2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 6 - Autonomous Municipalities (§§ 4001 — 4990-4990j) › Chapter 201 - Preliminary Provisions (§§ 4001 — 4008) › § 4001 - Definitions

For the purposes of this subtitle, the following terms and phrases shall have the meanings stated below:
(a) Public agency.— Shall mean any department, bureau, administration, office, commission, board, examining board, body, program, authority, entity, public corporation and its subsidiaries, instrumentality and institution of the Executive Branch of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including the Governor’s Office.
(b) Mayor.— Shall mean the municipal government’s Chief Executive.
(c) Fiscal year.— Shall mean every period of twelve (12) consecutive months between the first day of the month of July of each calendar year and the thirtieth day of June of the following calendar year.
(d) Legislature.— Shall mean the body that has legislative functions on municipal matters, which is duly constituted and officially denominated by this subtitle as the “Municipal Legislature”.
(e) Appropriation.— Shall mean any sum of money authorized by the Municipal Legislature, the Legislature or the federal government to carry out a specific activity or to achieve certain objectives.
(f) Budget appropriation.— Shall mean the funds appropriated to municipal accounts, which proceed from real and personal property taxes, revenues and sales of goods and services, municipal licenses, fines and costs for infractions to ordinances, interest on investments, fees and excises imposed by ordinances, contributions and compensations from the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its instrumentalities, legislative appropriations for operating expenses and to attend to the general obligations of the municipality that are included in the general expense budget each year, as well as any other revenues that the municipality should collect or receive by law and any other revenue legally received by the municipality to cover its operating expenses and general obligations.
(g) Government Bank.— Shall mean the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico created by §§ 551 et seq. of Title 7.
(h) Center.— Shall mean the Municipal Income Collection Center.
(i) Commission.— Shall mean the Commission to Ventilate Municipal Complaints.
(j) Commissioner.— Shall mean the official of the highest rank and hierarchy in the Office of the Commissioner of Municipal Affairs of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(k) Commonwealth Election Commission.— Shall mean the body which is mainly responsible for the planning, organizing, structuring, directing and supervising of all the electoral proceedings in Puerto Rico, as it was created by Act No. 4 of December 20, 1977, known as “Puerto Rico Electoral Act”.
(l) Contingency contracts.— Shall mean those that provide for an obligation depending on the revenues generated as a result of the execution of contracts, including those that provide for a fixed rental rate or on the volume of sales, and any type of financial transaction which represents a fair and just return on investment for the municipality and whose compensation depends [on] the revenue thus generated.
(m) Nonprofit entity.— Shall mean any society, association, organization, corporation, foundation, company, institution or group of persons, constituted pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and registered at the Department of State, which is non partisan and is devoted substantially or fully to the direct purveying of educational, charitable, health or social services, recreational, cultural, or for public ends or services, that operates without any lucrative purpose, and renders its services free of charge, at cost or less than their real cost.
(n) Employee.— Shall mean any person who holds a position and job in the municipal government who is not vested with part of the sovereignty of the municipal government, and comprises regular, irregular, confidential employees, transitory appointments, and those in probatory periods.
(o) Facility.— Shall mean any construction, structure, building, establishment, location, installation, plant, field, center and any other, including its annexes and the premises on which it is located, or where it is constructed, raised, built, reconstructed, repaired, refurbished, maintained, operated, leased, in usufruct or use by the municipality, for any end or public utility duly authorized by this subtitle, and any other of a like or similar nature to the above, which represents an endowment use for a private or public purpose.
(p) Fund.— Shall mean every accounting unit where an amount of money or any other fiscal resource is consigned with the purpose of conducting a specific activity or achiev[ing] certain objectives in accordance with the laws, regulations, ordinances, resolutions, restrictions, or special limitations, and which constitute[s] an independent fiscal and accounting entity, including, without it being considered as a limitation, the accounts created to stabilize the yield of authorized bond issues and federal grants.
(q) Municipal official.— Shall mean any person who holds an elective public office at a municipal level, the Secretary of the Legislature, and the directors of the administrative units of the Municipal Executive Branch.
(r) Central Government.— Shall mean the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its public agencies, instrumentalities and political subdivisions, excluding the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch.
(s) Federal government.— Shall mean the Government of the United States of America and any of its agencies, departments, offices, administrations, bureaus, commissions, boards, bodies, programs, public corporations, subsidiaries, instrumentalities and political subdivisions.
(t) Bidding Board.— Shall mean the Board that has the main responsibility of adjudicating the bids for the purchase of goods and services of the municipality, and the leasing contracts of real and personal property, and non-professional services of the municipality.
(u) Municipality or Autonomous municipality.— Shall mean a geographic demarcation with all its wards, which has a specific name and is governed by a local government composed of a Legislative Power and an Executive Power.
(v) Obligation.— Shall mean any valid legally-contracted commitment which is represented by a purchase order, contract or similar document, which is pending payment, duly signed and authorized by the officials who are competent to encumber the appropriations and which is or can become an exigible debt.
(w) Ordinance.— Shall mean all duly-approved legislation of the municipal jurisdiction, whose content is of a general or specific nature and has indefinite effectiveness.
(x) Fiscal organization.— Shall mean the group of municipal units that are related to or intervene with the processing, control and accounting of municipal funds and property.
(y) Compulsory Training and Continuing Education Program.— Shall mean the courses of a compulsory nature for directors of administrative units to be designed by the Office of the Commissioner of Municipal Affairs.
