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1999 SESSION

993751753
SENATE BILL NO. 860
Offered January 13, 1999
A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 2 and 11 as amended, § 49, and § 88 as amended, of Chapter 34 of the Acts of Assembly of 1918, which provided a charter for the City of Norfolk, relating to powers of the city council and appointed officers.
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Patron-- Walker
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Referred to Committee on Local Government
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 2 and 11 as amended, § 49, and § 88 as amended, of Chapter 34 of the Acts of Assembly of 1918 are amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 2. Power of the city.--In addition to the powers mentioned in the preceding section, the said city shall have power:

(1) To raise annually by taxes and assessments in said city such sums of money as the council hereinafter provided for shall deem necessary for the purposes of said city, and in such manner as said council shall deem expedient, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of this State and of the United States; provided, however, that it shall impose no tax on the bonds of this city.

(2) To impose special or local assessments for local improvements and enforce payment thereof, subject, however, to such limitations prescribed by the Constitution of Virginia as may be in force at the time of the imposition of such special or local assessments.

(3) Subject to the provisions of the Constitution of Virginia and of section eighty-six of this charter, to contract debts, borrow money and make and issue evidence of indebtedness.

(4) To expend the money of the city for all lawful purposes.

(5) To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation or otherwise, property, real or personal, or any estate or interest therein within or without the city or State and for any of the purposes of the city; and to hold, improve, sell, lease, mortgage, pledge or otherwise dispose of the same or any part thereof.

(5 ½) To acquire, by purchase, exchange, gift, lease, condemnation or otherwise, real property in the city which is blighted, deteriorated, deteriorating, a blighting influence on the neighborhood, or in nonconformance with the city's zoning code or master land use plan; to clear, demolish or rehabilitate any such real property; and to dispose of any such real property by lease or sale to any person. The exercise of any of the powers granted in this subsection shall be in accordance with the procedures set forth in Virginia Code § 36-49.1:1 and is hereby declared to be a public purpose and public use.

(6) To acquire, in any lawful manner, for the purpose of encouraging commerce and manufacture, lands within and without the city not exceeding at any one time five thousand acres in the aggregate, and from time to time to sell or lease the same or any part thereof for industrial or commercial uses and purposes.

(7) To make and maintain public improvements of all kinds, including municipal and other public buildings, armories, markets and all buildings and structures necessary or appropriate for the use of the departments of fire and police; and to acquire by condemnation or otherwise all lands, riparian and other rights and easements necessary for such improvements, or any of them.

(8) To furnish all local public service; to purchase, hire, construct, own, maintain and operate, or lease local public utilities, to acquire by condemnation or otherwise, within or without the corporate limits, land and property necessary for any such purposes.

(9) To acquire, in any lawful manner, in any county of the State, or without the State, such water, lands and lands under water as the council of said city may deem necessary for the purpose of providing an adequate water supply for said city and of piping or conducting the same; to lay all necessary mains; to erect and maintain all necessary dams, pumping stations and other works in connection therewith; to make reasonable rules and regulations for promoting the purity of its said water supply and for protecting the same from pollution; and for this purpose to exercise full police powers and sanitary patrol over all lands comprised within the limits of the watershed tributary to any such water supply wherever such lands may be located in this State; to impose and enforce adequate penalties for the violation of any such rules and regulations; and to prevent by injunction any pollution or threatened pollution of such water supply and any and all acts likely to impair the purity thereof; and for the purpose of acquiring lands or material for any such use to exercise within the State all powers of eminent domain possessed by railroad corporations under the laws of this State; provided that the lands and lands under water which may be held in this State by said city for such purpose shall not exceed, in the aggregate, thirty thousand acres at any one time. For any of the purposes aforesaid, said city may, if the council shall so determine, acquire by condemnation, purchase or otherwise, any estate or interest in such lands or any of them, or any right or easement therein, or may acquire such lands or any of them in fee, reserving to the owner or owners thereof such rights or easements therein as may be prescribed in the ordinance providing for such condemnation or purchase. The said city may sell or supply to persons, firms or industries residing or located outside of the city limits any surplus of water it may have over and above the amount required to supply its own inhabitants.

(10) To establish, impose and enforce water rates and rates and charges for public utilities, or other service, products, or conveniences, operated, rendered or furnished by the city.

