Merced Municipal Code Art. I Incorporation and Succession

The City of Merced shall continue to be a municipal corporation under the name and possessed of all the property and interests of which it is possessed at the time this Charter takes effect. The boundaries of the city shall be the boundaries as established at the time this Charter takes effect, or as such boundaries may be changed thereafter in the manner authorized by law.

The City of Merced, as successor in interest of the municipal corporation of the same name, heretofore created and existing, shall own, possess, control, and in every way succeed to and become the owner of all rights and of all property of every kind and nature owned, possessed or controlled by said existing municipal corporation, and shall be subject to all the debts, obligations and liabilities of said existing corporation.

All lawful ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations, or portions thereof, in force at the time this Charter takes effect, and not in conflict or inconsistent therewith, are hereby continued in force until the same shall have been dully repealed, amended, changed or superseded by proper authority.

The present officers and employees shall continue without interruption to perform the duties of their respective offices and employments upon the same conditions and for the compensation provided by the existing ordinances, resolutions, rules or laws, until the election or appointment and qualification of their successors under this Charter. The terms of office of elective officers whose offices are made appointive under this Charter shall expire upon appointment of their successors, respectively.

All contracts entered into by the city or for its benefit prior to the effective date of this Charter, shall continue in full force and effect. Public improvements for which proceedings have been instituted under laws existing at the time this Charter takes effect, in the discretion of the city council, may be carried to completion as nearly as practicable in accordance with the provisions of such existing laws or may be continued or perfected under this Charter.

No action or proceeding, civil or criminal, pending at the time when this Charter takes effect, brought by or against the city or any officer, office, department or agency thereof, shall be affected or abated by the adoption of this Charter or by anything herein contained, but all such actions or proceedings may be continued notwithstanding that functions, powers and duties of any officer, office, department or agency party thereto, by or under this Charter, may be assigned or transferred to another officer, office, department or agency, but in that event the same may be prosecuted or defended by the head of the office, department or agency to which such functions, powers and duties have been assigned or transferred by or under this Charter.

For the purpose of nominating and electing members of the city council and the members of the board of education this Charter shall take effect from the time of its approval by the legislature. For all other purposes, it shall take effect on the Tuesday next succeeding the date of the election of the first city council at eight o'clock P.M.