(z) Municipal property.— Shall mean any real or personal property belonging to, or of value to the municipality, acquired by purchase, gift, barter, transfer, assignment or any other legal means.
(aa) Regulations.— Shall mean any norm, or group of norms of general or specific application, that execute or interpret public policy or the law, or which regulate the requirements of the administrative procedures, systems or practices of the municipality or a public agency.
(bb) Resolution.— Shall mean any municipal jurisdiction legislation which shall lose its effectiveness when its purpose ends, and any measure, provision or order which governs the internal operations of the Municipal Legislature.
(cc) Construction excise tax.— Shall mean that tax imposed by the municipalities through a municipal ordinance approved by two-thirds of the votes for this purpose, which rests on the right to carry out a construction activity and/or construction work within the territorial limits of the municipality. This tax shall be considered as an act that is separate and distinct from an object or activity or any item of the object or activity, that in no way deprives or limits the power of the municipalities to impose taxes, excise taxes, duties, license, assessments, rates and tariffs. The municipality’s imposition of construction excise taxes shall also constitute a separate and distinct act from any tax imposed by the State, therefore both taxing acts shall be compatible.
(dd) Construction activity.— Shall mean the act or activity of constructing, reconstructing, extending, repairing, demolishing, removing, transferring or relocating any building, works, structure, house or construction of a similar fixed and permanent nature, public or private, performed within the territorial limits of a municipality and for which a construction permit issued by the Permit Management Office or by an autonomous municipality having such authority may or may not be required. It shall also mean the paving or repaving, construction or reconstruction of parking lots, bridges, streets, walkways, roads, sidewalks and curbs, in either public or private property within the territorial limits of a municipality and in which any compactable, aggregate or bituminous material occurs, which creates or allows for the construction of a uniform surface for pedestrian or vehicular traffic. It includes any excavation works performed for the installation of any type of piping or cabling of any nature which requires the digging of holes or ditches through which the piping or cabling shall be installed within the territorial limits of a municipality.
Works performed for administrative purposes by an agency of the Central Government or its instrumentalities, a public corporation, a municipality or a federal government agency are exempted from the payment of construction excise taxes. However, this exemption does not apply to construction works performed by a natural or juridical private person acting on behalf or in representation of, or by contract or subcontract executed with an agency or instrumentality of the Central or Municipal Government. Neither does said exemption apply in the case of construction works performed by a natural or juridical private person acting on behalf or in representation of, or by contract or subcontract executed with an agency of the federal government when so allowed by the applicable federal laws or regulations.
(ee) Taxpayer.— Shall mean a natural or juridical person who is bound to pay the construction activity excise tax when:
(1) He/she is the owner of the work and personally perform the administrative duties and the physical an intellectual activities inherent to the construction activity.
(2) He/she is contracted to perform the duties described in clause (1) of this subsection, for the benefit of the work’s owner, whether this is a private person or a government entity. The excise tax shall be part of the work’s cost.
(ff) Emergency.— Shall mean a situation, event or combination of circumstances that cause unexpected and unforeseen public needs and that require immediate action by the municipal government, due to danger to the lives, health or safety of the citizens, or to the risk of suspending or affecting public services or municipal property, and when the ordinary procedure for the timely purchase and acquisition of goods and services is not possible, due to the urgency of the action that needs to be taken. The emergency may be caused by an act of God or force majeure, such as a natural disaster, a catastrophic accident, or any other situation or event which, due to its unexpected and unforeseen occurrence, and its impact and magnitude, places the lives, health, safety, tranquility or wellbeing of the citizens in imminent danger, or noticeably affects the municipal community services, projects or public purpose programs.
(gg) Municipal easement.— Shall mean the right acknowledged to the municipalities to impose the payment of a license or permit on private entities for the use of air, land and underground easement areas, within the municipal jurisdiction and located on municipal public roads.
(hh) Access easement.— Shall mean all areas over, under or above streets, curbs, sidewalks, ditches, bridges, walkways, parking areas or entrances at present and future property or to become the property of the municipality and acquired, established, specialized or destined for purposes of utility services or telecommunications facilities.
(ii) Thoroughfare.— Shall mean all roads, streets, alleys, bridges, pavement and grounds, residential roads, connector roads, arterial roads, easements or other access easement within the municipal territory, but under the jurisdiction and direction of a government entity other than the municipality.
(jj) Municipal venture.— Shall mean a for profit municipal instrumentality or corporate entity, whose intention is to create businesses to promote new businesses, increase municipal funds, or administer franchises.
(kk) Franchise.— Shall mean an express contract or agreement between two or more parties whereby a franchisee or franchise holder is granted the right to participate in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan or system signed by the franchise owner, associated with the trademark of the business of the franchise owner, the brand of the service, its trade name, logo, publicity, procedures manual, menu, uniformity of materials and colors or other commercial symbols designated to the owner of the franchise and/or its affiliates.
(ll) Municipal ventures and/or franchise employee.— Shall mean the employees of municipal ventures and/or franchises who are appointed without being subject to §§ 4001 et seq. of this title, better known as the “Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Autonomous Municipalities Act”, and §§ 1461 et seq. of Title 3, better known as the “Public Service Human Resources Administration Act”.
—Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 1.003; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 2; Sept. 6, 1996, No. 199, § 1; Dec. 24, 1998, No. 323, § 1; Dec. 31, 1998, No. 343, § 1; Sept. 6, 2000, No. 379, § 1; Sept. 7, 2004, No. 258, § 2; Aug. 11, 2011, No. 181, § 1.
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