Section 116. Town charges  


Latest version.
  • Except as herein otherwise provided, towns may
      incur obligations for any purpose necessary to give effect to the powers
      herein granted, including but not limited to the following:
        1. The compensation of town officers and employees, and  all  expenses
      necessarily  incurred  for  the  use  and  benefit of the town, and when
      incurred by authority  of  the  town  board,  all  expenses  necessarily
      incurred  and  paid  by  any  town  officer or employee in executing the
      duties of  his  office  or  position,  including  actual  and  necessary
      expenses   for  travel,  office  rent,  janitor  service,  light,  heat,
      telephone, postage, furniture, books, stationery and supplies,  and,  in
      the  county of Franklin, for maintenance while attending meetings of the
      town board. The town board of any town, in lieu of auditing and allowing
      the claim of a  town  officer  or  employee  for  actual  and  necessary
      expenses  for  travel, may determine by resolution to allow and pay such
      officer or employee a reasonable mileage allowance for the  use  of  his
      own automobile for each mile actually and necessarily traveled by him in
      the  performance of the duties of his office or position, in attending a
      course of training for his respective office or position provided by the
      town and county officers training school of the state of New York, or in
      attending  a  convention,  conference  or  school  pursuant  to  section
      seventy-seven-b of the general municipal law.
        2.  All  damages  recovered  against  a  town officer for any act done
      pursuant to a resolution, or proposition, duly adopted by the town board
      or at a town election duly  held;  and  all  damages  against  any  such
      officer  for  any  act  done  in  good  faith, in his official capacity,
      without any such direction or resolution, may be made a town charge,  by
      a  vote of the town, at a town election duly held, or by a resolution of
      the town board, but any such subsequent resolution  of  the  town  board
      shall be subject to a permissive referendum.
        3.  The  moneys authorized to be raised by the vote of a town election
      for any town purpose, or by resolution of  the  town  board,  which  has
      become effective by the failure to file a petition for a referendum, or,
      which has been approved by a referendum.
        4.  The  actual  expenses  necessarily incurred by the supervisor of a
      town in the forest preserve, when authorized by resolution of  the  town
      board,  in  connection with the distribution of fish and game birds, not
      exceeding one hundred dollars in any one year.
        5-a. The expense incurred by a town officer, with the approval of  the
      town  board,  for insurance indemnifying against any loss through theft,
      robbery or burglary of public moneys in his custody.
        6. The cost and expense necessarily incurred by the town board in  the
      employment of a veterinarian to examine animals in the town to ascertain
      whether  they  are  infected with an infectious or communicable disease.
      The town board may employ such veterinarian and provide for  filing  the
      result  of examinations made by him with the commissioner of agriculture
      and markets.
        7. The reasonable fees of a physician for examining a person  arrested
      in  the  town and charged with being intoxicated while operating a motor
      vehicle.
        8.  The  engaging  of  a  certified  public  accountant  or  a  public
      accountant to audit the accounts and fiscal affairs of the town.
        9.   The   fees   of  officers  other  than  magistrates  in  criminal
      proceedings, or in criminal actions tried before  a  magistrate  of  the
      town  where  the  offense  is  alleged  to have been committed. The fees
      allowable to towns and villages for the services of a magistrate and the
      fees allowable to an officer  in  issuing  or  serving  process  for  an
      offense  committed  in  a  town other than that in which such magistrate
      resides, and of which a court of special sessions  has  jurisdiction  to
    
      try,  or  which  a magistrate has jurisdiction to hear and determine and
      the fees  allowable  to  towns  and  villages  for  the  services  of  a
      magistrate in the trial or examination of a person brought before him by
      reason  of the absence or inability to act of the magistrate before whom
      he is directed by the warrant  to  be  brought,  charged  with  such  an
      offense  committed  in  a  town  other than that in which the magistrate
      before whom such person is brought resides, shall, in either case, be  a
      charge  against  the town in which such offense was committed. Except as
      provided in this section no fees shall be allowed  to  an  officer,  for
      services  in a criminal action or proceeding, before a magistrate of one
      town for or on account of an offense charged to have been  committed  in
      another  town, and which a court of special sessions has jurisdiction to
      try, or which a magistrate has jurisdiction to hear and  determine.  The
      fees and mileage of a police officer or peace officer in connection with
      any  criminal  action or proceeding of which a court of special sessions
      has jurisdiction to try, or which a magistrate has jurisdiction to  hear
      and  determine,  may be fixed by the town board of the town to which the
      same are chargeable, not exceeding the amount now allowed  by  law;  and
      when  so  fixed,  shall supersede as to such town any other provision of
      law fixing fees or mileage in such case. The fees allowable to towns for
      the services of magistrates and the fees allowable to other officers for
      services in criminal proceedings, for or on account of an offense  which
      a  court  of  special  sessions  has not jurisdiction to try, shall be a
      county charge, if the magistrate had jurisdiction of the proceedings  in
      which the services were rendered. A county shall pay any amount due to a
      town  for  the  services  of  a  justice of the peace which are a county
      charge upon the presentation to it of a claim by the  state  comptroller
      for such charges each quarter.
        10.  Such  sums as the town board may determine to annually expend and
      raise by taxation in such town to meet the actual and necessary expenses
      of maintaining and continuing the association of towns of the  state  of
      New  York,  the New York state town clerks association, Inc., the county
      legislators and supervisors association of New York  State  and  any  of
      their  activities  in  this  state for the purpose of devising practical
      ways and means for obtaining  greater  economy  and  efficiency  in  the
      government thereof.
        11.  The  fees  and  charges  of  a  police  justice  or other officer
      authorized by law to be paid for services rendered and expenses incurred
      on account of offenses committed in a village  and  triable  before  the
      police  justice, shall not be a town charge or be audited or paid by the
      town board of the town.
        12. Except as otherwise provided in section one hundred  seventy-one-d
      of  the  tax  law,  the actual and necessary expenses incurred by a town
      officer or a person duly elected as  a  town  officer,  in  attending  a
      course  of  training  for his respective office provided by the town and
      county officers training school of the state of New York for the purpose
      of improving the administration of municipal affairs in  the  towns  and
      counties  of  the  state,  or  by  a justice of the peace in attending a
      training school for justices provided by  the  education  department  or
      given  in  his own county, by the county magistrate's association, shall
      be a charge against the town of which he is an officer or officer-elect.
      No such person, however, shall be allowed such expenses for attending  a
      regional  school  unless  his  town shall be included within the area of
      such region as established by the education department or the  board  of
      trustees of the town and county officers training school of the state of
      New York.
        13. The actual expense incurred in the publication and distribution of
      a  report  relative  to  the fiscal affairs, official acts, programs and
    
      meetings of boards, commissions, departments and other  agencies,  of  a
      town.
        14.  Notwithstanding  the provisions of this chapter or any general or
      special law, when incurred pursuant to resolution of the town board  the
      cost  and  expense  of  acquiring,  purchasing, leasing or rental of any
      labor-saving device, machine or equipment to assist a  town  officer  in
      the performance of the duties of his office.