board shall remain diminished by such reduced membership; provided, however, that the Mayor of the City and the chairman of the three city committees of finance, budget, and water and drainage, and the president and one designated member of the Board of Liquidation shall always be members of said board, even if they should be excluded from the Drainage Commission, or the said commission should be abolished. The said "Sewerage and Water Board" shall be appointed and organized immediately after the passage of this act, and shall forthwith proceed to execute the powers granted to and duties imposed upon it so far as the same can be done before the constitutional authority aforesaid can be obtained. It shall make rules fixing its own meetings and procedure, and these rules shall be changed only by the vote of twelve members at a regular meeting.

Sec. 9. Be it further enacted, etc., That the members of said board shall be removed from office only in the manner and for the causes enumerated in Articles 217 and 222 of the State Constitution.

Sec. 10. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That the Mayor of the City of New Orleans shall be ex-officio president of said Board, and said Board shall elect a competent and responsible person as secretary, whose salary and bond shall be fixed by the Board, the said salary not to exceed three thousand ($3,000) dollars per annum, payable monthly in equal installments, and the bond to be made satisfactory to the Board. He shall hold office at the pleasure of the Board. The election or removal of said secretary, the amount of his salary, and the acceptance of his bond shall be determined by a majority vote of the entire Board at one of its regular monthly meetings. The duties of said secretary shall be fixed by the Board. No member of said Board shall receive any salary or compensation whatever for his services, except actual expenses incurred in traveling by authority of, or for the benefit of the Board. The Board shall have power to elect one of its members president pro tempore, who shall act in the absence or disability of the president.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Sec. 11. (Amd.) Be it further enacted, etc., That all meetings of said Board shall be held in the City Council Chamber, and shall be open and public, and all its transactions shall be recorded in the minutes thereof to be kept in writing by the Secretary; and its records shall be public records. Seven members thereof shall constitute a quorum.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902 and Act No. 69 of 1904.) Sec. 12. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That said Board shall elect a competent and skillful engineer as general superintendent and shall fix his salary, and shall from time to time define his duties and powers. He shall hold office during the pleasure of said Board. It shall also have power to organize and employ a board of advisory engineers in order to arrange and devise an efficient public sewerage system in the City of New Orleans, and an adequate public water supply of pure water and to fix the compensation of such advisory board. The said board also to advise as to the completion and extension of the present drainage system.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Sec. 13. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That said Board shall have power and authority to employ all the necessary clerks, engineers, firemen and other skilled and unskilled employees necessary and proper to the efficient administration, operation and control of the said public sewerage and said public water and drainage systems. All such employees, except unskilled laborers, shall be appointed only after they have passed the civil service examination by the Civil Service Commissioners of the City of New Orleans. They shall hold

their positions during good behavior and shall be removed only for cause, and after hearing by the Civil Service Commission. The general superintendent shall have authority to suspend an employee for cause until trial before the Commission. Nothing herein shall be construed as preventing the Board from dispensing with the services of unnecessary employees. Civil Service rules shall not apply to the secretary, the general superintendent or to the Board of Advisory Engineers. (As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Sec. 14. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That the city attorney of the City of New Orleans shall be the legal adviser of said Board. The city attorney shall be paid a salary, for his services to said board, from May 1, 1902, to August 26, 1902, when said salary shall cease, at the rate of twenty-five hundred dollars ($2500) per annum, payable monthly out of the funds of said board. The city attorney shall appoint, with the advice and consent of the Board previously had, a special counsel who shall have charge and conduct of the legal business of the Board, and who shall receive a compensation for his services, a sum not exceeding three thousand five hundred dollars ($3500) per annum, payable monthly out of the funds of said Board. The city attorney shall have power and authority to remove said special counsel only with the advice and consent of the Board previously had, and shall remove him when requested so to do by resolution of said Board adopted at a regular meeting of said Board by a vote of two-thirds of the members constituting said Board. (As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Sec. 15. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That said Board shall have power by a vote of seventeen of its members, to acquire in the name and for the benefit of the City of New Orleans the plant and franchise of any water or sewerage companies in the City of New Orleans, but no contract for that purpose shall be valid until ratified by ordinance of the Common Council of the City of New Orleans. In case no agreement can be reached between said Board and the City Council on the one side, and the representatives of the said companies on the other, as to the price to be paid said companies for their properties and franchises, and it shall become necessary for the City of New Orleans to expropriate the same, the price to be paid on such expropriation shall be paid by said Board out of the proceeds of the bonds aforesaid. The outstanding mortgage bonds of such companies may be assumed by the city as part of the price. Nothing in this act shall be held to effect the right of either the State of Louisiana or the City of New Orleans, in any pending litigation, against any waterworks company or any sewerage company.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Sec. 16. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That in case any of the outstanding mortgages upon the property mentioned in the foregoing section are assumed by the City of New Orleans as part of the purchase price thereof, the city shall in the ordinance of assumption. make provision for the payment of the interest and sinking fund of said debts out of the water rates to be collected by the Sewerage and Water Board. The City Council shall further have the power to extend and renew and refund said mortgage debts, with the concurrence of said Sewerage and Water Board; but both bodies are prohibited from increasing the amount of any assumed mortgage or from putting any additional mortgage debt on said property, or from mortgaging any water or sewerage plant that may be constructed.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Sec. 17. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc.. That whenever It becomes necessary to expropriate any property convenient or necessary for the public work aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the city attor

