All municipalities have the following general powers, subject to other provisions of law:

(1) to establish and prescribe a salary for an elected or appointed municipal official or employee;

(2) to combine two or more appointive or administrative offices;

(3) to establish and prescribe the functions of a municipal department, office, or agency;

(4) to require periodic and special reports from a municipal department to be submitted through the mayor;

(5) to investigate an affair of the municipality and make inquiries into the conduct of a municipal department;

(6) to levy a tax or special assessment, and impose a lien for its enforcement;

(7) to enforce an ordinance and to prescribe a penalty for violation of an ordinance;

(8) to acquire, manage, control, use, and dispose of real and personal property, whether the property is situated inside or outside the municipal boundaries; this power includes the power of a borough to expend, for any purpose authorized by law, money received from the disposal of land in a service area established under AS 29.35.450;

(9) to expend money for a community purpose, facility, or service for the good of the municipality to the extent the municipality is otherwise authorized by law to exercise the power necessary to accomplish the purpose or provide the facility or service;

(10) to regulate the operation and use of a municipal right-of-way, facility, or service;

(11) to borrow money and issue evidences of indebtedness;

(12) to acquire membership in an organization that promotes legislation for the good of the municipality;

(13) to enter into an agreement, including an agreement for cooperative or joint administration of any function or power with a municipality, the state, or the United States;

(14) to sue and be sued;

(15) to provide facilities or services for the confinement and care of prisoners and enter into agreements with the state, another municipality, or any person relating to the confinement and care of prisoners;

(16) to receive grants from and contract with the Department of Public Safety under AS 18.65.670;

(17) to provide by ordinance for the creation, recording, and notice of a lien on real or personal property to secure payment of past due utility fees, costs incurred by the municipality in the abatement of an unsafe or dangerous building, and other fees and charges provided for by ordinance; except as otherwise provided by state law, when recorded, a municipal lien under this paragraph has priority over all other liens except

(A) liens for property taxes, special assessments, and sales and use taxes;

(B) liens that were perfected before the recording of the lien under this paragraph;

(C) liens that, under state law, are prior, paramount, and superior to all other liens; and

(D) mechanics' and materialmen's liens for which claims of lien under AS 34.35.070 or notices of right to lien under AS 34.35.064 have been recorded before the recording of the lien under this paragraph.