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2022 SESSION

22102021D
HOUSE BILL NO. 315
Offered January 12, 2022
Prefiled January 11, 2022
A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 4, 10, and 16, as severally amended, of Chapter 216 of the Acts of Assembly of 1952, which provided a charter for the City of Roanoke, relating to municipal elections.
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Patron-- Rasoul
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Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 4, 10, and 16, as severally amended, of Chapter 216 of the Acts of Assembly of 1952 are amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 4. Composition of council; terms of members; designation of vice-mayor; vacancies.

The Council as presently composed shall continue and shall consist of seven members, one of which shall be the mayor, all of whom shall be elected at large and shall serve for the respective terms as hereinafter provided. The members of council shall serve for terms of four years, from the first day of July January next following the date of their election and until their successors shall have been elected and qualified. The mayor shall serve for a term of four years from the first day of July January next following the date of election and until a successor shall have been elected and qualified;, provided, however, that on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in May November, nineteen hundred seventy-two two thousand twenty, and on such day each four years thereafter, three council members and a mayor shall be elected for a term of four years, and on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in May November, nineteen hundred seventy-four two thousand twenty-two, and each four years thereafter, three council members shall be elected for a term of four years.

The member of council receiving the largest number of votes in each regular councilmanic election shall be the vice-mayor of the city, for a term of two years, to commence on the first day of July January next following the date of such election and until the vice-mayor's successor shall have been elected and qualified.

The council shall be a continuing body, and no measure pending before such body shall abate or be discontinued by reason of the expiration of the term of office or removal of the members of council, or any of them. No person may be a candidate for the office of mayor and for the office of council member in the same election.

Vacancies in the council or vacancy in the office of mayor shall be filled within thirty forty-five days, and until the day upon which the terms of office of council members elected in the next following regular councilmanic election shall commence, by a majority vote of the remaining members of council, and if as much as two years of any such unexpired term of a member of council or of the mayor remains at the time of such next regular councilmanic election, a council member or a mayor, as the case by be, shall be elected at such election for the remaining portion of such unexpired term.

§ 10. Meetings of council generally.

At two o'clock post meridian on the first Monday of July January next following each regular municipal election, or if such day be a city holiday, then on the day following, the council shall meet at the usual place for holding meetings of the legislative body of the city, at which time the newly elected council members shall assume the duties of their offices. Thereafter, the council shall meet at such times as may be prescribed by ordinance or resolution, provided, that it shall hold at least two regular meetings each calendar month, and it shall so order and schedule meetings as to promptly and orderly attend to the business and legislative affairs of the city. The mayor, any member of the council, or the city manager, may call special meetings of the council at any time upon at least twelve hours written notice to the mayor and each member, served personally or left at his usual place of business or residence; or such meeting may be held at any time without notice, on call of the mayor or the city manager provided at least five members of the council attend such meeting. All meetings of the council shall be public, and any citizen may have access to the minutes and records thereof at all reasonable times, except where the public interest may require closed meetings.

§ 16. Time of holding municipal elections.

A municipal election shall be held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in May November in nineteen hundred seventy-two two thousand twenty, and every second year thereafter which shall be known as the regular election for the election of council members.