ney, or the special counsel of the Board, on the request of said Board, to institute such proceedings in the name of the City of New Orleans, and to acquire the title to all such property in the name of said city and the title to all the public works aforesaid, constructed by said Board, and to all property of every kind and nature, real or personal, purchased or in any way acquired by said Board, shall be vested in the City of New Orleans, and said Board shall have full authority to expropriate any property in any of the parishes adjoining the parish of Orleans that it may find convenient and necessary for the proper execution of the powers herein granted to it, and to extend its works into such parish for the benefit of the City of New Orleans, and to have jurisdiction and authority in such parish over said works therein situated.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Sec. 18. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of the said Board so to plan, adjust and arrange said public sewerage and public water systems, as to make the same conform to, and as to prevent conflict with, the present approved plans for the drainage system; provided that nothing contained in this section shall in any manner affect the apportionment provided for in Section 27 of this act.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Sec. 19. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That all persons, firms and corporations that have under and by virtue of any grant heretofore made, express or implied, laid mains, pipes or conduits, or constructed any railroads, buildings, works or structures of any kind, in, on or over the public streets and roads, shall be compelled at their own cost and expense, to shift or adjust their said mains, etc., to the exigencies of said public sewerage and public water and drainage systems.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Sec. 20. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That the said Board shall have authority over the construction of all underground work necessary or incidental to the plans for drainage already adopted by the City of New Orleans and over all drains, inlets, catch-basins, etc., and over all connections which may be made to such drains by the City or by individuals or corporations, and plans and specifications for any drainage connections shall be approved by the properly authorized officer of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans and the construction of the work shall be subject to his inspection. Copies of plans and profiles for all other underground structures shall be filed in the Sewerage and Water Board office before construction.

If said plans are found not to conflict in depth or location with existing or proposed sewers, drains or water-mains, it shall be so certified by the General Superintendent of the Sewerage and Water Board, and no underground structure shall be constructed without such certificate.

Said Board shall have full power and authority to make all needful rules and regulations for the use of said public systems of drainage and sewerage and the water supply furnished therewith, and to prevent the obstruction thereof or interference therewith or damage thereto, and to compel all premises in the City of New Orleans to be connected with said sewerage system and to compel the closing and discontinuance of all other sewers, and all vaults, cess-pools, privies, water-closets, urinals, foul water drains and outlets for any kind of fluid material whatever. Any violation of the rules and regulations established by the said Board and duly promulgated in the official journal of the City of New Orleans, shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding twenty-five dollars ($25) for each offense or by imprison

ment not exceeding thirty days, or both, such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court having jurisdiction of the offense. So much of said fines as may be inflicted for the violation of the rules pertaining to the sewerage system shall revert to the City health authorities. Nothing in this act shall be construed as taking away the existing inspecting and supervisory powers of the Board of Health of the City of New Orleans over the sanitary condition of the premises. (As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902 and Act No. 69 of 1904). Sec. 21. (Amd.). Be it further enacted, etc., That the said Board shall have power to fix the rates to be charged private consumers of water and to collect the same from all persons who use water, (except for sewerage purposes only), from the public water supply of the City of New Orleans, except the City of New Orleans and her public institutions, such as jails, schools, etc., the Charity Hospital, the Touro Infirmary, the House of Good Shepherd, the Soldiers' Home, Hotel Dieu, the Louisiana Retreat, the Southern University, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, and all orphan asylums and houses for aged and infirm. These charges shall be based, as far as possible, on the actual amount of water consumed, shall be equal and uniform for each grade or class of customers, and shall be framed so as to cover only the actual cost of maintenance and operation of the said water system, inclusive of interest and sinking funds of any assumed mortgage bonds on said property, and of the furnishing of the public and private supplies. Said Board shall have further power to make reasonable rules and regulations for the use and consumption by such pay customers, and by such free customers, of the water supply furnished them, and to prevent the obstruction of, interference with or damage to the pipes, mains and other appurtenances of said watersystem, and any volation of such reasonable rules and regulations so established by said Board, and duly promulgated in the official journal, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for each offense, or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days for each offense, or by both, in the discretion of the court having jurisdiction of the offense.

