powers of. of a street or the adjoining land, for such limited time as may supervisbe necessary for such purpose and no longer. Such tracks w must be laid level with the street and must be operated under such restrictions as not to interfere with the use of such streets by the public. 4. To empower street railway companies, under such conditions as the board may see fit to impose, to convey street sweepings and offal to the public parks. 5. To fix the limits within which wooden buildings or Fire limits. structures shall not be erected, placed or maintained, and to prohibit the same within such limits. Such limits when once established shall not be changed except by extension. 6. To provide for the abatement or summary removal of any Nuisance. nuisance, and to condemn and to prevent the occupancy of unsafe structures. 7. To regulate the use of hackney carriages and public pas- Hacks, etc. senger vehicles, and to fix the rates to be charged for the transportation of persons or personal baggage. 8. To provide a public pound and to make all necessary Pound. rules and regulations in the matter of animals running at large, and for the custody and destruction of the same. 9. To provide and maintain a morgue. Morgue. 10. To provide for places for the detention of witnesses and Prisons, persons charged with insanity, separate and apart from places etc. where criminals or persons accused of public offenses are imprisoned. 11. To establish, maintain and regulate, and change, discontinue and reëstablish city and county jails, prisons and houses of detention, punishment, confinement and reformation, hospitals and almshouses. 12. To purchase or acquire by condemnation such property Acquire as may be needed for public use. property. heat, light, etc. 13. Except as otherwise provided in this charter, to regulate Water, and control the location and quality of all appliances necessary to the furnishing of water, heat, light, power, telephonic and telegraphic service to the city and county, and to acquire, regulate and control any and all appliances for the sprinkling and cleaning of the streets of the city and county, and for flushing the sewers therein. rates. 14. To fix and determine by ordinance in the month of Feb- Water ruary of each year, to take effect on the first day of July thereafter, the rates or compensation to be collected by any person, company or corporation in the city and county, for the use of water, heat, light or power, supplied to the city and county, or to the inhabitants thereof, and to prescribe the quality of the service. tax. 15. To impose license taxes and to provide for the collection License thereof; but no license taxes shall be imposed upon any person who, at any fixed place of business in the city and county, sells or manufactures goods, wares or merchandise, except such as require permits from the board of police commissioners as provided in this charter. 16. To prescribe fines, forfeitures and penalties for the breach Fines. Supervis ors. powers of. Fees. 4th of July. Cruelty to animals. Interpre ters. Rewards. Tax levy. Seal. Hours of labor. Boulevards. Tunnels. Regula tion of street railroads. Entry of steam railroads. of any ordinance; but no penalty shall exceed the amount of 17. To fix the fees and charges for all official services not 18. To allow not to exceed two thousand five hundred dollars in any year for the celebration of the anniversary of our national independence, and not to exceed five hundred dollars in any year for the observance of memorial day. 19. To appropriate such sums as may be paid into the treasury from fines collected on conviction of persons charged with cruelty to animals, and to authorize the payment of the same or some part thereof to any society that shall efficiently aid in such convictions. 20. To provide for the payment of compensation to the interpreters appointed by the judges of the superior court to interpret testimony in criminal cases in said court or the police court, or upon inquests and examinations. Such compensation shall not exceed one hundred dollars a month for each interpreter. 21. To offer rewards not exceeding one thousand dollars in any one instance for the apprehension and conviction of any person who may have committed a felony in the city and county, and to authorize the payment thereof. 22. To provide in the annual tax levy for a special fund to be used in the construction of a general system of drainage and sewerage. 23. To provide a seal for the city and county, and seals for the several departments, boards and officers thereof, and a seal for the police court. 24. To fix the hours of labor or service required of all laborers in the service of the city and county, and to fix their compensation; provided, that eight hours shall be the maximum hours of labor in any calendar day, and that the minimum wages of laborers shall be two dollars a day. 25. To set apart as a boulevard or boulevards any street or streets, or portions of a street or streets, over which there is no existing franchise for any street railroad. 26. To construct or permit the construction of tunnels, under such rules and regulations as the board may prescribe. 27. To regulate street railroads, tracks and cars; to compel the owners of two or more of such roads using the same street for any distance not exceeding ten blocks to use the same tracks and to equitably divide the cost of construction and expense of maintenance thereof between the owners; to fix, establish and reduce the fares and charges for transporting passengers and goods thereon; to regulate rates of speed, and to pass ordinances to protect the public from danger or inconvenience in the operation of such roads. 28. To allow any transcontinental or other railroad company having not less than fifty miles of road actually constructed and in operation to enter the city and county with its road and run its cars to the water front at the most suitable point for public convenience. No exclusive right shall be granted to any railroad company; and the use of all such Supervisrights shall at all times be subject to regulation by the super- powers of. visors. ors, of ordinance. Every ordinance granting such right shall be upon the con- Conditions ditions that said company shall pave and keep in repair the street from curb to curb in such a manner and with such material as may from time to time be prescribed by the supervisors, and that such company shall allow any other railroad company to use in common with it the same track or tracks, each paying an equal portion for the construction and repair of the tracks and appurtenances used by such railways jointly. ance. 29. To convey lands in accordance with the provisions of Conveythe act of the legislature of the state of California, entitled "An act to expedite the settlement of land titles in the city and county of San Francisco, and to ratify and confirm the acts and proceedings of certain of the authorities thereof," approved March 14, 1870. 30. To provide for the execution of all trusts confided to the Trusts. city and county. 31. To transfer from one department of the city government Lots and vacant and unused lots of land to another department. 32. To provide for the lease of any lands now or hereafter owned by the city and county; but all leases shall be made at public auction to the highest responsible bidder at the highest monthly rent, after publication of notice thereof for at least. three weeks. No lease shall be authorized except by ordinance passed by the affirmative vote of two thirds of the members of the board, and approved by the mayor, and no lease shall be made for a longer period than twenty years. lands and leases. 