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The Council Assessor or other officer assessing property in Ohio County for taxation for State and County purposes, shall furnish to the Council of the City of Wheeling, a transcript of the assessment of real and personal property within the City liable to taxation by the State, on or before the first day of August of each year, and shall receive such compensation therefor as may be fixed by Council.
Water rents shall be distrained for and collected in the same manner as taxes owing to the City may be enforced. The collection of water rents shall also be enforced by shutting off the supply of water from delinquents, and the refusal thereafter to furnish water to delinquents until all arrearages are paid.
In addition to all other means for the collection thereof, all taxes and water rents, as well as all other demands due to the City, may be recovered by an appropriate suit or proceeding, in the name of the City, before any magistrate of Ohio County, if the amount be within the magistrate's jurisdiction, or in the Circuit Court of Ohio County, if within the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court.
No disbursing officer of the City shall issue any order or check for the payment of money for any work, matter or thing contracted for or ordered by the Council or any officer or employee of the City which shall have been so contracted for or ordered wholly or in part in excess of the amount which shall have been previously set by ordinance or resolution as the limit of expenses of the department to which such work, matter or thing belongs, or in excess of the amount available in the City treasury for such payment. The foregoing provision of this section is intended as a restraining provision, and it is further declared that no act of such disbursing officer shall be in anywise held to render valid any debt contracted by or on behalf of the City in violation of the Constitution and laws of the State. Any such officer of the City who shall violate this section, shall upon conviction, be subject to such fine and imprisonment as shall be fixed by the court, and shall be disqualified from holding office.
The City of Wheeling is hereby authorized to issue and sell its bonds; provided, that the City shall not by such issue and sale of bonds cause the aggregate of its debts of every kind whatsoever to exceed five percent of the valuation of the taxable property therein, which value shall be ascertained by the last assessment for State and County taxes previous to the issue of said bonds, nor shall said City make such issue and sale without at the same time providing for the collection of a direct annual tax of an amount sufficient to pay the annual interest of such debt and the principal thereof within and not exceeding thirty-four years.
No bonds shall be issued by said City unless all questions connected with the same shall have been first submitted to the qualified voters of said City and have received three-fifths of all the votes cast for and against the same.
When the Council shall deem it expedient to issue bonds, an ordinance specifying the purpose and amount for which such bonds are to be issued, shall be adopted by them at a regular meeting and it shall then be the duty of the Mayor of the City to issue a proclamation reciting said ordinance and appointing a day at which an election shall be held by the qualified voters of the City to decide whether they will ratify or reject said ordinance. Any bond ordinance may be voted on at the time of holding any general municipal election or a special election may be held for the purpose of submitting said ordinance to a vote of the people. If a bond ordinance is submitted to a vote at the time of a general municipal election, separate ballots shall be provided therefor. Such proclamation shall be published in two morning newspapers published in the City, once a week for two successive weeks previous to the day of the election.
More than one ordinance may be submitted at any election, but each ordinance shall be separately voted upon; any ordinance may specify more than one purpose for which said bonds are to be issued; provided, however, that the amount to be appropriated for each purpose is also specified therein. The proclamation issued by the Mayor, as hereinbefore provided, shall specify the aggregate amount of indebtedness, outstanding and authorized, of the City existing at the date of the proclamation.
Bonds issued by the City shall be of the denomination of one hundred dollars or multiples thereof, not exceeding one thousand dollars. They shall be payable not less than one nor more than thirty-four years after date. They shall bear not more than six percent interest and the interest shall be payable annually or semiannually. No debt shall be created by the City as a bonded debt except when issued under the provisions of this Charter.
It shall be unlawful for the officers of the City to privately issue or sell directly or indirectly any bond or bonds to be used in payment for work or material to be furnished, but all such bonds shall be publicly sold to the highest bidder in writing to be approved by the officers conducting the sale, for cash, or its equivalent in bonds previously issued by the City, and the money arising therefrom shall be used for the purpose specified in the ordinance providing for the issuing of the same; before any sale of such bonds, said sale shall be advertised in some newspapers, not exceeding four, in or out of said City, once a week for four weeks previous to said sale.
The Finance Director of the City of Wheeling and his sureties shall be liable for the sinking fund and the amount levied or may be levied for a sinking fund and to pay interest on the bonded debt, and it shall be applied to the purposes for which it was levied or for investment in United States bonds or bonds of the City, as the Council may direct, to be used for the payment of principal and interest of any bonded debt of the City.
Bonds of the City shall not be sold at less than their par value. The Council shall provide in its ordinance that bonds of the City be signed by the Mayor and City Clerk and sealed with the seal of the City.
Should any of the funds derived from the issuance and sale of bonds of the City be diverted by the Council or any officer or officers of the City from the purpose for which said bonds were issued and sold, such members of Council or City officer using same or consenting to or aiding in the use thereof for such other purpose, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars or more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or both fine and imprisonment.
The City may issue and sell its bonds for any purpose for which a Municipality may issue bonds. After the Council shall have passed an ordinance providing for the submission of a bond issue to the voters of the City, the Mayor, with the consent and approval of Council, shall appoint a committee consisting of not less than five residents and citizens of the City of Wheeling, which committee shall act in an advisory capacity with the City Council in all matters relating to the issuance and sale of such bonds, and with the City Manager in awarding of contracts and expenditures of the funds derived from a sale of such bonds. The names of the members of such committee shall be published in the proclamation issued by the Mayor prior to the holding of the election on any such bond issue.
The Council shall provide by ordinance for the deposit of all public moneys of the City in such bank or banks situated within the City as Council shall designate by ordinance. Before any public moneys shall be deposited in such bank it shall give a good and sufficient bond to the city to secure the accounting for and due payment over such public moneys, with security approved by the Council. The security shall always be in a sum not less than ten percent in excess of the maximum amount at any time deposited, but there shall not be deposited in any one bank an amount in excess of the paid-in capital stock and surplus of such bank, and not in any event an amount in excess of six million dollars. As to any deposits made under authority of an ordinance of the Council, passed pursuant to this section, neither the depositing officer nor other persons so depositing, nor such officers’ sureties, shall be liable for any loss occasioned by the deposit or in anywise growing out of it.
(Ord. 13382. Passed 2-20-07.)
(Ord. 13382. Passed 2-20-07.)
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