(As amended by Act. No. 111 of 1902.)

Sec. 22. Be it further enacted, etc., That all funds received by the said Board from water rates, and from the city of New Orleans, by appropriation from its treasury, shall be deposited to the credit of the said Board as collected, with the fiscal agent of the city of New Orleans, and shall not be paid out except upon duly adopted resolutions of appropriation, promulgated in the official journal, and upon checks signed by the President and the Secretary of said Board, and countersigned by the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the City of New Orleans.

Sec. 23. (Amd.) Be it further enacted, etc., That all supplies and materials required by said Board for the conduct, operation, maintenance and repair of said public systems of sewerage, water and drainage shall be purchased on detailed written specifications as to grade, quality and amount from the lowest bidder under sealed proposals, who can give the required bond to comply with the contract at public adjudication, after at least ten days' notice in the official journal of the City of New Orleans. In every case it shall have power to reject all bids and advertise for new bids. In case of emergency the general superintendent can, with the written consent of the president pro tempore of the Board, or of the Mayor of the City, contract a bill for such supplies and materials, not exceeding $500 in amount, but all such bills so contracted must be reported, with the reasons therefor, to the next meeting of the Board, otherwise the Board shall not pay the same. In the purchase of all supplies and

material, preference shall be given to home merchants and manufacturers, all conditions being equal. All contracts for repair or renewal work not executed by the regular employees of the Board, and exceeding $250 in amount, shall be similarly let to the lowest bidder, after similar advertisement, with the same right of rejection.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902).

Section 24. (Amd.) Be it further enacted, etc., That all contracts for the construction of the said public systems of sewerage and water and for the completion of the drainage system shall be let to the lowest bidder by sealed proposals, after at least sixty days' advertisement in the official journal of the City of New Orleans and two other newspapers in the City of New Orleans, on detailed plans and specifications approved by the Board on file in the office of the Board to be furnished to prospective bidders on application, one of which specifications shall always be that the contractor shall give bond with some surety company authorized to do business in the State of Louisiana as security, satisfactory to the Board, in a sum of at least 25 per cent. of the estimated amount of his bid, for the faithful performance of his contract, and in case the work estimated by said specifications shall exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), bids for the same shall be similarly advertised in New York and Chicago, as well as in the City of New Orleans. Every such contract exceeding $25,000 in amount shall be approved by resolution of the City Council before the same shall be operative and binding on said Board, and shall be executed by a public act before the city notary for fees to be agreed upon between said notary and the Board, at the expense of the contractor. In every case the Board shall have power to reject all bids and re-advertise for new bids; provided that the advertisements pending for any work, material or supplies or contracts of any kind, at the time of the passage of this Act, shall not be affected hereby; but that same shall continue in the same manner and to the same effect as if this amendatory act had not been passed.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902.)

Sec. 25. (Amd.) Be it further enacted, etc., That no member of said Board shall borrow money from any contractor, or shall ever be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract, or in the losses or profits of any contract for labor, supplies, material or construction made by said Board, nor for six months after the termination of his connection with the Board, under the penalty of dismissal from said commission and the absolute nullity of said contract; nor shall any member of said Board ever be surety for any contractor, or officer, or employee of the Board, under a similar penalty. In case any member of said Board shall be a director or stockholder in any corporation, or shall be agent for any person, which or who may be pecuniarily interested in any subject before the Board, he shall not at any meeting of the Board or of any of its committees, discuss or vote on any such subject.

(As amended by Act No. 111 of 1902.)

Sec. 26. (Amd.) Be it further enacted, etc., That in all contracts made and executed by said Board for the construction or repair of said public systems of sewerage, water and drainage, there shall be contained a clause that the contractor shall give the preference in employment to bona fide residents of the City of New Orleans, both as skilled and unskilled laborers, and shall not employ any non-resident laborers, skilled or unskilled (except confidential clerks, chief superintendents and chief engineers) as long as any resident labor is ready, willing and able to do the work required; that the penalty for each violation of this clause shall be the forfeiture of the sum of $25 for each person so unlawfully employed, to be deducted by the