1911 Solicitor's fees.

Cost.

Assessments. for year

1910 validated.

Sec. 15. The City Solicitor shall be entitled to five per cent on all taxes collected by him without suit, which shall be added to the amount of the tax, and in all suits to enforce the payment of taxes wherein the city shall prevail, he shall be entitled to a reasonable attorney's fee to be taxed as part of the costs, which allowances to the City Solicitor shall be regarded as further penalties for the non-payment of the taxes within the time prescribed by law.

Sec. 16. Upon a collection of the moneys due the city, payment shall be made first, of all costs of the proceedings, except the City Solicitor's fee; second, of the amount due the city for taxes and interest, and lastly of the City Solicitor's fee.

Sec. 17. The assessment roll of the City of Arcadia for the year 1910, and all assessments thereon are hereby validated and confirmed, and the same shall not be set aside or in anywise invalidated for any error, defect or informality or omission, which shall not amount to a want of due process of law under the Constitution of this State or the Constitution of the United States. No tax sale shall be held to collect the unpaid taxes thereon, but said taxes shall be a lien until paid, without limitation, and the proceedings to enforce the payment of the said taxes and to foreclose their lien shall be as herein before provided in this Act. The time for the payment of the said taxes payment ex- is hereby extended to and including the 30th day of July, A. D. 1911, after which date a certified copy of the unpaid assessments and taxes on real estate on the said roll shall be delivered to the City Solicitor with the same effect and in the same manner as is herein before provided and the City Solicitor shall with all convenient speed proceed to collect the same with costs as is provided in this Act for the collection levied under the authority of this Act.

Time for

tended.

Assessment roll for certain years validated.

Sec. 18. The assessment roll of the City of Arcadia for the years 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1909, with all assessments thereon and the tax sales of the city in the years 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1909 and 1910 based thereon, are hereby validated and confirmed, and the same shall not be set aside or in anywise invalidated for any error, defect, informality or omission in the manner and form of assessment and sale which shall not amount to a want of

1911

Tax sale

due process of law under the Constitution of this State or the Constitution of the United States. The tax sale certificate issued at said sales to the city and still held by certificates. it are hereby declared to be liens on the property described in such certificates respectively without limitation, and the city shall not be entitled to take possession of the property bought by it at such tax sales, nor shall it be required or permitted to bring suit for the recovery of any of the lands so bought by it, but the lien of the said assessment, or assessments, and of the said certificate or certificates, shall be enforced in the manner provided by this Act as to the liens of taxes assessed under the authority of this Act. The owner, or owners, of any of the lands assessed for taxes of said city for either of the years in this section mentioned, or their agents or attorneys and anyone in possession thereof, shall have the right and privilege to redeem the said property from all or any of the said tax sales for said years until and including the 30th day of August, 1911, after which date said tax sale certificates shall be delivered to the City Solicitor and the City Solicitor with all convenient speed shall proceed to collect the same with costs as is provided in this Act for the collection of taxes levied by authority of this Act. Such certificates shall be prima facie evidence of the regularity and validity of all the proceedings upon which the same are based in all particulars; Provided, This section shall not be construed as validating any sale under an assessment which was not made to the true owner of the property so assessed and sold.

cation of officers.

Sec. 19. If any tax assessor, tax collector, marshal Disqualifior City Solicitor of the said city shall be for any reason disqualified or incapacitated from performing any of the duties imposed upon him by this Act, the City Council may appoint some other person to act for such officer so disqualified or incapacitated, and such officer shall have for the time being all the powers conferred upon such officer and shall in like manner be subject to the duties imposed upon him by this Act.

Council.

Sec. 20. The City Council shall have full power and Powers of authority to direct and regulate by ordinance the methods of reporting and accounting by the officers of the city who may under this Act be empowered to collect the revenue of the city or any part thereof.

1911

Sec. 21. Nothing in this Act contained shall impair the validity of any assessment of taxes by the city prior to the taking effect of the same.

Sec. 22. All laws or parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed so far as they affect the said city.

Sec. 23. This Act shall take effect immediately upon its approval by the Governor, or in case it should not receive his approval, immediately upon its becoming a law.

Approved June 2, 1911.

Territorial boundaries.

Incorporation.

CHAPTER 6324-(No. 205).

AN ACT to Incorporate the Town of Auburndale, in Polk County, Florida, and to Provide for Its Government and Prescribe Its Jurisdiction and Powers.

