Section 3: Responsibilities

The mayor is responsible, under the authority of the representative of the State in the department: 1° For the publication and enforcement of laws and regulations; 2° For the enforcement of general safety measures; 3° For the special functions assigned to him by the laws.

The mayor issues bylaws to: 1° Order local measures on objects entrusted by the laws to his vigilance and authority; 2° Reissue police laws and regulations and remind citizens of their observance.

The mayor’s decisions and the acts of publication and notification are entered in date order in a register kept under conditions defined by decree in the Conseil d’Etat. .

The mayor, or whoever replaces him, is required to legalise any signature affixed in his presence by one of his constituents known to him, or accompanied by two known witnesses. Handwritten signatures given by municipal magistrates in the exercise of their administrative functions are valid in all circumstances without being legalized by the representative of the State in the department if they are accompanied by the seal of the town…

In accordance with 1° of article 16 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the mayor and deputy mayors have the status of judicial police officers.

The mayor and deputy mayors are civil registrars.

The special deputy mentioned in article L. 2122-3 performs the duties of a civil registrar and may be responsible for enforcing police laws and regulations in the part of the commune for which he has been appointed. He has no other powers.

In the event that the mayor, as an agent of the State, refuses or neglects to perform any of the acts required of him by law, the representative of the State in the department may, after having requested him to do so, perform them ex officio by himself or by a special delegate.

After the general renewal of the municipal councils, the representative of the State in the department and the public prosecutor(s) with territorial jurisdiction receive the mayors of the department in order to present to them the attributions that the latter exercise on behalf of the State and as judicial police and civil status officers. From the date of their appointment, mayors and deputy mayors are issued with a tricolour identity…