The Board of Public Works and Safety is vested with the power and duty:
(A) (1) To condemn, rent or purchase any real estate or personal property needed by the city for any public use, except when a different provision for purchase is made by the acts of the legislature of the state; provided that, the Common Council reserves the power to:
(a) Require that all such condemnations, rentals or purchases be included in the long-range capital expenditure program to be proposed by the Board and to require that such program be updated at least annually, or otherwise at the discretion of the Council;
(b) Require the Board to set forth at least annually estimates of needed expenditures for the above purposes for each successive fiscal year;
(c) Approve, amend or disapprove both the contents of the long range capital expenditure programs and the amounts of proposed annual expenditures, in whole or in part, prior to and/or during the time of adoption of the city budget, at the Council's discretion;
(d) Require the estimates of capital program expenditures for each fiscal year to be itemized in such manner for approval, amendment or rejections as the Council may determine.
(2) The foregoing powers reserved by the Common Council shall be implemented only by adoption of an appropriate ordinance or ordinances.
(B) To have charge of all property, real and personal, belonging to the city and to care for the same, except where the custody of such property is placed under different control.
(C) To design, order, contract for and execute the improvements or repair of any property, real or personal, belonging to or used by the city, and the erection of all buildings for public purposes, including the erection of works for the collection, treatment and disposal of sewage, together with all fire systems, pounds and all other structures of any nature, needed for any public purpose.
(D) To lay out, open, change, vacate and to fix or change the grade of any street, alley or public place within the city, and to design, order, contract for and execute the improvement or repair of any street, alley, wharf or public place within the city.
(E) To repair, clean, light and sprinkle any street, alley, wharf or public place within the city which, in the opinion of the Board, requires such improvements; such work to be done either by contract or otherwise; and to cause lampposts or other lighting apparatus to be erected in the streets, alleys or public places of the city.
(F) To lay out, design, order and contract for and execute the construction, alteration and maintenance of all public drains or sewers within the city and all drains or sewers without the city and within four miles thereof which may be necessary to carry off the drainage of the city, and to erect, maintain and operate works for the collection, treatment and disposal of sewage or contract for the same.
(G) To purchase within or without the limit of the city and to construct, by contract or otherwise, and to operate waterworks, gasworks, electric light works, telephone, heating and power plants, steam and powerhouses and lines for the purpose of supplying the city and the inhabitants thereof with the use and convenience of such work, or to purchase or hold a majority of the stock in corporations organized for any of the above purposes; and to purchase within or without the limits of the city, lands or other property for any such purpose; provided that, none of the powers conferred by this paragraph shall be exercised except pursuant to an ordinance of the Common Council specifically directing same and, after an election had in relation thereto, as provided by the acts of the state legislature.
(H) To contract for the furnishing of gas, either natural or artificial, water, steam or electricity, light, heat or power to the city or to the citizens, thereof, by any company or individual, and in such contract to fix the terms and conditions and the price to be charged for the same; provided that, all such contracts for the furnishing of gas, steam or electricity, light, heat or power, for the city or citizens thereof, shall be approved by ordinance of the Common Council before the same shall take effect; and provided, further, that, the Board, at least 12 months before the expiration of any such contract or contracts, which are or may hereafter be in force, shall, by publication once each week for two successive weeks, in a newspaper of general circulation in the city, give notice that it will receive bids for such supplies.
(I) To design, order, contract for and cause the erection of any culvert, bridge, way, viaduct or aqueduct within the city, or to enter into a contract with any company or individual for the joint erection and maintenance by such company or individual and the city of any such structure.
(J) To authorize telegraph, telephone, cable television, electric light, gas, water, steam, streetcar, railroad or interurban companies to use any street, alley or public place in the city and to erect necessary structures therein, to prescribe the terms and conditions of such use and to fix by contract the price to be charged to patrons; provided that, such contract shall in all cases be submitted by the Board to the Common Council and be approved before the same shall take effect.
(K) To license the making of excavations in or the removal of coal, rock, gravel or other material from the surface or underneath the surface of any street, alley or public place in the city and to require bond for damages caused by such excavation and to secure the proper replacement of the street.
(L) To direct the removal of any or all structures in the streets, alleys or public places of the city and remove the same, at the expense of the person maintaining the same, on their failure to make such removal.
(M) To design, order, contract for and cause the erection of any levee within the limits of the city or within four miles thereof.
(N) To straighten, deepen or otherwise change or improve any watercourse, natural or artificial, within the city, or within four miles thereof, and to require the owners of canals and watercourses to construct and maintain bridges across the same at street and alley intersections.
(O) To remove all dead animals, garbage, filth, ashes and dirt, rubbish or other offal from the city, either by contract or otherwise, and to erect crematories or other facilities for the destruction and disposal thereof.
(P) To prepare a general uniform plan for the drainage and sewerage of the city and extend the same from time to time and to provide for the disposal of sewage.
(Q) To make and keep a map and record of all sewer, gas, water, electric wire, heat and other pipes and conduits in the city, public and private, showing the size, depth, inclination, location and date of construction of the same, and to record therein every change which may be made in the same, together with all new connections and improvements.
(R) To fill or drain, at the owner's expense, any lot or tract of ground within the city, or within four miles from its corporate limits, whenever the water thereon has become or may become so stagnant or obnoxious as to be injurious to the public health and comfort, and to make such expense a lien on such lot or tract and collectible by foreclosure or by placing the same on the tax duplicate; provided that, not to exceed 20% of the value of such lot or land as valued and assessed upon the tax duplicate, shall be expended in filling up or draining the same in any one year.
(S) To construct urinals and fountains in public places.
(T) To fix, establish, change and keep a record of the grades of all streets, alleys and sidewalks.
(U) To care for, manage, supervise and have exclusive control of all matters and property relating to or connected with the Fire and Police Departments, to the fire alarm, telegraph, fire escapes, the inspection of buildings and boilers, market places and the food sold therein, and to pounds and prisons.
(V) To make general and special rules and regulations for the government and discipline of the police force and to make and promulgate general and special orders to the police force.
(W) For cause assigned on a public hearing, and on due notice, according to promulgated rules, to remove or suspend from office or for a definite period deprive of pay any officer or member of the police force.
(X) To purchase all necessary supplies and apparatus and make all repairs needed in its department.
(Y) To discharge all other duties of any executive character not falling within the sphere of some other executive department by ordinance or statute.
(`94 Code, § 32.02)