ANNOTATION

• Sources: The Administrative Code of 1929, Act of April 9, 1929, P.L. 177, Section 2901.

• Purposes: If any provision of this Charter is declared to be invalid, the remainder of the Charter is to remain in complete effect. While a declaration of invalidity of a transfer of powers and duties may reestablish an abolished agency, a remedy is available by way of amendment of this Charter.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: Act of April 21, 1949, P.L. 865, Section 18.

• Purposes:
  1. The legislation authorizing this Charter imposed certain limitations upon the powers of the Charter Commission. Section 18 thus provides:

     "Section 18. Limitations. No city shall exercise any powers or authority beyond the city limits except such as are conferred by an act of the General Assembly, and no city shall engage in any proprietary or private business except as authorized by the General Assembly. Notwithstanding the grant of powers contained in this act, no city shall exercise powers contrary to, or in limitation or enlargement of, powers granted by acts of the General Assembly which are -

     1. "Applicable to a class or classes of cities on the following subjects:
        1. "Providing for the filing and collection of municipal and tax claims or liens and for the sale of real or personal property in satisfaction thereof;
        2. "Providing for the exercise of the power of eminent domain and the procedure for the condemnation of property for public purposes;
        3. "Providing for the assessment of damages and benefits for property taken, injured or destroyed;
        4. "Providing methods for the incurring or increasing of indebtedness;
        5. "Providing for the annexation or exclusion or detachment of territory;
        6. "Regulating public schools;
        7. "Providing for the personal registration of electors;
        8. "Limiting rates and fixing subjects of taxation;
        9. "Providing for assessment of real or personal property and persons for taxation purposes.

     2. "Applicable in every part of the Commonwealth.

     3. "Applicable to all the cities of the Commonwealth." Act of April 29, 1949, P.L. 665.

     Accordingly, until the statute is amended, the provisions of this Charter cannot supersede any laws coming with in the limitations quoted above.

  2. Subject to the above limitations, provisions of this Charter do supersede all statutes or parts of statutes, local, special or general of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and all ordinances of the City in any manner affecting the organization, government and powers of the City to the extent that they are inconsistent with the Charter provisions. The Charter Commission did not have the express power to repeal statutes or ordinances but the same objective is obtained in substance by its power to supersede statutes and ordinances inconsistent with provisions of the Charter. No attempt was made to list all such laws superseded for statutes applicable to the City and ordinances of the City are too numerous to have permitted the Commission to perform this task. Codification and revision of City ordinances will be a step in that direction. See Sections 2-304 and 4-400(e). It should be noted in particular that provisions of the Charter of 1919 not inconsistent with this Charter are not superseded and remain in full force and effect. The same is true of the Consolidation Act of 1854 (see Section 11-103), and other statutes applicable to the City of Philadelphia or to Cities of the First Class.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: See Section 11-101. Special mention is made in this case to protect the indebtedness of the City.

"Section 1. ... the corporate name of the mayor, alderman, and citizens of Philadelphia shall be changed to 'The City of Philadelphia, and the boundaries of the said city shall be extended so as to embrace the whole of the territory of the county of Philadelphia, and all the powers of the said corporation, as enlarged and modified by this act, shall be exercised, and have effect within the said county, and over the inhabitants thereof."

"Section 10 which, as modified by Article VIII, Section 3, as amended, of the Constitution, Section 5 of the Act of March 2,1911, P.L. 8, and Article XI, Section 1, of the Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, provides in part that the qualified voters of the City shall, on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November, 1913, and on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November in every fourth year thereafter, elect a City Treasurer to serve for four years from the first Monday of January next succeeding such election and until his successor is elected and qualified and that no money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the City, except the same shall have been previously appropriated by the Council to the purpose for which it is drawn.

"Section 12 which, as modified by Article VIII, Section 3, as amended, of the Constitution, Section 5 of the Act of March 2, 1911, P.L. 8, and Article XII, Section 1, of the Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, provides that the qualified voters of the City shall, on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November, 1913, and on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November in every fourth year thereafter, elect a City Controller, to serve for the term of four years from the first Monday in January next succeeding his election and until his successor is elected and qualified.

"Section 13 which, as modified by Article VIII, Section 3, as amended, and Article XIV, Sections 2 and 7, as amended, of the Constitution and Section 33 of the Schedule to the Constitution provides in part that the qualified voters of the City shall, on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November, 1911, and every fourth year thereafter on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November, elect three persons for City Commissioners, to serve four years from the first Monday of January next succeeding their election; that in the election of said officers each qualified elector shall vote for no more than two persons, and the three persons having the highest number of votes shall be elected; and that the City Commissioners, under the direction and control of the Council, shall be charged with all duties performed by the commissioners of the county not otherwise provided for in the act.

"Section 38. That the net debt of the county of Philadelphia, after deducting and canceling the portion held by the sinking fund, and the several net debts of the guardians for the relief and employment of the poor of the city of Philadelphia, the district of Southwark, and the townships of the Northern Liberties and Penn, of the mayor, aldermen and citizens of Philadelphia, of the commissioners and inhabitants of the district of Southwark, of the commissioners and inhabitants of the district of Moyamensing, of the commissioners and inhabitants of the Kensington district, of the commissioners and inhabitants of the incorporated district of the Northern Liberties, of the commissioners of the district of Spring Garden, of the commissioners and inhabitants of Richmond, in the county of Philadelphia, the districts of West Philadelphia and Belmont, of the boroughs of Whitehall, Manayunk, Germantown, Aramingo and Frankford, and of the commissioners and inhabitants of the district of Penn, and the board of health and controllers of the public schools, after deducting and canceling the portions held by the respective sinking funds of the said several corporations, is hereby consolidated and formed into one debt, to be called 'the debt of the city of Philadelphia,' and payable at the same times that the principals of said debts are now made payable; certificates of which said debts are to be issued in sums of not less than one hundred dollars, in lieu of the present separate debts so consolidated, to the respective owners, in lieu of their present certificates of the same, at the option of such owners, bearing the same rate of interest that the debts so to be exchanged now bear, and payable on the first days of January and July, at the office of the treasurer of the city of Philadelphia...".

"Section 39...; and the said city councils shall fix the rate, and levy all the taxes, now authorized by law, within the limits of said city and county, except the State tax...; they shall be collected and accounted for to the treasurer as one city and county tax:..."

"Section 41. The county of Philadelphia shall continue to be one of the counties of this Commonwealth, and all county officers, not superseded by this act, shall continue in office, and continue to be elected ..as... now provided by law, and be denominated officers of the county of Philadelphia; and all courts shall continue therein to exercise the jurisdictions and powers now conferred upon them by the constitution and laws of this Commonwealth; and the councils of said city, and the officers thereof, shall exercise all the powers and authorities of the superseded county commissioners and county board, and commissioners of sinking fund, and of other officers not inconsistent with this act, in such way and manner as by this act is, or by the city councils may be established."

ANNOTATION

• Sources: See Acts cited in text of section.

• Purposes: See Annotation to Section 11-101. Sections of the Consolidation Act of 1854, as amended, are stated in substance or quoted to emphasize that they have not been superseded.