Municipal Code??? Can anyone help???

[Manda1219]

I have nowhere to turn right now! So I figured I'd try my fellow DISers...Someone has to know something!
Anyway-for a Paralegal Studies class we have to look up our cities municipal code. We were told to go to our local library to do so. Well...today being the only day I had time to go...I went!
I went to the librarian who informed me that they did not have it on file. She proceeded to check the files of every other library on Staten Island, and none of them have it...
Does anyone know where else I could find this information? I need it by thursday, and tomorrow between 3-5 will be the only time I can go! HELP!!!

 

[Dan Murphy]

What city?

 

[vickyBaby]

Is there a municipal building/town hall you can go to? They should be able to provide you with this information? How about at the town's website?

 

[Manda1219]

Oops-sorry Dan, its Staten Island.
I've tried searches on Staten Island Municipal Code but I haven't found anything helpful yet...
I also went onto Lexis-Nexis, but it's not loading, and i'm not a subscriber, so they might not help anyways.

 

[mcnuss]

Would Staten Island's be the same as the city of New York? Forgive my ignorance on what constitutes the city but if SI is one of the boroughs then you need this:

http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/nyc.html

FYI - when in doubt, always call the closest law school. They will always know where to find local codes.

 

[Manda1219]

Yeah, it is New York City, which is what I thought. But when I asked my teacher, she said she wanted Staten Island specifically. I'm so confused...I'll definatly check out your link though, thanks!

 

[DoeWDW]

Manda, this is a tough one! I'm not having much luck!

Hope you can find it though!

 

[Manda1219]

I appreciate everyones help sooo much! Unfortunatly, I still haven't found a place that I can find a hard copy of the code...I'll keep looking and let you know if/when I find it!
Thanks everyone!!!

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Ok I never thought I would be using this information but I just started working part-time at the Library, the last few weeks they put me in the reference dept. and we have cities municipal codes and State codes. Did your librarian check in reference, Libraries often have a separate section for reference books.

 

[seashoreCM]

What is the point of the assignment?

If the point was leatning how to use a municipal code I would have felt free to substitute the municipal code of a different city if I found that first, and not tell anybody.

Alternatively, if specific ordinances of Staten Island were to be researched, I would go directly to the instructor explain the difficulty of finding the municipal code of Staten Island, and ask for help.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

One grade school in-class assignment I hads was finding information about the Civil War battle of Harper's Ferry using the Readers Guide to Periodical Literaure (you could think of that as a bound version of a small subset of the internet, the latter did not exist back then). I loooked at a few issues of the Reader;'s Gude, found nothing about the subject, but found a few articles about modern Harper's Ferry. I cited those references and also some general items about the Civil War, handed int he project as finished. I did raise myh hand and mention to the teacher I had difficulty finding the items asked for but did not wait for an answer but instead went ahead and dit the projecft my way. Many of the other students gave up empty handed. It was if the teacher was thinking of a Google search "civil war" and "harpers ferry" and "battle" and I did a Google search for "civil war" or "harpers ferry" or "battle".

The purpose of the assignment was to learn how to use the Readers Guide only. We did not go so far as to find the magazine articles themselves as we did not have access to the magazines let alone microfilms which also did not exist back then.

 

[kylara]

Try contacting the Borough President since he seems to have some control over zoning which is often controlled by Municipal code. If he has to control it, he should have a copy of the code.

Borough President
James P. Molinaro

Address
Office of the Borough President
Borough Hall
10 Richmond Terrace
Staten Island, NY 10301
Office Phone
(718) 816-2000


or try the community boards listed on this site to see if they have copies.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/cau/html/cb/cb_statenisland.shtml

Good luck.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Anything in that link I sent you earlier?

 

[Manda1219]

Couldn't find anything Dan! But thanks!!!
I contacted the BP by e-mail and I'm going to call the office when I get home tomorrow.
The assignment is basically to get familiar with looking at the codes. However, she wants specific information, such as how the code is organized, topics it includes, weather or not it has an index and table of contents. She also wants us to photo copy an ordinance. Apparantly, every town/cities municipal code is organized differently. I guess they have them available in libraries in Jersey (thats where I go to school) but she wants it from our home town. Hopefully the borough president can help!!
Thanks again everyone!

Should have stated before-Dan your link actually did have a lot of info, just not ALL the info I need...LOL I really do appreciate it though!

 

[Manda1219]

Ok, so the woman from the BP's office called me...she didn't know what a municipal code was and kept trying to give me a number off the tax forms....

 

[Snow White]

See if there is a Community Development office - part of City Government/City hall...I work in that department here (CD) and we handle all the City Codes/Municipal Codes etc.

 

[robsmom]

When I read you topic yesterday, I assumed you were doing you tax return and needed the 4 digit "municipal code" to finish it!! I can undestand where the bp lady is coming from....that time of year she probably gets a lot of calls for it.

 

[Manda1219]

Originally posted by robsmom
When I read you topic yesterday, I assumed you were doing you tax return and needed the 4 digit "municipal code" to finish it!! I can undestand where the bp lady is coming from....that time of year she probably gets a lot of calls for it.

Ahhh, I was completely unaware of this. I will call today to speak with her live!

And Snow White, thanks for the hint, I will definatly check that out!!!
Thanks so much for the help!

 

[HoneyPooh]

Hi! My best friend is a Township Clerk and I just phoned her to ask. She said the four digit code consists of the 1st two digits being the County etc and the second two digits designate the the Townhip, borough etc within the county. She said that the City Hall, Township Hall or Tax office of the area you want should have copies of the code for review. You just need to get the correct four digits to find what you need. They may call it the County Code but once you look up the last two digits it becomes the municipal code (for the municipality you are interested in). I'm not sure I made sense....did I?

 

[mcnuss]

She also wants us to photo copy an ordinance. Apparantly, every town/cities municipal code is organized differently. I guess they have them available in libraries in Jersey (thats where I go to school) but she wants it from our home town.

Is it possible that this instructor does not understand that Staten Island is part of the city of New York?

Did you get your assignment done in time?