33. To provide for the sale at public auction, after advertis- sales. ing for five days, of personal property unfit or unnecessary for the use of the city and county. 34. To provide for the purchase of property levied upon or under execution in favor of the city and county; but the amount bid on such purchase shall not exceed the amount of judgment and costs. 35. The supervisors must appropriate annually to the mayor secret thirty-six hundred dollars as and for a contingent fund, for fund. which he need furnish no vouchers. SEC. 2. The supervisors shall constitute the board of equali- Board of zation of the city and county. The clerk of the supervisors equalizers. shall be clerk of the board of equalization by virtue of his office. SEC. 3. The board of supervisors shall appoint from its Finance members a committee consisting of three to be denominated committee finance committee, and shall fill all vacancies in the committee. The committee shall investigate the transactions and accounts of all officers having the collection, custody or disbursement of public money, or having the power to approve, allow, or audit demands on the treasury; shall have free access to any records, books and papers in all public offices; shall have power to administer oaths and affirmations, and to Finance committee Duties of. Powers. Majority. No exclusive franchise. Term of franchise for street railway. Granting of franchises, examine witnesses, and compel their attendance before them by subpoena. The committee may at any time visit any of the public offices and make its examinations and investigations therein without hindrance. The committee must, at least once in every six months, examine the official bonds of all city and county officers, and investigate the sufficiency and solvency of the sureties thereon, and report in writing the facts to the mayor. Such report shall specify each bond with the sureties, and the amounts for which each surety is bound, and state whether or not they are sufficient and solvent. Upon such report the mayor shall take such action as shall be necessary to protect the city and county, and may require new bonds when necessary, and he may suspend any officer till a sufficient bond is filed and approved. SEC. 4. The finance committee shall have power, and it shall be its duty, to examine the records and examine and expert the books of account of all persons, companies or corporations that are required to pay a portion of their gross receipts into the treasury; and shall likewise, as an aid to the fixing of rates for furnishing water and light to the city and county and to the inhabitants thereof, have like power, and it shall be its duty, to examine the records and examine and expert the books of account of any and all persons, companies or corporations so furnishing water or light. In the exercise of its functions, the concurrence of two members of the committee shall be deemed sufficient. The committee shall keep a record of its proceedings with the names of the witnesses examined and a substantial statement of the evidence taken. If, from the examination made by the committee, it shall appear that a misdemeanor in office, or a defalcation, has been committed by an officer, the committee shall immediately report to the mayor, who, if he approve the report, shall take such proceedings against such officer as are authorized by law, and may suspend him pending such proceedings. Any police officer shall execute the process and orders of the committee. SEC. 5. No exclusive franchise or privilege shall be granted for laying pipes, wires or conduits. SEC. 6. The board of supervisors shall have power to grant authority for a term not exceeding twenty-five years to construct and operate street railways upon, or over, or under, the streets or parts of streets of the city and county not reserved for boulevards or carriage driveways, upon the following conditions and in the following manner and none other: Upon application being made to the board for any such franchise, it shall by resolution determine whether such franmanner of chise or any part thereof should be granted, and at said time shall determine on what conditions the same shall be granted additional to those conditions provided in this chapter. After such determination, it shall cause notice of such application and resolution to be advertised in the official newspaper of the city and county for ten consecutive days. Such advertisement must be completed not less than twenty nor more than thirty of fran days before any further action is taken by the board on such Granting application. The advertisement must state the character of chises, the franchise sought, the term of its proposed continuance, and manner of. the route to be traversed; that sealed bids will be received up to a certain hour on a day to be named in the advertisement; and a further statement that no bids will be received of a stated amount, but that all bids must be for the payment to the city and county in lawful money of the United States of a stated percentage of the gross annual receipts of the person, company or corporation to whom the franchise may be awarded, arising from its use, operation, enjoyment, or possession. Every bidder shall file with his bid a bond executed to the city and county, with at least two good and sufficient sureties to be approved by the mayor in a penal sum prescribed by the supervisors, and set forth in such advertisement, conditioned that such bidder will well and truly observe, fulfill and perform each and all of the conditions, terms and obligations of the franchise for which said application was made in case the same shall be awarded to him, and that in case of the breach of any of the conditions of such bond, the whole amount of the penal sum therein named shall be taken to be liquidated damages, and that as such shall be recoverable from the principal and sureties on such bond. At the next regular session after the expiration of the time stated in such advertisement up to which such bids will be received, the board must open such bids and award the franchise to the person, company or corporation offering to pay the highest stated percentage of the gross receipts arising from the use, operation, possession or enjoyment of the franchise for which such application was made. But no award shall be made, nor any such application granted, unless the stated percentage offered to be paid for the franchise shall be at least three per centum of such gross receipts during the first five years of the period for which the franchise is to be granted, four per centum of the gross receipts during the next succeeding ten years, and five per centum of the gross receipts during the next succeeding ten years. Except as in this section otherwise provided, bidding for such franchises must be in accordance with the provisions of this charter in relation to bids made to the board of public works, so far as such provisions may be applicable. The supervisors may reject any and all bids, and may refuse to grant a franchise for any part of the route for which application was made. Every ordinance making such grant shall require the concurrence of three fourths of all the members of the board of supervisors, as shown by the ayes and noes, and the approval of the mayor, and at least ninety days shall intervene between the introduction and final passage of any such ordinance. It shall require a vote of five sixths of all the supervisors to pass the ordinance notwithstanding the objections of the mayor. If any bid be accepted, the franchise must be granted upon the express condition, in addition to the conditions required by this charter, and such other conditions as may be prescribed by the |