TITLE IV. § 3. All amounts rendered to or kept in the other departments of said corporation shall be subject to the inspection Comptroller and revision of the officers of this department, and be kept may inspect in the manner prescribed or approved by the comptroller, subject to the ordinances of the common council. accounts. etc. § 4. All stocks, bonds, and securities of the city of Rate of interest Brooklyn, hereafter issued, shall bear not more than seven on city bonds, per cent. interest per annum, and shall be negotiated and disposed of by the mayor and comptroller. The comptroller shall keep careful accounts of the same in his office, and shall prescribe the forms of all such obligations, and sign the same jointly with the mayor; but no stock, certificate, bond, or other obligation shall be delivered by them for any loan to the corporation until the amount has been actually deposited in the city treasury, and the receipt for the money is produced and filed in the comptroller's office. stocks. § 5. The comptroller shall prescribe proper rules and Transfer of regulations for the transfer of all stocks and bonds which, by their tenor, are transferable, and shall provide proper and convenient books for such transfer, which shall be kept in the comptroller's office. But no transfer of any stock or bond shall be allowed, and no new certificate therefor shall be issued, without the surrender and cancellation of the certificate previously issued for the same. to be classified. § 6. The accounts of the city shall be divided into five City accounts distinct classes. The first of said classes shall be called the general fund; the second shall be called the special fund; the third shall be called the revenue fund; the fourth shall be called the sinking fund; the fifth shall be called the redemption fund. No money raised or received for the use of one of said funds shall, at any time, be used for the purpose of either of the other said funds, except as hereinafter provided. OF THE SEVERAL FUNDS AND THE ACCOUNTS TO BE accounts, what § 7. The general fund shall comprise all taxes levied for General fund any purpose within said city, and the receipts therefrom, to comprise. and all payments made on account thereof; also all city appropriations and expenditures provided for by such tax, and by the income of the revenue fund. The accounts of said fund shall also include the loans, receipts and expenditures on account of purchasers by the city of lands sold for unpaid taxes and water rates, and redemption thereof, the extension and repair of the city water-works, the Prospect park and other public parks, the construction of the East TITLE IV. Special fund. Revenue fund. Sinking fund. river bridge, and other public improvements. A pro rata proportion of all the moneys collected by tax within said city shall be due to the county monthly, and shall be paid by the financial officers of the city, upon the requisition of the county treasurer. § 8. The special fund shall comprise all loans, assessments and receipts for special local improvements, including interest thereon; also all payments on account thereof, and for the redemption of such loans, and the interest thereon. The accounts of this fund shall also include the receipts and disbursements on account of the laying out and opening of new streets, avenues, squares and places. § 9. The revenue fund shall comprise all the moneys levied, assessed and received for collectors' and assessors' fees, default and interest on taxes, and arrears thereof, interest on redemptions of property purchased by the city for unpaid assessments, taxes and water rates, costs and fees of city officers, advertising fees, inspectors' fees, licenses, fines and penalties, court fees and fines of the police and justices' courts, sales of personal property, rents and proceeds of sales of real estate, except as otherwise provided in this act, interests on deposits and all revenues of the city whatsoever from other sources than taxes, except as herein otherwise provided. The revenue fund shall be kept inviolate, except for the payment of judgments against the city for which no sufficient or other provision has been made, charges (for advertising, etcetera,) on arrears of assessments, taxes and water rates, fines by law, made payable to any public institution, expenses and damages on account of the rejection of assessments for local improvements, also for interest on city loans not otherwise provided for; and the accounts of said fund shall exhibit the payments, if any made, for each of said purposes, and a rebate on all taxes, assessments and water rates as hereinafter provided. The balance remaining to the credit of said fund on the first day of September, in any year, shall be transferred to the general fund on or before the thirty-first day of December of each year, and such amount shall be deducted from the amount otherwise necessary to be raised by tax for city purposes for the ensuing fiscal year. § 10. The sinking fund shall comprise all moneys heretofore or hereafter raised by tax or received from other sources for the payment of the principal or interest of city loans, together with the interest accruing from the investment of such money by the commissioners of the sinking fund, also all payments made for investments, interest on the city loans, and for redemptions of the principal thereof. The accounts of this fund shall at all times exhibit the description and amounts of securities and investments belonging to it, also the amount of unemployed money on hand, and the names of the institutions in which the same are deposited. TITLE IV. § 11. The redemption fund shall comprise all moneys re- Redemption ceived for the redemption of real property sold for assess. fund. ments, taxes and water rates (except in cases where such property shall be purchased by the city of Brooklyn), and all moneys paid to holders of certificates of sale issued by the collector of taxes and assessments, the department of city works, or the registrar of arrears. All redemption. moneys deposited in the treasury shall be drawn therefrom only upon checks prepared and signed by the registrar of arrears, and countersigned by the comptroller. payment of borrowed. § 12. The faith of the city, as constituted by this act, and Faith of city the property belonging to it, are pledged to the final pay- pledged to ment of all moneys heretofore borrowed or raised by the moneys city of Brooklyn, under or by virtue of any law of this State, and any sum of money for which the whole or any part of the city of Brooklyn is now liable, shall be raised on those parts of the city which were liable for the same on the passage of this act. water-works to § 13. The net surplus income from the public water- Net surplus works of the city, after paying the interest on all outstand-income of ing