§ 2.05. Miscellaneous powers.

The city shall also have power:

(a)

To establish, maintain and operate public employment bureaus and public baths.

(b)

To establish, maintain and operate, within and without the city, and to make advances to public hospitals, sanatoria, convalescent homes, clinics and other public institutions, homes and facilities for the care of the sick, children, the aged and the destitute.

(c)

To provide care for the poor and have all the powers and duties conferred and imposed on cities by the laws of the Commonwealth relating to public assistance.

(d)

To acquire, establish, own, maintain and operate, within and without the city, cemeteries for the interment of the dead, fix the price at which graves and lots therein shall be sold, make contracts for their perpetual care and establish the rates to be charged for the digging of graves, construction of vaults and other services.

(e)

To establish, maintain and operate, within or without the city, a jail for the confinement of prisoners, ordered or sentenced to be confined therein, and a jail farm.

(f)

To cooperate and enter into cooperative agreements or contracts with any state, county, city, political subdivision or any department or agency thereof, or with the government of the United States, or any department or agency thereof, or with any public agency, entity or authority, regional or otherwise, or with any person, firm, public utility or corporation regarding the construction and operation of any airport, incinerator, sewage disposal system, jail or workhouse, the use, treatment, reclamation, carrying or disposal of solid wastes and refuse, or the discharge of any other function or power vested by this charter in the City of Alexandria.

(g)

To authorize and regulate the erection of party walls and fences, and to prescribe how the cost thereof shall be borne by the respective owners.

(h)

To grant aid to military companies, to bands maintained within the city, to hospitals, to associations for the advancement of agriculture or the mechanic arts, to scientific, literary, educational or benevolent organizations or institutions, to public libraries, provided such action is not prohibited by the Constitution of the Commonwealth, and that all such societies, organizations or institutions be located in or near the city and provided further that no appropriation for any such purposes shall be made, nor aid be otherwise granted through exemption from charge for use of water or light facilities or otherwise either with or without charge, beyond the city limits, unless two-thirds of the council vote therefor.

(i)

To provide for aid in the support or maintenance of public free schools.

(j)

To determine the value and to levy and collect, after January one of each year, a personal property tax on motor vehicles, boats, and trailers for which Alexandria is the situs for personal property taxation and which are first registered by the present owner after January one. In the case of such motor vehicles, boats, and trailers which are first registered after January one of each year, the city shall have the power to:

(1)

Establish the date or dates in addition to and after January one of each year, upon which such motor vehicles, boats, and trailers shall be returned and valued for taxation.

(2)

Establish the methods by which such tax shall be prorated and computed.

(3)

Establish the procedures for filing returns and ascertaining the dates of purchases, exchanges, and first registration for all persons concerned, including both taxpayers and dealers in automobiles, boats, and trailers.

(4)

Establish the methods by which a return or returns previously submitted by the owner shall be amended to reflect, on a prorated basis, the purchase or exchange of motor vehicles, boats, or trailers after January one of each year.

(k)

In the event the city adopts an ordinance creating a service district under section 15.1-18.3 of the Code of Virginia to provide transportation services or public parking, it shall create a board or other body, pursuant to section 15.1-18.2(b) (6.1), whose makeup and responsibilities with respect to the district shall be set out in the ordinance. (Acts 1968, ch. 510, § 1; Acts 1970, ch. 492; Acts, 1971, Ex. Sess., ch. 166, § 1; Acts 1977, ch. 122; Acts 1984, ch. 486, § 1; Acts 1989, ch. 536, § 1)