cers, heretofore or hereafter held in any village, shall be invalid on account of the failure of the electors to designate in their ballots the respective terms of office of persons to be elected thereat, for the same office, for different terms; but the persons so to be elected to such office, who are eligible and receive the highest number of votes, shall be elected. The person first named on a ballot containing the names of more than one person for such an office, and not designating their respective terms, shall be deemed designated for the longest term, the second, for the next longest term, and so on to the end; and the inspectors of election shall count the ballots and certify the result accordingly. If the votes shall not be so counted and canvassed the board of trustees shall, at least twenty days before the expiration of the shortest term, determine by lot which of such officers shall hold office for each term, and thereupon such officers shall be deemed to have been elected accordingly.

§ 58. Special elections of officers. Whenever the day fixed by law for an annual election shall have passed, and no election shall have been held thereon, the board of trustees shall, forthwith, give notice of a special election, to be held at the place of the omitted annual election. Such notice shall be given in like manner as a notice of an annual election, and a special election shall be held in the same manner as, and for the purposes of, an annual election. For the purpose of determining the terms of office of the officers elected thereat, the time therefrom to the beginning of the next official year shall be deemed one year.

§ 59. Submission of propositions; special elections.-- The board of trustees may, upon its own motion, and shall, upon the petition of twenty-five electors, qualified to vote upon a proposition, cause to be submitted at a village election, a proposition. upon any question which may be lawfully decided thereat. A separate board of fire, water, light, sewer, cemetery or other commissioners may present to the board of trustees a petition, requesting the submission of a specified proposition, relating to its department, at a village election. Upon the presentation of such petition, the board of trustees shall cause the proposition to be submitted accordingly. If a petition under this section be presented after the annual election and before the first day of January following, a special election shall be called, to be held not less than ten nor more than twenty days after the presentation of such petition. If a petition be presented at any

other time, and more than ten days prior to the annual election, the proposition shall be submitted at such annual election. Except for the purpose of fixing or changing the number of trustees, or for the purpose of determining whether an officer shall be thereafter elected or appointed, no special election shall be held in the months of February or March. Notice of a special election for the submission of a proposition shall be given in the same manner as for an annual election. Such special election shall be held by the same officers, and conducted and the result canvassed in the same manner as an annual election.

60. Votes upon propositions to be by ballot.-All votes upon a proposition submitted at a village election shall be by ballot; and, unless otherwise provided, the provisions of the election law, relating to ballots, apply to propositions submitted, under this chapter.

$61. Official undertakings.-The treasurer, collector, police justice, street commissioner, and such other officers as may be required by the board of trustees, shall, before they enter upon the duties of their respective offices, each execute to the village and file with the village clerk, an official undertaking in such sum and with such sureties as the board of trustees shall direct and approve. The board of trustees may at any time require any such officer to file a new official undertaking for such sum and with such sureties as the board shall approve.

§ 62. Notice to person chosen to a village office. The clerk of the village shall, within three days after the election or appointment of a village officer, except the first election or appointment after the incorporation of the village, notify each person elected or appointed of his election or appointment and of the date thereof, and that he is required to file his oath of office with such clerk, before entering upon the duties thereof, and, if an official undertaking be required of him, by or in pursuance of law, that he is also required to file the same with such clerk, and that upon his failure so to do, he will be deemed to have declined the office. If an undertaking is required of a village officer, by or in pursuance of law, after entering upon the duties of his office, the clerk of the village shall thereupon serve upon such officer personally, a written notice that he is required to file such undertaking with the clerk, within ten days after the service of the notice, and that upon his failure to do so, his office will become vacant.

§ 63. Resignations and removals.-A village officer may resign to the board of trustees, and his resignation shall take effect upon the delivery thereof to the village clerk, unless a time be specified in such resignation for its taking effect thereafter, in which case, such resignation shall take effect at the time so specified.

In addition to the method provided by the public officers law, an officer, except a president or a trustee, appointed by the board of trustees of the village, may be removed by the board for misconduct, on notice to such officer and an opportunity given him to make his defence.

§ 64. Filling of vacancies.-Vacancies occurring otherwise than by expiration of term in a village office, other than that of health officer, shall be filled by the board of trustees, if the office be elective, until the end of the current official year, but if the office be appointive, for the balance of the unexpired term. If a vacancy in an elective office occurs within less than ten days prior to an annual election, and which office is not to be filled at such election, the appointment shall be for a term which will expire at the end of the next official year.