Be it Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

Section 1. A municipal corporation to be known and designated as the Town of Auburndale, is hereby estab lished, organized and constituted in the County of Polk, and State of Florida, and its territorial boundaries shall be as follows:

Sections (2) and ten (10), except Sw of Sw of Section 10 and the west three-fourths (W3) of Sections two (2) and eleven (11), and the northeast quarter (Ne.) and the north half (N.) of the southeast quarter (Se.) of Section nine (9), Township twenty-eight (28), south of Range twenty-five (25) east. Also the south half (S.) of Section thirty-four (34), and the west half (W.) of the southwest quarter (Sw.) of Section thirtyfive (35) and south half of the southeast quarter (Se.) of Section thirty-three (33) in Township twenty-seven (27) south, of Range twenty-five (25) east.

The citizens and legal voters of the State of Florida, from time to time, residing within said territory, shall be and are hereby, created and constituted a body corporate and politic, under and by the name of Auburndale, and

shall possess and succeed to all rights of property, real or personal, which may hereafter be acquired, without any formal conveyance or act, other than the granting of this charter, and shall be subject to all the obligations, legal and equitable, of the municipality.

1911

Sec. 3. Said Town of Auburndale shall have a seal, Powers. and may change the same at its pleasure. It shall have perpetual succession; may sue and be sued, may purchase, lease, acquire, receive, hold and sell, let or otherwise dispose of property, real, personal or mixed, whether within or beyond the limits of said municipality, and may exercise such other powers as are herein granted.

Sec. 4. Government.-The government and adminis- Government. tration of said town shall be vested in a Mayor and a Town Council; a Town Clerk, a Tax Assessor and Treasurer (one person), a Town Marshal, who shall be Chief of Police and Tax Collector.

Sec. 5. Mayor.-The Mayor shall be elected for à Mayor. term of one year, or until his successor is elected and qualified, and shall take his office on the first day next, succeeding his election. His compensation shall be fixed by ordinance, and shall not be changed after his election. It shall be his duty to see that all ordinances of Auburndale are enforced and faithfully executed.

of officers.

Sec. 6. Suspension.-The Mayor shall have power to Suspension suspend any officer, except Councilmen, for misconduct in office, or neglect of duty, and he shall report his action in writing, assigning his reasons therefor, to the Council at its next regular meeting, for its approval or disapproval. The Mayor shall have general supervision of all town officers, except Councilmen, and shall examine into the condition of the offices, books, records and accounts thereof, and the manner of conducting the business of said office.

Sec. 7. Ordinances.-That every ordinance passed by Ordinances. the Town Council, before becoming a law, shall be presented to the Mayor, under the certificate and seal of the Clerk. If the Mayor approve the same he shall sign it and return it to the Clerk, and it shall then become a law. But if he shall not approve it he shall return it to the Clerk, with his reasons therefor in writing, at or before the next regular meeting of the Council, for recon

1911

Duties of
Mayor.

Impeachment of Mayor.

Vacancy.

sideration, and if the Council shall pass the ordinance by a two-thirds vote of all members present it shall become a law. If the Mayor shall fail to return any ordinances, or shall return the same unsigned, without objections in writing, at or before the next regular meeting of the Council, after its passage it shall be deemed that he approved the same, and it shall become a law without his signature.

Sec. 8. Duties of Mayor.-The Mayor shall communicate from time to time, to the Council, such information as he may deem proper, with recommendations touching the general welfare and government of the Town of Auburndale. The Mayor shall have general supervision over the Marshal and police force, and, when, in his opinion, the public good requires, he may appoint and discharge special policemen. He may call special meetings of the Council at any time, stating the object for which it is called, and the business of such meeting shall be confined to the objects so stated.

Sec. 9. Impeachment of Mayor.-The Mayor may be impeached by a two-thirds vote of the Council, for misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance in office; for habitual drunkenness or gross immoralties. And should charges be preferred against the Mayor by the Council, said Council shall furnish the Mayor with a copy of the articles of impeachment, and shall proceed without unnecessary delay to investigate and decide the same.

It shall require a two-thirds vote of said Council to remove him from office.

Sec. 10. Vacancy.-That in the event of the death or absence, inability or disqualification of the Mayor to discharge the duties of his office, the president of the Council, or in his absence, the acting president of the Council shall discharge said duties during said vacancy, absence or inability. Should the Mayor's office become vacant by death, resignation or otherwise, or should such vacancy occur in the Council, the Mayor, or Acting Mayor shall immediately issue his proclamation, calling a special election to fill such vacancy, which election shall be held not less than fifteen days, nor more than thirty days from the date of said proclamation, which shall be published by posting the same at three public places in said Auburndale, for at least ten days before said election.