for terms of four years beginning with the first day of May of the year in which they are appointed and shall continue thereafter to hold office during the pleasure of the mayor.

SECT. 14. The mayor may remove any head of a department or member of a board (other than the election commissioners, who shall remain subject to the provisions of existing laws) by filing a written statement with the city clerk setting forth in detail the specific reasons for such removal, a copy of which shall be delivered or mailed to the person thus removed, who may make a reply in writing, which, if he desires, may be filed with the city clerk; but such reply shall not affect the action taken unless the mayor so determines. The provisions of this section shall not apply to the school committee or to any official by law appointed by the governor.

SECT. 15. The positions of assistants and secretary authorized by section twenty of chapter four hundred and forty-nine of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five except those in the election department are hereby abolished, and except as aforesaid the said section is hereby repealed.

The civil service laws shall not apply to the appointment of the mayor's secretaries, nor of the stenographers, clerks, telephone operators and messengers connected with his office, and the mayor may remove such appointees without a hearing and without making a statement of the cause for their removal.

SECT. 16. No official of said city, except in case of extreme emergency involving the health or safety of the people or their property, shall expend intentionally in any fiscal year any sum in excess of the appropriations duly made in accordance with law, nor involve the city in any contract for the future payment of money in excess of such appropriation, except as provided in section six of this act. Any official who shall violate the provisions of this section shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or both.

THE FINANCE COMMISSION.

SECT. 17. Within sixty days after the passage of this act the governor with the advice and consent of the council shall appoint a finance commission to consist of five persons, inhabitants of and qualified voters in the city of Boston, who shall have been such for at least three years prior to the date of their appointment, one for the term of five years, one for four years, one for three years, one for two years, and one for one year, and thereafter as the terms of office expire in each year one member for a term of five years. Vacancies in the commission shall be filled for the unexpired term by the governor with the advice and consent of the council. The members of said commission may be removed by he governor with the advice and consent of the council for such cause as he shall deem sufficient. The chairman shall be designated by the

governor. His annual salary shall be five thousand dollars, which shall be paid in monthly instalments by the city of Boston. The other members shall serve without pay.

SECT. 18. It shall be the duty of the finance commission from time to time to investigate any and all matters relating to appropriations, loans, expenditures, accounts, and methods of administration affecting the city of Boston or the county of Suffolk, or any department thereof, that may appear to the commission to require investigation, and to report thereon from time to time to the mayor, the city council, the governor, or the general court. The commission shall make an annual report in January of each year to the general court.

SECT. 19. Whenever any pay roll, bill, or other claim against the city is presented to the mayor, city auditor, or the city treasurer, he shall, if the same seems to him to be of doubtful validity, excessive in amount, or otherwise contrary to the city's interest, refer it to the finance commission, which shall immediately investigate the facts and report thereon; and pending said report payment shall be withheld.

SECT. 20. The said commission is authorized to employ such experts, counsel, and other assistants, and to incur such other expenses as it may deem necessary, and the same shall be paid by said city upon requisition by the commission, not exceeding in the aggregate in any year the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, or such additional sums as may be appropriated for the purpose by the city council, and approved by the mayor. A sum sufficient to cover the salary of the chairman of the commission and the further sum of at least twenty-five thousand dollars to meet the expenses as aforesaid shall be appropriated each year by said city. The commission shall have the same right to incur expenses in anticipation of its appropriation as if it were a regular department of said city.

SECT. 21. For the purpose of enabling the said commission to perform the duties and carry out the objects herein contemplated, and to enable the mayor, the city council, the governor or the general court to receive the reports and findings of said commission as a basis for such laws, ordinances, or administrative orders as may be deemed meet, the commission shall have all the powers and duties enumerated in chapter five hundred and sixty-two of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and eight and therein conferred upon the commission designated in said act; but counsel for any witness at any public hearing may ask him any pertinent question and may offer pertinent evidence through other witnesses subject to cross-examination by the commission and its counsel.

THE CITY Clerk.

SECT. 22. The present city clerk shall hold office for the term for which he has been elected, and thereafter until his successor is chosen and qualified. In the year nineteen hundred and eleven, and every third year thereafter, a city clerk shall be elected by a majority of the members of

the city council, to hold office until the first Monday in February in the third year following his election, and thereafter until his successor has been duly chosen and qualified, unless sooner removed by due process of law. The city clerk shall act as clerk of the city council established by this act.

THE CITY AUDITOR.

SECT. 23. All accounts rendered to or kept in the departments of the city of Boston or county of Suffolk shall be subject to the inspection and revision of the city auditor, and shall be rendered and kept in such form as he shall prescribe. The auditor may require any person presenting for settlement an account or claim against the city or county to make oath before him in such form as he may prescribe as to the accuracy of such account or claim. The wilful making of a false oath shall be perjury and punishable as such. The auditor may disallow and refuse to pay, in whole or in part, any claim on the ground that it is fraudulent or unlawful and in that case he shall file a written statement of his reasons for the refusal.