(10 1/2) To establish, in the manner hereinafter provided, adjacent to or near the lines of existing streets, on either or both sides thereof, building lines, and to provide that no new buildings shall thereafter be erected upon the property (hereinafter called the "interlying property") lying between said building lines and the street lines. Said building lines may be established for the whole or any part of a street (but not for less than one block or the distance between two cross streets), as the council may determine. Before any such lines shall be established, the council shall cause to be published, for at least ten days in some paper of general circulation in the city, a notice addressed generally, but without naming them, to the owners of the property on which building lines are proposed to be established, stating that it is proposed to establish building lines thereon and naming a day when a hearing will be had in respect thereof. After said hearing the council may proceed to establish such lines, and the ordinance establishing the same shall be recorded by the city clerk and indexed in the name of the street near which said building lines are to be established; and thereafter all persons shall be deemed to be affected with notice of the establishment of such lines, and no permits shall be granted for the construction of any building on the interlying property.

But the ordinance establishing said lines shall become null and void as against any owner of property objecting thereto, unless:

(a) When the interlying property shall be unoccupied by buildings, the city shall, within sixty days after the passage of the ordinance establishing said lines, purchase the same or institute condemnation proceedings for the acquisition thereof; or

(b) When the interlying property is occupied, in whole or in part, by buildings, the city shall, within sixty days after receipt of notice in writing that the said buildings have been removed from said interlying property (it being hereby made the duty of the said owner to give such notice), purchase said interlying property or institute condemnation proceedings for the acquisition thereof, and thereafter complete its acquisition of property in said proceedings.

The rights of the city shall not be prejudiced by any defect in the proceedings instituted under paragraph (a) and (b) hereof, resulting in their dismissal, if within thirty days after said dismissal new proceedings shall be instituted for the same purpose. Nothing herein contained shall be construed as limiting or abridging in any degree the power of eminent domain now possessed by the city under existing law.

(11) To establish, open, widen, extend, grade, improve, construct, maintain, light, sprinkle and clean, public highways, streets, alleys, boulevards and parkways, and to alter or close the same; to establish and maintain parks, playgrounds and other public grounds; to construct, maintain and operate bridges, viaducts, subways, tunnels, sewers and drains and to regulate the use of all such highways, parks, public grounds and works; to plant and maintain shade trees along the streets and upon such public grounds; to prevent the obstructing of such streets and highways, abolish and prevent grade crossings over the same by railroads; regulate the operation and speed of all cars and vehicles using the same, as well as the operation and speed of all engines, cars and trains on railroads within the city; to regulate the services to be rendered and rates to be charged by busses, motor cars, cabs and other vehicles for the carrying of passengers and by vehicles for the transfer of baggage; require all telephone and telegraph wires and all wires and cables carrying electricity to be placed in conduits under ground and prescribe rules and regulations for the construction and use of such conduits; and to do all other things whatsoever adapted to make said streets and highways safe, convenient and attractive.

(12) To construct and maintain, or aid in constructing and maintaining, public roads, boulevards, parkways and bridges beyond the limits of the city, in order to facilitate public travel to and from said city and its suburbs, and to and from said city and any property owned by said city and situated beyond the corporate limits thereof, and to acquire land necessary for such purpose by condemnation or otherwise.

(13) To establish, construct, maintain and operate public lands, public wharves and docks either within or without the city; to acquire by condemnation or otherwise all lands, riparian and other rights and easements necessary for the purposes aforesaid; to lay and collect reasonable duties or wharfage fees on vessels coming to or using said landings, wharves or docks; to regulate the manner of using other wharves and docks within the city and rates of wharfage to be paid by vessels using the same; to dredge or deepen the harbor or river or any branch or portion thereof; to prescribe and enforce reasonable rules and regulations for the protection and use of its said properties, whether within or without the city; and to impose and enforce adequate penalties for the violation of such rules and regulations.

(14) Subject to the provisions of the Constitution of Virginia and of §§ 100 to 106 of this charter, both inclusive, to grant franchises for public utilities.

(15) To collect and dispose of sewage, offal, ashes, garbage, carcasses of dead animals and other refuse, and to acquire and operate reduction or other plants for the utilization or destruction of such materials, or any of them; or to contract for and regulate the collection and disposal thereof.

