The 1805 city charter authorized the Mayor to "license all taverns and boarding houses, hackney coaches, or other carriages for the conveyance of persons for hire, and all carts and drays for the carriage of goods, or other articles for hire, subject to such restrictions as the said mayor and city council shall by ordinance direct." Beginning in 1814 the City Council implemented regulations setting forth the obligations of licensees and requiring that they subscribe "jointly and severally with another solvent person to the satisfaction of the Mayor," security bonds for the proper execution of those obligations. The amount of the bond varied according to the purpose or occupation being licensed.

Section 7 of the 1805 city charter required that the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and other subordinate officers take an oath to perform the duties of their positions to the best of their knowledge before assuming those offices. The Mayor was to take his oath before the Governor and the others before the Mayor. This requirement was modified in the 1852 charter which prescribed the oath of office required by the Louisiana constitution as the oath for city officials. The Mayor's oath was to be taken before a Justice of the Peace while the others continued to take theirs before the Mayor.

The charter of the city of New Orleans as passed by the Louisiana legislature in 1805 named the Mayor and the Recorders of the city as Justices of the Peace. Justices of the Peace were empowered, also by act of the state legislature passed in 1805, to hear and examine complaints of breach of peace and to take the bond of any party charged with such a breach. Justices were also empowered in certain cases to turn offenders over to the custody of the sheriff to hold until the due course of law could be followed. As such the Mayor acted as a hearing officer, making preliminary determinations in criminal matters that were later to be decided by the Criminal Court.

On March 16, 1830, the Louisiana Legislature passed an act "to prevent free persons of color from entering into this state." Section 12 of this act required "all free negroes, griffs and mulattoes of the first degree" who had entered the state after the adoption of the Constitution of 1812 and before January 1, 1825 to enroll themselves with the office of the Parish Judge of their resident parish or with the office of the Mayor of the City of New Orleans. The rolls kept by these offices were to include the person's "age, sex, colour, trade or calling, place of nativity and the time of their arrival in the State." A fee of fifty cents was charged at the time of enrollment.

In November, 1852, by ordinance #420, the Common Council authorized the Mayor to take care of, "at the expense of the city, all such orphan children and foundlings found within the city, as may be in destitute circumstances--at the lowest possible price, until such time as said children can be otherwise provided for." This law remained in effect until its repeal in 1888.