and void. All such votes, after receiving the objections of the mayor, shall be taken by yeas and nays, and entered upon the journal of proceedings of the common council. If the mayor shall not return any act, ordinance, by-law, resolution, or appropriation, so presented to him, within five days after such presentation thereof, it shall take effect in the same manner as if he had signed it.

SECTION 8. The powers conferred upon the said common council to provide for the abatement or removal of nuisances, shall not bar or hinder suits, prosecutions or proceedings in the courts, according to law. Depots, houses, or buildings of any kind wherein more than twenty-five pounds of gunpowder are deposited, stored or kept at one time, gambling houses, houses of ill-fame, disorderly taverns, and houses or places where spirituous, vinous or fermented liquors are sold without license, within the limits of said city, are hereby declared and shall be deemed public or common nuisances.

As amended by Section 16, Chapter 144, Laws of 1875.

SECTION 9. The common council shall examine, audit and adjust the accounts of the clerk, treasurer, board of public works, and all other officers or agents of the city, at such time as they may deem proper, and also at the end of each year, and before the term for which the officers of said city are elected or appointed shall have expired. And the common council shall require each and every such officer and agent to exhibit his books, accounts and vouchers, for such examination and settlement, and if any such officer or agent shall refuse to comply with the orders of said council in the discharge of their duties in pursuance of this section, or shall neglect or refuse to render his accounts or present his books and vouchers to said council, or any authorized committee thereof, it shall be the duty of the common council to declare the office of such person vacant. The common council shall order suits and proceedings at law against any officer and agent of said city, who may be found delinquent or defaulting. in his accounts, or in the discharge of his official duties. And they shall make a full record of all such settlements and adjustments.

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May become law without mayor's signature.

Suits may be

brought to abate nuisances.

Accounts of treas

urer, board of public works and

others shall be annually examined.

Council may order

suits.

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CHAPTER 148, LAWS OF 1893.

AN ACT to require the publication of applications to village boards and city councils for private or corporate franchises.

SECTION 1. The provisions of the Revised Statutes of the State of Wisconsin, relating to powers of village boards of incorporated villages, and as to powers of common councils of cities in the state of Wisconsin, in relation to granting franchises, are hereby limited and defined by the following provision: No franchise shall be granted by any village board of any village, or by any common council of any city in the State of Wisconsin, to any person or persons or corporation whatsoever, without first having published such franchise, at the expense of the party applying for the same, in the official newspaper of such city or village, for not less than two weeks previous to taking action thereon by such village board or common council, in order that the people whose interests are at stake may have an opportunity to be heard if they so desire.

SECTION 2. This act shall be construed to be an amendment of every city charter and of every village charter, whether incorporated under the special or general laws of the State of Wisconsin, wherein a similar provision does not already exist, but not otherwise.

Board of public works how created and organized.

Term of office.

CHAPTER V.

BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS.

SECTION 1. There is hereby established for the city of Milwaukee an executive department to be known as the board of public works, which shall consist of four persons styled commissioners of public works. The city engineer of said city shall be ex-officio one of said commissioners, and president of said board. The members of said board shall be appointed by the mayor of said city, with the approval of a majority of the members elect of the common council. The term of office of the city engineer and of the other commissioners shall be three years, and shall commence on the third Tuesday of April. Each of the present members of said board shall hold his office (unless sooner removed as provided by law) until the expiration of the term for which he was appointed, and annually hereafter a person shall be appointed for three years, as above provided, to succeed the member whose term of office shall then expire, and as often as vacancy shall occur in said board, whether by death, resignation, or otherwise, a person shall be appointed in the manner above provided, to succeed the person whose office shall so become vacant, for the remainder of his term. The members of said board,

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except the city engineer, at the time of their appointment, shall respectively reside-one in that part of said city Their residence which lies east of the Milwaukee river, one in that part prescribed. of said city which lies west of the Milwaukee and north of the Menomonee rivers, and one in that part of said city which lies south of the Menomonee and west of the Milwaukee rivers. The commissioners shall elect annually, from their own number, a secretary, who is hereby authorized to administer all oaths required by this act. The city engineer and the other commissioners of said board may be removed for incompetency by the mayor, with the approval of a majority of all the members elect of the common council.

As amended by Section 17, Chapter 144, Laws of 1875.

"An executive department to be known as the board of public works," was established for the city by the charter, with certain limited powers.

Koch vs. Milwaukee, 89 Wis., 220.

The original act creating the board of public works, being ch. 401, laws of 1869, held valid.

State, ex rel. Attorney General vs. O'Neill, 24 Wis.,
149.