(16) To compel the abatement and removal of all nuisances within the city or upon property owned by the city beyond its limits at the expense of the person or persons causing the same, or of the owner or occupant of the ground or premises whereon the same may be; to require all lands, lots and other premises within said city to be kept clean, sanitary and free from weeds, or to make them so at the expense of the owners or occupants thereof; to regulate or prevent slaughter houses or other noisome or offensive business within said city, the keeping of animals, poultry or other fowl therein, or the exercise of any dangerous or unwholesome business, trade or employment therein; to regulate the transportation of all articles through the streets of the city; to compel the abatement of smoke and dust, and prevent unnecessary noise therein; to regulate the location of stables and the manner in which they shall be kept and constructed, and generally to define, prohibit, abate, suppress and prevent all things detrimental to the health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the city.

(17) To inspect, test, measure and weigh any commodity or article of consumption or use within the city and to establish, regulate, license and inspect weights, meters, measures and scales.

(18) To extinguish and prevent fires and to compel citizens to render assistance to the fire department in case of need, and to establish, regulate and control a fire department or division; to regulate the size, materials and construction of buildings, fences and other structures hereafter erected in such manner as the public safety and convenience may require; to remove, or require to be removed, any building, structure or addition thereto which by reason of dilapidation, defect of structure or other causes may have become dangerous to life or property, or which may be erected contrary to law; to establish and designate from time to time fire limits, within which limits wooden buildings shall not be constructed, removed, added to or enlarged, and to direct that any or all future buildings within such limits shall be constructed of stone, natural or artificial, concrete, brick, iron or other fireproof material; provided, however, that by a vote of four-fifths of all the members of the council permission may be granted for storage sheds constructed on pile piers or wharves on the waterfront, the sides and roofs of which shall be covered with corrugated iron or other fireproof material.

(19) To provide for the care, support and maintenance of children and of sick, aged, insane or poor persons and paupers.

(20) To organize and administer public schools and libraries subject to the general laws establishing a standard of education for the State.

(21) To provide and maintain, either within or without the city, charitable, recreative, curative, corrective, detentive or penal institutions.

(22) To prevent persons having no visible means of support, paupers and persons who may be dangerous to the peace or safety of the city from coming to said city from without the same; and for this purpose to require any railroad company, the master of any ship or vessel or the owners of any conveyance bringing such person to the city, to take such person back to the place whence he was brought, or enter into bond with satisfactory security that such person shall not become a charge upon said city within one year from the date of his arrival; and also to expel therefrom any such person who has been in said city less than ninety days.

(23) To provide for the preservation of the general health of the inhabitants of said city, make regulations to secure the same, inspect all foods and foodstuffs and prevent the introduction and sale in said city of any article or thing intended for human consumption which is adulterated, impure or otherwise dangerous to health, and to condemn, seize and destroy or otherwise dispose of any such article or thing without liability to the owner thereof; prevent the introduction or spread of contagious or infectious diseases, and prevent and suppress diseases generally; to provide and regulate hospitals within or without the city limits and to enforce the removal of persons afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases to hospitals provided for them; to provide for the organization of a department or bureau of health, to have the powers of a board of health, for said city, with the authority necessary for the prompt and efficient performance of its duties, with power to invest any or all the officials or employees of such department of health with such powers as the police officers of the city have; to establish a quarantine ground within or without the city limits, and such quarantine regulations against infectious and contagious diseases as the said council may see fit, subject to the laws of the State and of the United States; to provide and keep records of vital statistics and compel the return of all births, deaths and other information necessary thereto.

(24) To acquire, by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation or otherwise, lands, either within or without the city, to be used, kept and improved as a place for the interment of the dead, and to make and enforce all necessary rules and regulations for the protection and use thereof, and generally regulate the burial and disposition of the dead.

(25) To exercise full police powers, and establish and maintain a department or division of police.

(26) To do all things whatsoever necessary or expedient for promoting or maintaining the general welfare, comfort, education, morals, peace, government, health, trade, commerce or industries of the city or its inhabitants.

(27) To make and enforce all ordinances, rules and regulations necessary or expedient for the purpose of carrying into effect the powers conferred by this charter or by any general law, and to provide and impose suitable penalties for the violation of such ordinances, rules and regulations, or any of them, by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both. The city may maintain a suit to restrain by injunction the violation of any ordinance, notwithstanding such ordinance may provide punishment for its violation.

