(A) The legislative branch of the city’s government shall be the Common Council. The Council shall have the exclusive authority to adopt ordinances, resolutions and to appropriate tax monies and other monies received by the city and to perform other necessary and desirable legislative functions pursuant to I.C. 36-4-6-1 et seq.
(‘89 Code, § 10.04)
(B) The City Common Council possesses powers to:
(1) Provide a corporate seal;
(2) Fix salaries and compensation of city officials in accordance with general law;
(3) Protect all city property;
(4) Provide punishment for contempt in the rooms of the Council;
(5) Provide a census of the city;
(6) Receive gifts, donations and bequests for the city;
(7) Declare what constitutes a nuisance, and provide for its prevention and punishment of any person creating a nuisance;
(8) Regulate or prohibit itinerant street performers;
(9) Authorize cleansing and purification of water;
(10) Regulate manufacturing plants within four miles of the corporation limits of the city where public health and comfort may require this regulation;
(11) Prevent or regulate use of firearms, fireworks and the like;
(12) Regulate and prohibit fowls and animals from running at large;
(13) Prevent the deposit of any unwholesome substance and compel its removal to at least four miles outside the corporate limits;
(14) Compel the occupants of unclean places to cleanse them, the jurisdiction being four miles beyond the corporate limits;
(15) Regulate and prevent storage of any explosive or combustible material;
(16) Regulate the location and management of cemeteries or burial places for a distance of four miles from the city limits;
(17) Establish quarantine regulations, and authorize removal or confinement of persons having infections or contagious diseases for four miles from the corporate limits;
(18) Record births and death, and make regulations to improve health and suppress disease;
(19) Regulate and prohibit excess street noises;
(20) Direct the location and regulate management of public markets;
(21) Authorize and require inspection, and regulate sale of meat, poultry, fish and other foodstuffs;
(22) Regulate selling, weighing and measuring of hay, wood, coke and all other articles sold by weight or measure;
(23) Authorize and require the inspection and licensing of steam boilers and elevators;
(24) Define the fire limits in the city, and the character of buildings as to height, construction and the like, and see that the buildings are safe in structure;
(25) Compel persons about to undertake dangerous improvements to execute bonds with sufficient surety to pay all damages sustained by any worker;
(26) Regulate construction of chimneys, smokestacks, hearths, ovens and stoves, and have the same removed when dangerous; inspect buildings that may be fire hazards; see that fire escapes are available where needed; and require and regulate use of smoke consumers;
(27) Authorize and require inspection of gas and water pipes and drainage (the Council may establish the city drainage district); sewers and electric lines or wires; compel them to be repaired and made secure; and authorize appointment of inspectors for compliance with these requirements;
(28) Regulate the keeping of lumber yards and the piling of lumber, hay and straw within the city limits;
(29) Regulate, maintain and control wharfs and fix rates of wharfage; regulate landing and loading of board and water craft; prohibit or regulate dumping of material upon the bank of or in any river and the obstruction of any stream;
(30) Require owners of real estate to cut and remove weeds and other rank vegetation growing on the property;
(31) Prevent immoderate and careless riding or driving; regulate use of streets by persons and vehicles of all kinds; regulate the numbering of houses and lots; name or change the name of any street or park; regulate the making of private connections with sewers, gas, water and other like pipes and public conveniences; compel the conveniences to be brought inside the curbs; authorize appointment and compensation of a Street Commissioner, deputies, and any other officers necessary to keep the streets and alleys clean;
(32) Regulate, tax and license coaches, hacks, drays, automobiles and all other vehicles for hire;
(33) Regulate, license, tax, restrain or prohibit theatrical or any other type of performance or entertainments;
(34) Regulate, license, tax or prohibit runners at any transportation station or any other public places;
(35) Regulate sale of all kinds of property at auction and issue licenses for auctions;
(36) Regulate the laying of mains and pipes and stringing of wires by gas, electricity, telephone, heat and water utilities and the character of service provided by these utilities;
(37) License, tax, regulate, suppress and prohibit hawkers and itinerant dealers, peddlers and pawnbrokers;
(38) License, tax and regulate public hackmen, draymen, omnibus drivers, carters, cabmen, porters, expressmen, bill-posters and the like for pay or hire; and prescribe their compensation;
(39) License, tax and regulate or prohibit all inns, taverns, hotels, restaurants or other places for public entertainment;
(40) Regulate and license lumber yards, livery stables and public scales;
(41) Tax, license and regulate second-hand and junk stores and pawnbrokers;
(42) License, tax, regulate or prohibit the keeping or harboring of dogs;
(43) License, tax, regulate or prohibit operation of dairies and the keeping of milk cows;
(44) License, tax and regulate branch stores or establishments or other temporary concerns, and itinerant physicians and vendors of medicine and other articles;
(45) Preserve peace and good order, prevent vice and immorality; quell riots and disperse disorderly assemblages; regulate the time and place of and restrain or prohibit bathing in the rivers or public waters of the city and direct location and management of public bathhouses; restrain and punish vagrants and the like. The city jurisdiction extends to four miles from the city limits. Under this section the city has the power to prohibit picketing in labor disputes when necessary to preserve peace and order;
(46) Keep rivers, streams and other waterways open, and prevent the waters thereof from becoming polluted; establish and regulate ferries; determine, survey and mark the lines and banks of the streams, rivers and other waterways passing through or bordering upon the corporate limits of the city, and provide for changing their course; provide in what manner and on what terms real estate in the city may be drained or sewered, by surface or under drains or sewers across other real estate within the city or within four miles thereof;
(47) Secure the safety of citizens and other persons in the running of trains or cars in and through the city, whether propelled by steams, electricity or other motive power;
(48) Authorize the alienation and conveyance of any property, real or personal, belonging to the city whether used for public and governmental or for private purposes;
(49) Establish, maintain and regulate pounds, market houses, market places, houses of refuge, hospitals, dispensaries, engine houses and all other public city institutions;
(50) Regulate the building of party walls and partition fences;
(51) Appropriate up to $500 per year for expenses of delegates from the city to municipal conventions, or expenses of holding educational, military or civic conventions within the city;
(52) Erect, purchase or lease water works, gas works, electric light works, heating, steam and power plants for the purposes of providing the services to the public;
(53) Enact zoning regulations, building codes and the like;
(54) Establish a City Plan Commission and a Board of Zoning Appeals;
(55) Establish and operate municipal parking grounds;
(56) Levy additional taxes to pay necessary expenses of sewage disposal plants and flood prevention projects;
(57) Levy taxes for the purchase, construction and maintenance of playgrounds and recreational centers and establish a Board of Recreation to administer the programs;
(58) Levy taxes for the construction and operation of libraries;
(59) Acquire and operate airports and landing fields; issue revenue bonds for airport construction or improvement;
(60) Construct stadiums;
(61) Lease city owned hospitals to duly incorporated hospital associations within the community;
(62) Create and provide for a cumulative building or sinking fund to provide funds for the building and repair of bridges;
(63) Create a Department of Traffic Engineering, to be headed by a City Traffic Engineer appointed by the Mayor;
(64) Provide for the continuance of public transportation services if the services are endangered for economic reasons; and
(65) Carry out other necessary functions of the city corporations.
(‘89 Code)