$ 65. Refusal of officer to surrender his office. If a person who has been an officer of a village refuses or neglects to deliver to his successor in office, within ten days after notification and request, all the moneys, books, papers, records, property and effects of every description, which have come into his possession or under his control, by virtue of his office, and belonging to the village or appertaining to the office, he shall forfeit and pay to the village, the sum of twenty-five dollars for each and every day he shall so neglect or refuse, and also all damages, costs and expenses caused by such neglect or refusal.

§ 66. Separate boards of commissioners.-A village which has no separate board of fire, water, light, sewer or cemetery commissioners, by adopting a proposition therefor at an annual election, may establish such a board, or may establish a municipal board, with the powers, duties and responsibilities of two or more of such separate boards. In a village of the first class a board of commissioners or a municipal board may be composed of three or five members as shall be determined by the proposition. If such proposition be adopted, the board of trustees at its next annual meeting shall appoint such commissioners, for the terms of one, two and three years, respectively, or in a village

which determines to have five commissioners, for the terms of one, two, three, four and five years, respectively; and at each annual meeting thereafter the board of trustees shall appoint one commissioner for the full term of three or five years as the case may be.

§ 67. Municipal boards; consolidation.-Upon the adoption of a proposition therefor a village may establish a municipal board, possessing all the powers and subject to all the responsibilities of two or more of the boards named in this article. Such municipal board shall be composed of three members appointed by the board of trustees for the terms of one, two, and three years, respectively. Upon the filing of the certificate of the adoption of such proposition, all the powers, duties and responsibilities of such separate boards are transferred to the municipal board, and all property, records, books and papers in the possession of such separate boards shall, within fifteen days after such consolidation, be delivered to the municipal board. If the village has only one of the boards provided in this article, the powers and responsibilities of one or more other boards, named therein, may be conferred upon such existing board by the adoption of a proposition therefor at an annual election, and thereupon such existing board shall possess all the powers and responsibilities of such other board or commission consolidated with it, and shall thereafter be known as the municipal board of the village.

§ 68. Continuance of separate boards. If a village now has a separate board of fire, water, light, sewer or cemetery commissioners, such commissioners shall continue in office during their respective terms, and no commissioners shall be hereafter ap pointed until the whole number be reduced by expiration of term or otherwise, to less than three, except that in a village of the third class the commissioner or commissioners last appointed shall cease to be a commissioner from and after the passage of this act, until the number be reduced to three, and except that if a village of the first or second class now has a board of commissioners composed of five members, such number shall be continued. All such commissioners shall hereafter be appointed by the board of trustees; and the terms shall be so adjusted that one shall expire each official year. (As amended by chap. 668 of 1898.)

§ 69. Continuance of municipal board.-A municipal board or commission heretofore created and existing in a village under a

general law when this chapter takes effect is continued, and one member of such board or commission shall be appointed by the board of trustees each year for a full term, as provided by the law relating to such board or commission in force on the day next preceding the day when this chapter takes effect, and such terms are hereby established as the terms for the members of such board or commission under this chapter. Such municipal board or commission so continued shall possess all the powers and responsibilities and be subject to all the duties and liabilities herein conferred or imposed upon the several separate boards named in this article, except boards of cemetery commissioners.

8 70. Abolition of separate or municipal boards.—A separate board of fire, water, light, sewer or cemetery commissioners, or a municipal board, may be abolished by adopting a proposition therefor at an election. The abolition of such a board shall take effect immediately upon filing a certificate showing the adoption of the proposition. Within ten days after such certificate is filed, the board shall deliver to the clerk of the village its records, books and papers; and shall also within the same time deliver to the treasurer all funds, and to the president all other property in its possession or under its control, belonging to the department.

§ 71. Books and papers to be open to inspection.—All books, papers and records relating to village affairs kept by any board or officer shall be open to inspection at all reasonable hours by every inhabitant of the village.

72. Transfer of funds and records. Within ten days after this chapter takes effect, each commissioner or board of commissioners or other village officer heretofore authorized to receive or expend village funds or having such funds under his or its control, shall file with the board of trustees a verified report showing the amount and source of such funds and the object to which the same are applicable. If such funds are under the supervision of a board or officer authorized to contract indebtedness on behalf of the village, such report shall also contain a statement of the amount of such existing indebtedness and the persons to whom and the time when the same is payable. Upon the receipt of such report, the board of trustees may require the treasurer, within ten days after notice therefor, to furnish additional security. Within ten days after the furnishing of such security, approved by the board, or if no such additional security is required, within fifteen days after the filing of the report, all funds belong