FIRE DEPARTMENT. ment, and shall, subject to the approval of the Mayor, appoint and employ all such officers and employes as may be provided by ordinance. SEC. 2. The Chief of Fire Department shall have power, in cases of emergency, with the approval of the Mayor, under such regulations as may be prescribed by ordinance, to purchase or hire such horses and mules as may be necessary for the use of his department, and shall, with the approval of the Mayor, recommend to the Commissioner of Supplies, the purchase of engines and other apparatus for the suppression or extinguishment of fires in such manner and to such extent as may be provided by ordinance. SEC. 3. The Chief of Fire Department and Assistant Engineers appointed by him shall have the same police powers at all fires as the Chief of Police, under such regulations as may be provided by ordinance. INSPECTION OF BUILDINGS. SEC. 4. No person shall erect within the limits of the City of St. Louis, as established by the act of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri entitled "An act to revise the Charter of the City of St. Louis, and to extend the limits thereof," approved March 4th, 1870, any building or buildings the outer walls of which are in whole or in part constructed of wood, nor upon blocks or squares in the territory added to the city by this Scheme or Charter, that have built upon them six or more substantial dwellings or storehouses, without procuring a permit so to do in such manner as may be provided by ordinance. SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the Chief of Fire Department to inspect all buildings in the course of construction, and to cause to be carried into effect all ordinances relating thereto. ARTICLE XII. HEALTH DEPARTMENT. SECTION. 1. Health Commissioner; his official term and bond. 2. Board of Health; meetings, quorum, etc. 3. Duties of Commissioner; appointment of employes; may examine premises; shall obey orders of Board, and report annually to Mayor. SECTION. 7. Contracts for the abatement of 8. Proclamation by Mayor in time counts. 4. Nuisances to be reported to 10. Duties of physicians in refer Commissioner; births, mar- 5. Superintendents of hospitals 11. ence to burial certificates. Weekly report of interments to be made to Health Commissioner. SECTION 1. There is hereby created a Health Department of the City of St. Louis, which shall be managed, directed and controlled as provided by this Charter and by ordinances of the City of St. Louis, by a Board of Health as hereinafter provided, and by an officer who shall be denominated the Health Commissioner. He shall be appointed by the Mayor, by and with the approval of the Council, and shall perform such duties as may be provided by this Charter and by ordinance. He shall hold his office for the term of four years, and until his successor is duly qualified, be subject to removal by the Mayor as other officers, and shall possess the same qualifications as the Mayor, and shall give bond in such sum as shall be ordained by the Assembly, with at least two sufficient sureties for the faithful performance of his duties. SEC. 2. There is also hereby created a Board of Health, which shall consist of the Mayor (who shall be its presiding officer), the presiding officer of the Council, a Commissioner of Police, to be designated by the Mayor, and two regular HEALTH DEPARTMENT. practicing physicians, who shall possess the same qualifications as the Mayor. The Health Commissioner shall be a member of said Board, and, in the absence of the Mayor, the presiding officer. The Board shall meet twice in each week during the year. They may be convened in special session at any time by the Mayor, Health Commissioner, or by any two members of the Board upon written notification served twelve hours before the date of said meeting. Three members of the Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and it shall have power to adopt rules and regulations for its government. SEC. 3. The Health Commissioner shall have general supervision over the public health of said city, and see that its regulations, and the laws and ordinances of said city in relation thereto, are enforced and observed, and for that purpose he is authorized and empowered to make such rules. and regulations, with the approval of the Board, not inconsistent with this Charter or any city ordinance or law of this State, as will tend to preserve and promote the health of said city; to appoint such employes, with the approval of the Board of Health, as may be necessary for the execution of his orders; to enter into or authorize and require any employee or police officer to enter into and examine, in the daytime, all buildings, lots and places of every description within the city, and to ascertain and report to him the condition thereof, so far as the public health may be affected by it; to declare and abate nuisances in such manner as may be provided herein, or by ordinance; but all condemnations must first be approved by the Board of Health, whose action thereon shall be final. He shall obey all orders not inconsistent with this Charter and city ordinances, emanating from the Board of Health, and shall annually report to the Mayor the general operations of his department during the year then ended, with such suggestions for the improvement of the same as he shall consider expedient. SEC. 4. It is made the duty of all police officers to observe the sanitary condition of their districts, and through the HEALTH DEPARTMENT. Chief of Police to report to the Health Commissioner promptly any nuisance or accumulated filth found to exist in any portion of the city. The Health Commissioner shall provide for the registration of all births, deaths and marriages occuring within the city; shall have charge of all city hospitals, quarantine, insane asylums, morgue and city dispensary, and with the advice and counsel of said Board of Health make all necessary rules for the government thereof. SEC. 5. There shall be a Superintendent of the City Hospital, a Superintendent of the Female Hospital, a Superintendent of the Insane Asylum, and a Superintendent of Quarantine when necessary, who shall perform their duties. under the general supervision of the Health Commissioner, and shall be appointed by the Mayor, with the approval of the Board of Health; but all other employes shall be appointed by the Health Commissioner, and approved by the Board of Health, except such as may be temporarily in the employ of the Health Commissioner. SEC. 6. In order to effect the abatement of nuisances or removal of accumulated filth, the Health Commissioner shall have power, whenever in his opinion such nuisance or filth exists, and after officially so declared of record by the Board of Health, to notify the owner or owners thereof, or his or their agents, to rebate or remove the same, either by filling up, draining, cleaning, purifying or removing same, as the case may be, which notice shall be served upon the owner or agent having charge of said property, in the same manner as writs of summons are required to be served in civil cases. If the owner, who shall have been so served with such notice, shall fail, within the time indicated in such notice, which shall be discretionary with said Health Commissioner, to comply with such order, or fail to show good cause to said Health Commissioner why he cannot or ought not to comply with such order, for which purpose he shall be entitled to be heard before said Health Commissioner and Board of Health, if he so request it, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be fined HEALTH DEPARTMENT. not exceeding five hundred dollars; and the nuisance shall be abated, and special tax bills rendered against the property in same manner as against non-residents, except that notice by advertisement shall not be necessary. If such service cannot be made for the reason that the owner, agents or other persons having charge of the property upon which the nuisance may exist cannot be found in the city, of which fact the return upon such notice of the officer serving the same shall be conclusive evidence, then the Health Commissioner shall cause such notice to be published in the newspapers doing the city printing, for two consecutive days (Sundays excepted). And if within two days after the service of such notice, or after its publication as aforesaid, such nuisance shall not be abated, or the order observed by the owner, then the Health Commissioner may order the same to be done as hereinafter directed; and the cost of the same, when fully completed, shall be ascertained under the direction of the President of the Board of Public Improvements, in the same manner as special tax-bills for street improvements; and the amount thereof shall be assessed as a special tax against the property so improved, or upon which such work has been done, in the name of the owners thereof, of which the books of the Assessor shall be proof, and the certified bills of such assessment shall describe therein the property upon which the work was done. Said bills shall be recorded and shall be collected and paid as provided in this Charter in relation to the collection of other special taxbills, and shall be a lien on said property, and the Health Commissioner shall keep a record of his proceedings in all cases of abatements ordered by him. SEC. 7. All contracts for work contemplated by this section on which special tax-bills are to be issued, shall be entered into by the President of the Board of Public Improvements, in the name of the city, based on the estimates of the cost by the President of the Board of Public Improvements, accompanied by reports of surveys and profiles, in cases requiring the same in the judgment of such President, |