PART IV. GENERAL LAWS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF COUNTIES, TITLE I. General provisions. II. The government of counties. TITLE I. GENERAL PROVISIONS. SECTION 861. County defined. 862. Town defined. 863. City defined. 864. Village defined. 865. Municipal corporation defined. 866. Insurance. 867. Certain officers may administer oaths. 868, 869. Officers not to be interested in contracts. 870. Contracts voidable. 871. Loaning credit forbidden. 872. Contracting debts restricted. 873. Temporary loans. 874. Funded debt. 875. Borrowing or incurring debt in other modes forbidden. § 861. A county is the largest civil division of County the state having corporate powers. Its chief officer is the sheriff. defined. Town defined. City defined. Village defined. Municipal corporation defined. Insurance. Officers may admin $862. Towns are smaller civil divisions with corporate powers, into which the county is divided. Their chief officer is the supervisor. § 863. A city is a civil division, with corporate powers, for the government of a crowded population, and having a mayor as its head. It may include towns or counties, or part or parts thereof. 864. A village is a civil division within a town, with corporate powers, and having a board of trustees, with a president as its head. § 865. A municipal corporation is the corporation of a city or village. § 866. Officers having custody of any public buildings of any county, city, town or village, may insure them at public expense and for public benefit. 1 R. S., 683, § 40. § 867. The officers mentioned in Part IV of ister oaths. this Code, including the chairman of committees and the clerks of all boards or bodies of officers, charged with any inquiry or action requiring the administering of oaths, have power to administer oaths and affirmations to witnesses and jurors brought before them. Officers not to be inter ested in contracts. From 1 R. S., 667, § 17; 646, § 7; 1244, § 36. $ 868. No member of a common council, trustee of a village, or supervisor shall become a contractor under any contract authorized by the common council, board of trustees, or board of supervisors of which he is a member, or be in any manner interested, directly or indirectly, either as principal or surety, in such contract. 1 R. S., 667, § 14. § 869. No town, county, city or state officer shall be interested in any contract made by him, or be a purchaser, or interested in any purchase, at any sale made by him, or a seller at any purchase made by him as such officer. Ib., § 15. omcers not contracts. to be interested in voidable. § 870. Contracts in violation of any provisions Contracts of the two preceding sections may be declared void at the instance of the city, county, village or town interested, or of any other party interested in such contract, except the officer violating the provision. Ib., § 16. § 871. No municipal corporation shall, in any Loaning manner, loan or give its credit to or in aid of person. any This and the four following sections are from credit for bidden. debts re § 872. No municipal corporation shall contract Contracting any debt, the amount of which, exclusive of the stricted. debt owing by such corporation on the 21st day of July, 1853, shall exceed, at any time, a sum equal to five per cent, nor inclusive of such debt, shall exceed eight per cent of the value of Temporary Funded debt. all the real property within its bounds, to be ascertained by the last corrected valuations of the assessors thereof, as established by the board of trustees, common council or board of supervisors, as the case may be. § 873. No money shall be borrowed on temporary loan by any municipal corporation, except in anticipation of the taxes of the current fiscal year, and the same shall always be made payable and shall be paid within eight months from the time of making the loan. § 874. No funded debt shall be contracted by any municipal corporation, except for a specific object expressly stated in the ordinance proposing it, nor unless such ordinance was passed by twothirds of all the members elected to the common council or board of trustees, and submitted to and approved by a majority of the tax-payers of the corporation, at a special election to be appointed for that purpose by the common council or board of trustees, nor unless the legislature shall by law have ratified the ordinance and have provided for raising annually, by tax, a sum sufficient to pay the interest and to provide a sinking fund of at least five per cent, upon the amount of the debt, per annum. Such tax shall be annually collected and the sinking fund remain inviolate until sufficient is realized to pay and extinguish both princi pal and interest. All the laws relating to the election of municipal officers of any such corporation shall apply, so far as applicable, to every election pursuant to this section. or incurring debt in other modes forbidden. § 875. No municipal corporation shall borrow Borrowing any money or incur any debt, except in the mode provided in the preceding four sections; and any evidences of debt not issued in conformity therewith are void. But nothing in this or the four preceding sections affects any law existing on the 21st day of July, 1853, authorizing any corporation to do so. The provisions of the Revised Statutes (1 R. S., 665, 711) relating to the cases in which justices, jurors and witnesses are disqualified, by reason of being inhabitants of a county or town interested, and relating to costs and judgments in actions against counties, towns or officers, are properly within the scope of the CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE |