirmations of at least five of the complainants, according to the best of their knowledge, information and belief. If, in the judgment of the court, there appears to be reasonable ground for such proceeding, the court shall direct the complaint to be filed of record, and grant a rule upon the accused, returnable on a day certain, to appear and answer the same.
If, on the return day of the rule, the court shall find a sufficient cause for further proceedings, it shall appoint a committee of five competent and reputable citizens to investigate the charges contained in said complaint, who, having first been severally sworn or affirmed to perform the duties of their appointment with fidelity, shall have full authority, for that purpose, to examine the books of the office held by the accused, and any papers filed therein, and examine witnesses under oath or affirmation, whose attendance the court shall enforce, if necessary, by subpoena and attachment.
It shall be the duty of the committee to make a written report to the court of the facts found by them, which shall be filed of record, accompanied by the testimony taken, within three weeks next after their appointment, unless the time shall be extended by the court upon their application. In any stage of the proceedings, if the public interests so require, the court may, by an order to be filed of record in the case, suspend the accused from office until he shall be tried and acquitted.
If the committee, or any three of them, shall find that any charge made as aforesaid is well founded, they shall in their report so state, in specific form; and in such case the court shall cause a certified copy of the whole record, with the specification of the charges against the accused, to be transmitted to the select council, which shall be assembled within ten days thereafter, in a special and open session, as a court of impeachment, and the members shall be severally sworn to try and decide the same according to the evidence. A copy of the specification shall be served on the accused or left at his last place of residence, at least five days before the commencement of the trial, and he shall be entitled to be heard therein, in person or by counsel, and to produce evidence in his defence, and the prosecution before the select council shall be conducted on the part of the city by the city solicitor.
The president judge of the said court of common pleas, or in his absence an associate judge thereof, shall preside during the trial, and shall decide finally all questions of law and evidence that may arise in the case. He shall have the power to issue subpoenas for witnesses, and compel their attendance, by attachment, and the production of books, papers and documentary evidence required or called for by the said court of impeachment, and to punish witnesses and others for contempt, as fully as any court of the Commonwealth may lawfully do in any case.
The decision of the court of impeachment shall be entered upon the record of its proceedings, and certified by the clerk to the court in which the complaint was filed. If the accused shall be found guilty on any of the specifications, the said court of common pleas shall enter judgment accordingly, and declare the said office vacant.