Report of Committee OF THE Board of Aldermen on on Codification of Ordinances. The Committee on Codification of Ordinances hereby reports that they have examined the entire subject of the ordinances of The City of New York, as well as the material in the proposed code of ordinances referred to this committee on the 9th day of January, 1906. Your committee herewith presents a compilation of all ordinances of The City of New York, including all such ordinances as are mentioned in sections 41 and 57 of the Greater New York Charter, together with all new ordinances and amendments of same which have been adopted, and have become existing ordinances up to January 1, 1906. Your committee have not reported anything as an existing ordinance, which has in it any new matter or has been revised in any manner whatsoever. Nor have this committee eliminated from their report any formerly existing ordinance, or part of an ordinance, which has not clearly been repealed by subsequent legislation or ordinance, or which has not been decided by the highest courts of this State to be of no force and effect. In order to preserve certain well known ordinances, which have been repealed by the changes made necessary by the provisions of the Greater New York charter, your committee have reported the same, not as existing ordinances, but as ordinances whose immediate re-enactment by this board, with the substitution of such words as are suggested in the committee's report, is recommended. Instances of such ordinances are to be found where the ordinance relates solely to some locality, such as the Borough of Manhattan, or the Borough of Brooklyn. and where the words formerly contained in such ordinance were "The City of New York," or "the City of Brooklyn," and where the duties of a designated office have devolved upon an official with a different title. In other words, the changes recommended are in cases where the name of some locality, or of some office, or the sense of the words, has been changed by the language of the Greater New York Charter, or of some State law. Your committee, in its treatment and report of the existing ordinances, have considered only such acts as constitute the local laws of the city enacted by the Board of Aldermen, or similar body, and duly approved by the Mayor, or returned without his approval in such a manner that they have become ordinances by force of statute, and which are continuing in their nature, force and effect, and are either rules under which the government of The City of New York is administered, or rules for the guidance or regulation of the conduct of the citizens of said city. This report contains only such acts of the legislative body of this city as fall within the foregoing definition of an ordinance. Your committee are not satisfied with the form or language of many of these ordinances, but a careful study of this subject has led the committee to believe that it is absolutely essential to adopt some code of ordinances that shall contain all the ordinances of this city, without reference to previously existing codes, in order that the code now adopted may be properly revised and corrected in the future, and your committee therefore ask this board to refer this whole matter back to this committee for revision when the recommendations of this committee shall have been adopted. For the purpose of clearing up a very confused state of affairs, your committee recommended that with the adoption of this report, this board shall also adopt a general repealing clause, wiping out all ordinances that were in effect January 1, 1906, and adopting anew the ordinances as presented in this report as the existing ordinances of The City of New York, up to the date of January 1. 1906, together with such ordinances in their corrected form as are herein recommended for re-enactment. For the purpose of carrying into effect the last preceding recommendation with greater clearness, this committee have stricken out the repealing clause of each ordinance, and also the clause designating when each ordinance shall take effect, for the reason that these clauses are now unnecessary. This is apparent from the fact that when this committee's report shall have been adopted, the ordinances herewith reported will supersede everything that has gone before, and will go into effect at the same instant of time that the repeal of all former ordinances as herein suggested, will take place. Your committee find that the ordinances herewith reported divide themselves into five general classes: First The general ordinances applying throughout the entire confines of The City of New York, together with such ordinances of a general character as are recommended for re-enactment as general ordinances, including the Sanitary Code, the Building Code, and the Park Regulations. Second - Local ordinances as amended to January 1, 1906, comprising such chapters and articles of the former revised ordinances as apply to the individual boroughs of said city, together with the local ordinances of the various towns, villages and localities now included within the Greater City of New York, and such as may be grouped together because their subject matter is related. Third Miscellaneous ordinances which refer to certain subjects that cannot be classified under a general heading, and which are grouped with those ordinances to which they are more specifically related. Fourth-Obsolete ordinances, which relate to subjects that have no practical existence at the present time, and the immediate repeal of which is recommended. Fifth - Ordinances that have been repealed by implication because of the fact that they referred to localities or officials, or to a condition of affairs not now existent, and the immediate re-enactment of which ordinances, with the suitable changes herein suggested, is hereby recommended. These ordinances have been reported in their proper places and connection. As the policy of the framers of the Greater New York Charter and the interests of the city demand that the ordinances, so far as possible, shall be general, your committee, in several instances, have recommended the adoption of a local ordinance as a general ordinance or as a part of the existing general ordinances. In each such instance your committee have carefully indicated that such local ordinance, although inserted in the place it should occupy among the General Ordinances, is not a part of the General Ordinances, but is a local ordinance, and that its adoption as a General Ordinance is merely recommended. Your committee believe that in all cases the suggestions made by the committee will strongly appeal to the common sense of the board. The system of corrections adopted by your committee is as follows: The corrections of all ordinances of the former City of New York and of the former City of Brooklyn, together with those of the General Ordinances, are indicated by placing a parenthesis around such words as, in the opinion of your committee, should be stricken out, and by indicating the change which your committee suggests, in the margin opposite such parenthesis, the words suggested being underscored. The corrections of the ordinances of the former City of Long Island and the other smaller municipal corporations that are now comprised within the Greater City of New York have been indicated by placing the new matter suggested for adoption in parenthesis within the ordinance itself; the former language of the ordinance, which this committee recommends should be stricken out, is placed in the margin and underscored. Your committee, in presenting this report, desire to express their thanks for the kind and valuable assistance rendered to it by the Hon. P. J. Scully, city clerk, and his deputies, Mr. Frank J. Martin and Mr. Charles R. Shopland, and also to the assistant corporation counsel assigned to the board, Mr. William H. Doherty, who is largely responsible for editing the ordinances of the smaller towns, villages and localities now incorporated in the Greater City of New York. As to these latter, your committee have included in their report all such local ordinances as they have been enabled to obtain. |