The enumeration of particular powers in this charter shall not be deemed or held to be exclusive, but in addition to the powers enumerated herein, implied thereby, or appropriate to the exercise thereof, the said city shall have and may exercise all other powers which are now or may hereafter be possessed or enjoyed by cities under the Constitution and general laws of this State.

§ 11. Elections by council; when held, terms, etc.--Prior to the first day of December, 1918, and prior to the first day of December of every fourth year thereafter, the The council shall elect appoint a city manager, a city assessor, a city clerk, a city attorney, a city auditor and a high constable, each of whom shall serve for a term of four years from the first day of January next following the date of his election, and until his successor shall have been elected and qualified be appointed for an indefinite period and serve at the will of the council.

§ 49. Appointment, qualification, etc.--The city manager shall be the administrative head of the municipal government. He shall be chosen by the council without regard to his political beliefs, and solely upon the basis of his executive and administrative qualifications. The choice shall not be limited to inhabitants of the city or State, unless otherwise required by the Constitution of the State. The city manager shall receive such compensation as shall be provided by the council by ordinance. He shall be appointed for an indefinite period, and shall serve at the will of the council, provided, however, that he may not be removed within twelve months from the date on which he assumed his duties, except for incompetence, malfeasance, misfeasance or neglect of duty. In case of his removal within said period he may demand written charges and a public hearing thereon before the council prior to the date on which his final removal shall take effect; but the decision and action of the council on such hearing shall be final, and pending such hearing the council may suspend him from duty in the manner and for the term prescribed in section 11 of this charter. During the absence or disability of the city manager the council shall designate some properly qualified person to perform his duties.

§ 88 (a). Assessment and equalization of assessments of real estate.--The council of said city shall have the right and power, in lieu of any other method prescribed by law, to provide for the annual assessment and reassessment of real estate for taxation, and to that end may appoint in the manner and for the term prescribed in section 11 of this charter a single assessor to assess such real estate for taxation, may prescribe the duties and term of office of said assessor, may require that he shall give his entire time to the duties of his office, may remove him for cause, may fix his compensation, which shall be payable out of the local treasury, and may likewise provide for such technical and clerical assistance as may be necessary or advisable and for the payment of any other expenses that may be properly incident thereto. Such person so appointed shall be the city assessor and shall have such number of assistants as the council by ordinance may provide, such assistants to be nominated by him and confirmed by the council. Said annual assessments or reassessments shall be completed by said assessor by the thirty-first day of March of the year in which they are made.

All such real estate shall be assessed at its fair market value and the taxes for each year on such real estate shall be extended on the basis of the last assessment made prior to such year, subject to such changes as may have been lawfully made.

Notwithstanding any of the provisions of §§ 58-895 and 58-899 to 58-901, inclusive, of the Code of Virginia, the circuit court of said city or the judge thereof in vacation shall, annually, appoint for the city a board of review of real estate assessments, to be composed of three members, who shall be freeholders of said city. The terms of such members shall commence on their appointment and shall expire on the thirtieth day of November of the year in which they are appointed unless such terms are extended. Such court or the judge thereof in vacation may extend the terms of the members of the said board of review and shall fill any vacancy therein for the unexpired term. The members of the said board shall receive per diem compensation for the time actually engaged in the duties of the board, to be fixed by the council of said city, and to be paid out of the treasury of said city, provided, however, that the council of said city may limit the per diem compensation to such number of days as, in its judgment, is sufficient for the completion of the work of the board.

Such board of review shall have and may exercise the power to revise, correct and amend any assessments of real estate made by said assessor in the year in which they serve, and to that end shall have all the powers conferred upon boards of equalization by §§ 58-903 and 58-912, inclusive, of the Code of Virginia. Notwithstanding any provision of said sections, however, the board of review may adopt any regulations providing for the oral presentation, without formal petitions or other pleadings of requests for review, and looking to the further facilitation and simplification of proceedings before the board.

Any person of said city aggrieved by any assessment made by said assessor or board of review may apply for relief in the manner provided by §§ 58-1145 to 58-1151, inclusive, of the Code of Virginia.

This section shall not apply to the assessment of any real estate assessable under the law by the State Corporation Commission.