2011 Vermont Code
Title 24 Appendix Municipal Charters
Chapter 107 TOWN OF BRATTLEBORO
§ 4.06 General powers, duties and responsibilities of the selectboard

§ 107-4.6. General powers, duties and responsibilities of the selectboard

The selectboard shall have the general supervision of the affairs and property of the town not committed by law to the care of any particular officer, including but not limited to the following powers, duties and responsibilities:

(1) To establish and maintain a police department, including quarters, vehicles and equipment, and to provide for the appointment of police officers.

(2) To establish and maintain a fire department, including quarters, vehicles and equipment, and to provide for the appointment of fire fighting officers.

(3) To establish and maintain a rescue department, including quarters, vehicles and equipment, and to provide for the appointment of emergency medical technicians.

(4) To render health services as provided in 24 V.S.A. chapter 69.

(5) To provide for the construction and maintenance of roads, sidewalks, and bridges under town control, and to lay out, construct, erect, maintain and repair additional roads, sidewalks and bridges for the safety and convenience of the people as deemed appropriate.

(6) To provide, for the maintenance and repair of water, sewer and storm water drainage systems, including a system for the supply of water to the people by wells, reservoirs, pipelines and otherwise, and to provide for treatment of water, sewage and storm drainage for the health, safety and welfare of the people as deemed appropriate (as provided in Act No. 180 of the 1943 session, as amended by Act No. 123 of the 1975 session).

(7) To provide for the lighting of roads, sidewalks, bridges, parks, parking lots and other public places for the safety and convenience of the people as deemed appropriate.

(8) To purchase and distribute electricity or gas, or acquire, establish and maintain an electric light and power system and a gas system for the welfare and convenience of the people, and for use by the town.

(9) To establish other departments of government for the orderly and convenient administration of town affairs.

(10) To lease and maintain real and personal property owned by the town.

(11) To provide for the collection, storage and disposal of garbage and other refuse, including building demolition materials, toxic or chemical wastes, and other commercial or industrial waste materials as consistent with section 6607a of Title 10.

(12) To provide and operate facilities for public recreation, including land, buildings, vehicles and equipment.

(13) To accept or reject on behalf of the town, grants or donations of property, both real and personal, from the federal government, or any agency or political subdivision thereof; from any state, or any agency or political subdivision thereof; from corporations, both public and private; and from individuals or partnerships, including payments in kind or in services, and to pay all necessary expenses in the acquisition thereof, including the making of loan guarantees or relocation payments and assistance. (Ref. subchapter 6, sections 6.1 and 6.2)

(14) To condemn lands or buildings to which public ownership is deemed necessary for the exercise of any of the powers of the town or selectboard, and to hold public hearings thereon for just compensation to be paid to the owners of any right or interest therein.

(15) To conduct such inquiries and investigations as may be deemed necessary to promote the health, safety and welfare of the people.

(16) To act as a quasijudicial body in all appropriate cases, and to provide for the orderly conduct of all public meetings or hearings.

(17) To provide for arbitration of disputes and for the conduct of legal affairs of the town.

(18) To establish appropriate procedures for all purchases and sales, for the award of contracts, and for the borrowing of money when authorized by the legal voters or by law.

(19) To adopt personnel rules for town employees in accordance with 24 V.S.A. § 1121.

(20) To provide for the regulation and licensing of such activities as it deems necessary to secure the general welfare, including, but without limitation thereto, theaters, restaurants and public places where food is sold, pool halls, bowling alleys and places for the operation of video games and other coin operated machines, laundries, dry cleaning establishments, arcades, clubs or other privately owned places where food or liquor is offered for sale, itinerant vendors, peddlers, transient merchants, pawn shops, bicycles, taxicabs and taxidrivers.

(21) To establish traffic regulations governing the operation of motor vehicles, coasting with sleds or otherwise, bicycling, skateboarding, roller skating or other uses of the public roads, parking lots, bridges or sidewalks by pedestrians or otherwise.

(22) To establish and maintain a police court (formerly designated as a traffic court), with the sole jurisdiction of receiving waiver of service of process and trial, admission and violation, and fines from violators of the provisions of parking ordinances of the town and for the sole purpose and with the sole authority of carrying out the provisions of any ordinance adopted establishing such a court.

(23) To regulate the installation and maintenance of sanitary and plumbing facilities in and appurtenant to all public and private buildings, and to enforce the conformity of existing sanitary and plumbing facilities to such regulations.