SECTION 2. The mayor shall on the third Tuesday of April, 1875, or within one week thereafter, and once in three years thereafter, appoint, subject to the approval of a majority of the members elect of the common council, some competent person as city engineer, who shall keep his office in some convenient place, to be designated by the common council, and it shall be his special duty to superintend and to do or cause to be done, all the civil engineering required by the board of public works, in the management and prosecution of all the public improvements committed to their charge and all such other surveying as may be directed by said board, or by the common council. He shall devote his whole time to the duties of his office as city engineer and ex-officio commissioner and president of the board of public works, but he shall not be required to sign any contract, certificate or other paper to be executed or issued by said board of public works under this act. Said engineer shall possess the same powers in making surveys and plats within said city that are given by law to county surveyors, and the like validity and effect shall be given to his acts, and to all plats and surveys made by him, as are or may

City engineer, his duties and

powers.

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Shall make annual report.

Additional em

men.

be given to the acts, plats and surveys of county surveyors. He shall keep a record of all his official acts and doings, shall keep on file a copy of all plats of the lots and blocks and sewers embraced in the city limits, of profiles of streets, alleys and sewers and of the grade thereof, and of all drafts and plans relating to bridges and harbors, and to any public buildings belonging to the city of Milwaukee; and shall keep a record of the location of bench marks and permanent corner stakes from which subsequent surveys shall be started, all of which such records and documents shall be the property of the city, open to the inspection of parties interested, and shall be delivered over by said engineer at the expiration of his term of service to his successor in office, or to the board of public works. He shall make an annual report of all the acts and doings of the engineer's department to the board of public works on or before the first day of February in each year. Said engineer shall appoint such assistants and workmen as he may deem necessary in the discharge of his duties, subject, however, to such regulations respecting the number of assistants and workmen to be appointed, and their compensation, as the common council may prescribe by ordinance.

As amended by Section 18, Chapter 144, Laws of 1875.

SECTION 3. The said board of public works are ployes and work- authorized to employ, from time to time, such superintendents, clerks, agents, assistants and workmen as they may deem necessary in the discharge of their duties; and may adopt by-laws for the regulation and conduct of all persons in their employ or under their supervision; subject, however, to such regulations respecting the number of persons regularly or permantly employed and their compensation and duties, as the common council may prescribe by ordinance. Any person appointed or employed under the provisions of this or the next preceding section, may at any time be removed or discharged. for incompetency by the board of public works or by a majority of the members elect of the common council. The commissioner of public works appointed prior to the third Tuesday in April, 1874, and now in office, shall receive an annual salary of $2,250, and the commissioner appointed on the third Tuesday in April of 1874, shall continue to receive the annual salary fixed by the common council on the sixth day of May, 1874. The city

Compensation of commissioners.

engineer, who may be hereafter appointed, shall receive such a salary as may be fixed by the common council, not exceeding four thousand dollars per annum, and the other commissioners who may be hereafter appointed shall receive such a salary as may be fixed by the common council not exceeding three thousand dollars per annum, but the amount of such salary for the city engineer and for each of the other commissioners shall not be fixed until after his appointment shall have been confirmed by the common council.

As amended by Section 19, Chapter 144, Laws of 1875; further amended by Chapter 208, Laws of 1881, which was afterward repealed by Section 58, Chapter 324, Laws of 1882.

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SECTION 4. Each of the members of the board of official oath and public works shall, on entering upon the duties of his bond. office, take and subscribe an oath of office to support the constitution and laws of the state of Wisconsin, and faithfully to perform the duties of his office, and shall give a bond to the said city, with sufficient sureties to be approved by the common council, in such penal sum not less than five thousand dollars, as the common council shall prescribe, for the faithful performance of his duties. Said board shall keep their office at some place to be designated by the common council, and shall fix certain days and hours when they, or a majority of them, will be in attendance to hear complaints and transact business. No estimate, contract or other official paper shall be signed or executed by said board except at the office so designated by the common council. Each of the commissioners of the said board shall be required to provide, at his own expense, a horse and vehicle for use in the discharge of his duties as such commissioner.

Office and office hours.

Shall own horse

and buggy.

ness.

SECTION 5. A majority of said board shall be a quo- Quorum for busirum to do business. They shall keep a record of all their acts and doings, and keep and preserve all contracts, plans, estimates and profiles, which at all times shall be open to the inspection of the common council or any member thereof, or of any committee appointed by

said council. They shall report their acts and doings in Annual reports. detail to the common council on or before the 1st day of March in each year, and oftener if required by the common council.