... man to be superintendent of the department of accounts and finances; one to be superintendent of the department of public safety; one to be superintendent of the department of streets and public improvements; one to be superintendent of the department of parks and public property; but such designation shall be changed whenever it appears that the public service would be benefited thereby. The council shall, at the first meeting, or as soon as practicable thereafter, elect by majority vote the following officers, a city clerk, solicitor, assessor, . . . and such other officers and assistants as shall be provided for by ordinance and necessary to the proper and efficient conduct of the affairs of the city. Any officer or assistant elected or appointed by the council may be removed from office at any time by vote of a majority of the members of the council except as otherwise provided for in this act... Every ordinance or resolution appropriating money or ordering The grant of any street improvement or sewer, or making or authorizing the making of any contract, or granting any franchise or right to occupy or use the streets, highways, bridges, or public places in the city for any purpose, shall be complete in the form in which it is finally passed and remain on file with the city clerk for public inspection at least one week before the final passage or adoption thereof. No franchise or right to use the streets, highways, bridges, or public places in any such city shall be granted, renewed, or extended, except by ordinance, and every franchise or grant for interurban or street railways, gas or water works, electric light or power plants, heating plants, telegraph and telephone systems, or other public service utilities within said city must be authorized or approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon at a general or special election. . . franchises. The holder of any elective office may be removed at any time The system by the electors qualified to vote for a successor of such incumbent. of recall. The procedure to effect the removal of an incumbent of an elective office shall be as follows: A petition signed by electors entitled to vote for a successor to the incumbent sought to be removed, equal in number to at least twenty-five per centum of the entire vote for all candidates for the office of mayor cast at the lasi preceding general municipal election, demanding an election of a successor of the person sought to be removed, shall be filed with the city clerk, which petition shall contain a general statement of the grounds for which the removal is sought. The signatures to the petition need not all be appended to one paper, but each signer shall add to his signature his place of residence, giving the street and number. One of the signers of each such paper shall make oath before an officer competent to administer oaths that the statements therein made are true as he believes, and that each signature to the paper appended is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be. Within ten days from the date of filing such petition the city clerk shall examine and from the voters' register ascertain whether or not said petition is signed by the requisite number of qualified electors, and, if necessary, the council shall allow him extra help for that purpose; and he shall attach to said petition his certificate, showing the result of said examination. If by the clerk's certificate the petition is shown to be insufficient, it may be amended within ten days from the date of said certificate. The clerk shall, within ten days after such amendment, make like examination of the amended petition, and if his certificate shall show the same to be insufficient, it shall be returned to the person filing the same; without prejudice, however, to the filing of a new petition to the same effect. If the petition shall be deemed to be sufficient, the clerk shall submit the same to the council without delay. If the petition shall be found to be sufficient, the council shall order and fix a date for holding the said election, not less than thirty days or more than forty days from the date of the clerk's certificate to the council that a sufficient petition is filed. The council shall make or cause to be made publication of notice and all arrangements for holding such election, and the same shall be conducted, returned, and the result thereof declared, in all respects as are other city elections. The successor of any officer so removed shall hold office during the unexpired term of his predecessor. Any person sought to be removed may be a candidate to succeed himself, and unless he requests otherwise in writing, the clerk shall place his name on the official ballot without nomination. In any such removal election, the candidate receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected. At such election if some other person than the incumbent receives the highest number of votes, the incumbent shall thereupon be deemed removed from the office upon qualification of his successor. In case the party who receives the highest number of votes should fail to qualify within ten days after receiving notification of election, the office shall be deemed vacant. If the incumbent receives the highest number of votes, he shall continue in office. The said method of removal shall be cumulative and additional to the methods heretofore provided by law. 207. A Municipal Legislative Reference Bureau By an act passed by the legislature in 1906 the charter of Baltimore was amended by the establishment of a department of legislative reference. The new department is under the control of a board consisting of the mayor, city solicitor, president of Johns Hopkins University, president of the Municipal Art Society, and the president of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association of Baltimore. The members of the board serve without pay. It is their duty to employ a competent statistician as the executive officer of the board to organize and conduct the department. The executive officer holds office during good behavior and is subject to removal by a majority of the board for incompetence or neglect of duty. His salary must be at least $2000 a year. The duties of the executive head of the department are defined as follows: "It shall be the duty of said executive officer to investigate and report upon the laws of this and other states and cities relating to any subject upon which he may be requested to so report by the Mayor of Baltimore, any committee of the city council, or the head of any city department; to accumulate all data obtainable in relation to the practical operation and effect of such The creation department. of the new The duties of the depart ment. laws; to investigate and collect all available information relating to any matter which is the subject of proposed legislation by the General Assembly of Maryland or the City Council of Baltimore; to examine acts, ordinances and records of any state or city, and report the result thereof to the Mayor of Baltimore, any committee of the City Council, or the head of any department requesting the same; to prepare or advise in the preparation of any bill, ordinance or resolution when requested to do so by any member of the City Council; to preserve and collate all information obtained, carefully indexed and arranged so as to be at all times easily accessible to the city officials and open to the inspection of the general public; to perform such other duties as the said board may prescribe, and to make a full and complete report thereof on or before the first day of February of each and every year, to cover the work for the previous fiscal year ending December thirtyfirst." CHAPTER XXVIII MUNICIPAL FUNCTIONS 208. Municipal Waterworks* An investigation into the statistics of cities in the United States was made by the federal Department of Commerce and Labor in 1905, and the voluminous report summing up the results of this research contains the following general conclusions relating to waterworks: of cityowned No subject connected with the management of cities in the old or Importance new world is attracting more attention at the present time than the operation of governmental industries, of which waterworks are waterworks. among the most important. Of the 154 cities for which reports were secured for this bulletin, 113, or 73.4 per cent, owned or operated, or owned and operated, systems for supplying water to their citizens; and of the $831,368,707 invested in city industries, $535,957,239, or 64.4 per cent, represented the investments in waterworks. The importance of waterworks in the financial management of cities is shown not only by the foregoing figures, but by the fact that, with the exception of markets and public scales, waterworks have been operated by cities for a longer time than any other class of municipal industries. fused state of account It might be expected, therefore, that the cities of the United States The conwould before this have developed systems of accounting that would show the results of the operation of these industries as fully as do ing. the systems of privately owned waterworks, since the reports of such waterworks are prepared by corporations for the benefit of their stockholders. Such, however, is not the case. One of the results of this condition of affairs is that it is possible for an advocate of any particular policy of furnishing public utilities, either by the cities or by private corporations, to make almost any state |