bonds issued for the construction and extension of said be paid to works, and after discharging any other claims by law sinking fund. chargeable against the water revenue, shall be paid over to the commissioners of the sinking fund at the end of each year, and such surplus, together with the interest thereon, shall be appropriated solely for and toward the payment and redemption of the water bonds of said city. § 14. The moneys and securities of the sinking fund shall Control of be under the control and management of three commission- sinking fund. ers, consisting of the mayor, comptroller and auditor, who shall be known as the commissioners of the sinking fund. The present treasurer shall, during his term of office, be one of the said commissioners, instead of the auditor. The comptroller shall have the custody of all securities, books and papers belonging to said commissioners or appertaining to said fund. All bonds and other securities belonging to the sinking fund shall be indorsed by the comptroller as follows: The property of the sinking fund of the city of Brooklyn, transferable from said fund only by written order of the mayor. comptroller and auditor, the commissioners of said fund." Any transfer, without such order, of any bond so indorsed shall be null and void. TITLE IV. Meeting of commissioners of. Investment of. Accounts of. Arrears of taxes to be charged to registrar of arrears. Taxes to be charged to collector of taxes. § 15. The commissioners of the sinking fund shall meet once in each month, or oftener if required, in the office of the comptroller, for the transaction of business connected with said fund. The comptroller shall appoint one of the clerks in his office to act as secretary for the commissioners of the sinking fund, but such clerk shall receive no additional compensation for services rendered as such secretary. The mayor, or in his absence the comptroller, shall preside at such meeting. § 16. The said commissioner shall, from time to time, invest the money of said fund in any stock for the payment of which the faith of this State or the United States is or shall be pledged, or in any of the bonds or securities issued by said city or the county of Kings, and shall deposit said moneys with any safe moneyed corporation in this State, and make such contract with such institution for the duration of such deposits and the interest thereon as they shall consider for the best interest of such fund; and may also, at such times and upon such terms as they may deem advisable, pay any part of the moneys borrowed or raised as aforesaid before the times limited for the payment thereof. § 17. The comptroller shall keep the accounts of said fund, and the said commissioners shall report to the common council, semi-annually, at its first meeting in January and July, a particular account of the condition of said fund, specifying the repairs and payments since the last report, the amount and description of stocks and securities held by them, with the interest they bear, the institution holding deposits, amount of such deposit and the rate of interest paid thereon, respectively; also the amount of securities purchased, if any, and the rate paid therefor. § 18. He shall charge to the registrar of arrears the amount of all arrears of taxes, assessments and water rates transmitted to him for collection, with all sums properly chargeable by said registrar for default, interest, fees, charges and expenses, and all amounts received for redemption of property sold for unpaid taxes, assessments and water rates, and shall credit his account with all payments made to the treasurer on account thereof, and with all duly authorized deductions and cancellations. § 19. He shall charge to the collector of taxes and assessments the amounts named in the rolls and lists annexed to all warrants delivered to him for collection, with all sums properly chargeable by said collector for default and interest, and shall credit him with all payments made by him to the treasurer on account thereof, and with all duly authorized deductions, discounts and cancellations, and with all uncollected taxes and assessments which shall have been duly transmitted to the registrar of arrears. TITLE IV. checks. § 20. He shall countersign all checks on the treasurer Comptroller to drawn by the registrar of arrears for the redemption mon- countersign eys upon the production and cancellation of the certificate of sale or lease of the property redeemed. local liabilities to be § 21. All contracts for local improvements shall state, Contracts for as near as may be, the total amount thereof; and the comp- improvements. troller shall keep a correct account of all liabilities incurred under contracts with the amounts paid on account of the same, and render statements thereof as often as may be required by the common council. No contract for any local improvement, except for sewers, shall be awarded or entered into unless an estimate of the amount to be expended under the same shall have been first prepared by the commissioners of city works and submitted to the common Amount of council. The amount of liabilities incurred under con- limited. tracts for local improvements shall not exceed at any time the amount which, by law, may be borrowed by the city to pay for such improvements. Any officer signing or executing any bond, obligation or contract, in contravention of the provisions of this title, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, be liable to imprisonment for not less than one year, and to a fine of not less than one thousand dollars for each offense. The term Term "local local improvements, wherever it appears in this act, shall be improvements construed and is hereby declared to embrace the grading, re-grading, paving, re-paving and curbing of streets, the laying of crosswalks and flagging, setting of lamps and posts, fencing, digging down and filling in of lots, and the building of any draw bridge to connect one part of a street with another, and any other work for which an assessment for benefit may be laid. defined. borrowed, how § 22. Whenever the city shall by law be authorized to Money borrow money on bonds or other obligations for any spe- to be applied. cific purpose, the money so borrowed shall be applied only to such purpose; provided, however, that any premium realized upon the sale of said bonds or obligations, and any surplus remaining after accomplishing such purpose shall be paid into the sinking fund for the redemption of such bonds or obligations; and it shall not be lawful for the common council of the said city to borrow any money except under special provision of law, or as provided in this act, or to enter in any contract by which they may be compelled to pay money, except for the purposes for which they are or may be authorized to raise money by tax, and |