SECT. 24. Whenever, in response to an advertisement by any officer or board of the city or county, a bid for a contract to do work or furnish materials is sent or delivered to said officer or board, a duplicate of the same shall be furnished by the bidder to the auditor, to be kept by him and not opened until after the original bids are opened. After the original bids are opened, the auditor shall open and examine the bids submitted to him, and shall compare the same with the original bids. In case any of the bids submitted to the auditor differ from the corresponding original bids, those submitted to the auditor shall be treated as the original bids. The contract shall not be awarded until after both sets of bids are opened. SECT. 25. The auditor shall furnish monthly to each head of department a statement of the unexpended balance of the appropriation for that department, and he shall furnish to the mayor and city council a statement of the unexpended balances of all the departments. He shall furnish quarterly to the city council an itemized statement showing the amount of money expended by the mayor and the city council for contingent expenses.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

SECT. 26.* All loans issued by the city after the passage of this act shall be made payable in annual instalments in the manner authorized by section thirteen of chapter twenty-seven of the Revised Laws as amended by section one of chapter three hundred and forty-one of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and eight. No sinking fund shall be established for said loan. All bonds shall be offered for sale in such a manner that the effect of the premiums, if any, shall be to reduce the total amount of bonds issued. No city or county money shall be deposited in any bank or trust company of which any member of the board of sinking fund commissioners of said city is an officer, director, or agent. Sect. 26 amended by Chap. 437, Acts of 1910, which exempts all loans issued for rapid transit construction from the prohibition as to sinking funds.

SECT. 27.* Every officer and board in charge of a department of the city of Boston or county of Suffolk shall on or before the fifth day of May in each year prepare and furnish to the city auditor a list of the officials and employees under said officer or board and paid by the city or county on the thirtieth day of April preceding. Such lists shall give the names, residence by street and ward, designation, compensation, and date of election or appointment of each of said officials and employees and the date when each first entered the employ of the city or county. It shall be the duty of the city auditor to verify said lists by the pay rolls; and when verified the said lists shall be printed by the superintendent of printing as a city document.

SECT. 28. The jurisdiction now exercised by the board of aldermen concerning the naming of streets, the planting and removal of trees in the public ways, the issue of permits or licenses for coasting, the storage of gasoline, oil, and other inflammable substances or explosive compounds and the use of the public ways for any permanent or temporary obstruction or projection in, under, or over the same, including the location of conduits, poles, and posts for telephone, telegraph, street railway, or illuminating purposes, is hereby vested in the board of street commissioners, to be exercised by said board with the approval in writing of the mayor; and the mayor and city council shall have authority to fix by ordinance the terms by way of cash payment, rent, or otherwise, upon which permits or licenses for the storage of gasoline or oil, or other inflammable substances or explosive compounds, and the construction or use of coal holes, vaults, bay windows, and marquises, in, under, or over the public ways shall be issued.

SECT. 29. Within ninety days after the passage of this act and thereafter there shall be published at least once a week and distributed and sold under the direction of the mayor and on terms to be fixed by the city council and approved by the mayor a paper to be known as the City Record. All advertising, whether required by law or not, with reference to the purchase or taking of land, contracts for work, materials, or supplies, the sale of bonds, or the sale of property for non-payment of taxes shall appear exclusively in said paper; a list of all contracts of one thousand dollars or more, as awarded, with the names of bidders, and the amount of the bids; appointments by the mayor; and changes in the number and compensation of employees in each department, shall be published in the City Record. The proceedings of the city council and school committee together with all communications from the mayor, shall be published in the City Record.

SECT. 30. Every officer or board in charge of a department in said city, when authorized to erect a new building or to make structural changes in an existing building, shall make contracts therefor, not exceeding five, each contract to be subject to the approval of the mayor; and when about to do any work or to make any purchase, the estimated cost of which alone, or in conjunction with other similar work or pur*Sect. 27 amended by Chap. 168, Spec Acts of 1919, changing the date from April 30 to June 1 for the annual listing of officials and employees.

chase which might properly be included in the same contract, amounts to or exceeds one thousand dollars, shall, unless the mayor gives written authority to do otherwise, invite proposals therefor by advertisement in the City Record. Such advertisement shall state the time and place for opening the proposals in answer to said advertisement, and shall reserve the right to the officer or board to reject any or all proposals. No authority to dispense with advertising shall be given by the mayor unless the said officer or board furnishes him with a signed statement which shall be published in the City Record giving in detail the reasons for not inviting bids by advertisement.

SECT. 31. At the request of any department, and with the approval of the mayor the board of street commissioners, in the name of the city, may take in fee for any municipal purpose any land within the limits of the city, not already appropriated to public use. Whenever the price proposed to be paid for a lot of land for any municipal purpose is more than twenty-five per cent higher than its average assessed valuation during the previous three years, said land shall not be taken by purchase but shall be taken by right of eminent domain and paid for in the manner provided for the taking of and the payment of damages for land for highways in said city. No land shall be taken until an appropriation by loan or otherwise for the general purpose for which land is needed shall have been made by the mayor and city council by a two thirds vote of all its members; or in case of land for school purposes by the school committee and schoolhouse department in accordance with law; nor shall a price be paid in excess of the appropriation, unless a larger sum is awarded by a court of competent jurisdiction. All proceedings in the taking of land shall be under the advice of the law department, and a record thereof shall be kept by said department.

SECT. 32. The first municipal election under this act shall take place on the first Tuesday after the second Monday in January in the year nineteen hundred and ten, and thereafter the regular municipal elections in each year in said city shall be held on the first Tuesday after the second Monday in January.

SECT. 33. The fiscal year in said city shall begin on February first and shall end on the thirty-first day of January next following; and the municipal year shall hereafter begin on the first Monday in February and shall continue until the first Monday of the February next following. The present terms of office of members of the school committee are hereby extended to the first Monday of February in the years in which their terms respectively expire, and hereafter the terms of office of members of the school committee shall begin with the first Monday of February following their election. The members of the school committee hereafter shall meet and organize annually on the first Monday of February.

SECT. 34. In Boston beginning with the current year political committees shall be elected at the state primaries instead of at the municipal primaries.

* Sect. 32 amended by Chap. 730, § 1, Acts of 1914, fixing date of annual municipal election on the sixth Tuesday after the state election. Sect. 32 again amended (by Chap. 288, Acts of 1921) fixing date of municipal election on the first Tuesday after the second Monday in December.