2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 6 - Autonomous Municipalities (§§ 4001 — 4990-4990j) › Chapter 205 - Executive Power; Mayor (§§ 4101 — 4112) › § 4109 - Powers, duties and general functions

The mayor shall be the highest authority of the executive branch of the municipal government, and as such, is charged with the direction, administration, and supervision of the operations of the municipality. The mayor shall have the duties and shall exercise the powers and functions, as follows:
(a) Organize, direct, and supervise all administrative functions of the municipality.
(b) Coordinate all municipal services in order to ensure the complete and adequate rendering thereof within the territorial limits of the municipality, and ensure that the population has equal access to all of the minimum public services under the competence or responsibility of the municipality.
(c) Promulgate and publish municipal rules and regulations.
(d) Comply with and enforce ordinances, resolutions, regulations, and duly-approved municipal statutes.
(e) Represent the municipality in juridical or extra-juridical actions brought by or against the municipality, appear before any Court of Justice, forum or public agency of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Government of the United States of America, and support all kinds of rights, actions and procedures. The mayor may not acquiesce to, or fail to answer any suit in any procedure or action in which the municipality is a party, without the prior consent of the absolute majority of the members of the municipal legislature. The mayor shall submit to the consideration of the municipal legislature any transaction offer that entails any type of financial disbursement over twenty five thousand dollars ($25,000), prior to submitting said transaction offer to the consideration of the juridical forum.
(f) Represent the municipality in any official, community civic, cultural, or sports activity of any nature, or in any other activity, event, or act of public interest within and outside of Puerto Rico.
(g) Administer the real property and chattels of the municipality in accordance with the applicable provisions of law, ordinances and regulations, as well as the assets in the public domain with whose custody he/she is charged by law.
(h) Perform all useful or convenient actions pursuant to law needed to execute the faculties and functions of the municipality with regard to public works and services of all types and nature.
(i) Handle everything related to the contracting of municipal borrowings with the consent of the Municipal Legislature, pursuant to this subtitle.
(j) Draw up the draft of the resolution of the general budget of operating expenses of the municipality, as provided in this subtitle.
(k) Administer the general expenses budget of the Executive Branch and make the credit transfers between its accounts, with the exception of those accounts created for paying for personal services. The authorized transfers shall not be employed to effect the payment of interest, amortization and settlement of the public debt, other expenses or statutory obligations, the payment of judicial sentences, payments to cover the deficits of the previous year, nor any expenses to which the municipality is legally bound under any contracts it has executed.
(l) Give immediate notice to the competent authorities on any irregularity, deficiency, or infraction of the laws, ordinances, resolutions and regulations that apply to the municipality, adopt those measures, and impose such sanctions as are provided, on the officials or employees who incur them, or whose actions, or omissions cause such irregularities, deficiencies or infractions.
(m) Design, formulate, and apply a personnel administration system for the municipality, according to the provisions of this subtitle, and the regulations adopted by virtue thereof, and promulgate the rules which municipal officials and employees shall be subject to in the performance of their duties and obligations.
(n) The mayor shall foster, through the Office of Human Resources, the development of programs geared to maintain a working environment which will contribute to the satisfaction, motivation and participation of municipal employees and officials. The Office of the Commissioner of Municipal Affairs shall promulgate by regulations, the provisions needed to implement the development of these programs.
(o) Appoint all officials and employees and dismiss them from their positions when necessary for the good of the service, for just cause and in accordance with the procedure established in this subtitle.
(p) Appoint interim substitutes for the officials who direct administrative units in case of their temporary or transitional absence. Those persons designated to provisionally substitute for these officials may be employees of the administrative unit in which the absence occurs.
(q) Appoint members of the Bidding Board pursuant to the provisions of this subtitle.
(r) Contract professional, technical and consulting services that are necessary, convenient or useful for the performance of his powers, duties and functions and for the affairs and activities of municipal competence or jurisdiction. This power includes the granting of contracts contingent to the investigation, counseling and preparation of documents in the determination and collection of municipal licenses, excise taxes, taxes, duties and other debts, provided said debts are declared delinquent, uncollectible or if they are the product of the identification of tax evaders and the official determination of the debt is made by the Finance Director. Any communication directed to the debtor must be signed by the Finance Director, his representative or his legal advisor and the fees to be paid shall not exceed ten percent (10%) of the total amount due determined and collected without including the legal services which, in a separate contract, are necessary to execute, and for which fees over ten percent (10%) of the amount determined and collected shall not be paid. The validity of the contracts executed prior to the approval of this act is hereby acknowledged, but their prospective applications shall be in accordance to the provisions set forth herein. Likewise, the mayor is hereby authorized to formalize and award professional, technical and consulting services contracts in a contingent manner through the Requests for Proposals (RFP) process and those defined in this subtitle to carry out activities for which the municipal finance department does not have the expertise or the knowledge, or the technical resources. It is also provided that the fees to be paid shall not exceed ten percent (10%) of the total amount collected. The powers, duties and functions established in this subsection shall not constitute a non-permissible delegation of the authority of the Finance Director, nor a duplication of services.
(s) Supervise, administer, and authorize all disbursements of funds received by the municipality, pursuant to the provisions of this subtitle, except with regard to the budget appropriation corresponding to the municipal legislature.
(t) Adjudicate works and improvements that do not require bidding, taking into consideration the recommendations of the corresponding municipal officials; direct and cause the supplies, materials, equipment, printing services, and non-professional contracted services required by any administrative unit and dependency of the municipal government to be provided; and adopt the specifications for the purchase of supplies, materials and equipment, provide for their inspection and examination, and otherwise compel that said specifications be complied with. All these purchases shall be made pursuant to the rules and regulations promulgated by virtue of the provisions of this subtitle.
(u) Promulgate states of emergency through executive order to such effects, in which the facts that provoke the emergency are stated, as well as the measures that shall be taken to acquire and have available the resources that are necessary, immediate and essential for the inhabitants when needed due to any emergency as defined in subsection (ff) of § 4001 of this title. When the Governor of Puerto Rico issues a proclamation declaring a state of emergency for these same reasons, on the same date, and covering his/her municipality’s jurisdiction, the mayor shall be relieved of issuing his/her own proclamation, and the Governor’s proclamation shall prevail with full effect as if it had been promulgated by the mayor.
(v) Adopt, by regulations, those norms and procedures concerning the payment of per diems; official travel and entertainment expenses of municipal officials and employees, in and outside of Puerto Rico.
(w) Keep an updated registry of the real property shares and real rights of the municipality.
(x) Delegate whatever powers, functions and duties that are conferred by this subtitle, in writing, to any official or employee of the municipal Executive Branch, except the power to approve, adopt and promulgate rules and regulations.
(y) Exercise all powers, functions and duties that are expressly delegated to him/her by any law or municipal ordinance or resolution, and those that are necessary and incidental for the proper performance of his/her office.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 3.009; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 10; Aug. 10, 1995, No. 151, § 1; Apr. 28, 1996, No. 26, § 1; Jan. 10, 1999, No. 30, § 1; Jan. 10, 1999, No. 35, § 1; Sept. 7, 2004, No. 258, § 13.