(24) To regulate, restrain or control the running at large of dogs and other domestic animals. In addition to the tax imposed by the laws of Vermont upon the owner or keeper of dogs, to impose and collect charges for the keeping, impoundment, or examination thereof, and to prescribe such penalties in default thereof as may be deemed necessary. All monies received hereunder shall be paid into the town's treasury and belong to said town.

(25) To provide for the licensing and regulation of community antenna television systems and community cable television systems, including the right to lease and operate such systems, and to acquire, establish and maintain such systems, for furnishing community antenna and cable television services for the welfare and convenience of the people, and for use by the town.

The power and responsibility granted herein does not include the power to determine, proscribe or censor program material distributed over such systems, whether publicly or privately owned. Any such system publicly owned or leased shall be operated under the supervision of an independent board of directors.

(26) To promote and safeguard the public health, safety, comfort or general welfare by the adoption of ordinances and regulations relating to the following subjects:

(A) The design, construction, repair, alteration, removal and demolition of buildings and structures of all kinds;

(B) The design, installation, repair, alterations, removal and maintenance of plumbing systems, sanitary sewers and drains;

(C) The installation, repair, alteration, use and maintenance of electrical wiring, motors, devices, equipment and appliances, and appurtenances thereof;

(D) The handling, transportation, storage and use or sale of explosives, radioactive materials or devices, and other hazardous chemicals, materials, substances or devices, and the use and occupancy of buildings, structures, land and premises for such purposes;

(E) The installation, repair, and alteration of furnaces, stoves, fireplaces and devices used for heating, cooking, or in any industrial process from which damage by fire may occur;

(F) The air conditioning and ventilation of buildings and structures;

(G) The lighting of buildings and other structures and open areas;

(H) The minimum dimensions of rooms used for habitation, based on the number of occupants thereof;

(I) The minimum requirements for sanitary facilities in buildings used for habitation or for dispensing food or food products;

(J) The fixing and determination of fire limits within the town based on density of buildings, and the prescription of standards for buildings and structures within each fire limit area with reference to the type of occupancy within a building;

(K) The adoption of a building code, electric code, plumbing code, fire prevention code and housing code. A book, pamphlet or other publication may be made a part of any ordinance, by-law or regulation by reference therein to such publication by its title, clearly identifying it. When a book, pamphlet or other publication is so incorporated by reference, it need not be published in a newspaper; but copies shall at all times be available for public inspection in the office of the town clerk, who shall keep a reasonable supply in his office for sale, at cost to residents of the town;

(L) Prescribing the powers and duties of building inspectors, inspectors of electric wiring, plumbing inspectors, fire prevention inspectors and housing inspectors;

(M) Providing penalties for noncompliance with orders of any inspector named in subdivision (L) of this subdivision, made by virtue of any resolution, ordinance, bylaws or regulation adopted by the selectboard hereunder. However, provision shall be made to appeal such orders and decisions in the manner specified by 24 V.S.A. chapter 83;

(N) Expanding and enlarging, consistent with this section and the charter, the requirements, powers, duties and other provisions of 24 V.S.A. chapter 83;

(O) Regulating and licensing electricians and electrical contractors, plumbers and plumbing contractors, handlers of explosives, radioactive materials and devices, and other hazardous chemicals, materials, substances and devices, and persons engaged in installing, repairing or servicing ventilating equipment, air conditioning equipment, heating equipment, electrical or electronic appliances, or equipment, or sanitary sewers and drains.

(27) To provide for the preservation of the public peace and to define, prohibit, abate or remove nuisances.

(28) To adopt ordinances, including emergency ordinances effective for no more than 30 days, rules, regulations, plans, and directives, or to promulgate maps or by-laws in furtherance of the powers of the town, whether under the authority of this charter or of other general or special enactments, all of which shall be published in accordance with law. All ordinances, regulations, plans or bylaws of the town, except emergency ordinances, whether enacted under authority of general or special law, shall be published in a newspaper to be designated by the selectboard and circulated in the town at least 20 days before the effective date thereof. Publication of the ordinances, regulations, plans, or bylaws shall meet the requirements of section 1972 of Title 24. All such ordinances, regulations, plans or bylaws shall thereupon be recorded at length by the town clerk in a book kept for that purpose.

(29) To provide by ordinance for the abatement of nuisances and the prosection of violations of the ordinances or other regulations enacted under the authority of this charter, and to fix the penalty for such violation. When no other penalty is specified by law, the penalty shall be a fine not exceeding $250.00 or imprisonment for not more than 60 days or both.