Chap. 134.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 6 of chapter 3 of an act
to provide a charter for the city of Petersburg, approved March 11, 1875, as
amended and re-enacted by an act approved March 3, 1898, and an act ap-
proved March 15, 1906. ,

Approved March 5, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section six
of chapter three of an act to provide a charter for the city of Peters-
burg, approved March eleventh, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, as
amended and re-enacted by an act approved March third, eighteen hun-
dred and ninety-eight, and an act approved March fifteenth, nineteen
hundred and six, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Chapter III.

§6. The city council shall have, subject to the provisions herein con-
tained, the control and management of the fiscal and municipal affairs
of the city, and all property, real and personal, belonging to the said
city, and may make such ordinances, orders, and by-laws relating to
the same as it shall deem proper and necessary. They shall likewise
have the power to make such ordinances, by-laws, orders and regula-
tions, as they may deem desirable to carry out the following powers,
which are hereby vested in them:

First. To establish markets in and for said city; prescribe the times
and places for holding the same; provide suitable buildings therefor,
and to enforce such regulations as shall be necessary or proper to prevent
huckstering, forestalling, and regrating.

Second. To erect or provide, in or near the city, suitable work-houses,
houses of correction and reformation, and houses for the reception and
maintenance of the poor and destitute. They shall possess and exercise
exclusive authority over all persons within the limits of the city receiv-
ing or entitled to the benefit of the poor laws, and shall regulate pau-
perism within the limits of the city, and annually appoint from each
ward two overseers of the poor, who shall discharge their duties as pre-
scribed by law.

Third. To compel persons sentenced to confinement in the jail of the
city for petit larceny or other misdemeanors, or violation of the city
ordinances, to work on the public streets or property of the city, or to
be sent to the poor house, there to perform such labor as the overseers
of the poor may direct.
Fourth. To erect and keep in order all of the public buildings neces-
sary or proper for the said city; to open, regulate, and ornament public
squares and parks; to provide armories and drill halls for, and to grant
aid to, any company or companies of the State militia located in said
city i and to erect buildings within the city for the assemblage of the
people.

Fifth. To provide, within said city, a city prison; and said prison
may contain such apartments as may be necessary for the safe-keeping
and employment of all persons confined therein.

Sixth. To establish and enlarge water works, gas works, and electric
plants within or without the limits of the said city, and for the location,
extension, or enlargement of their said works, the pipes, poles, or wires
connected therewith, or any of the fixtures or appurtenances thereof,
and for the supply of water for the said city and water power for water
works, electric lighting, or any other purposes; to contract and agree
with the owner or owners of any land, water or water power, including
the upper Appomattox company, for the use, purchase, or lease of the
same, or to have the same condemned in the manner prescribed by chap-
ter forty-six of the Code of Virginia, in respect to land wanted for the
purposes of the city: provided, that such condemnation of the property
of or of the water in the canal of the said upper Appomattox company,
shall be had only to effectuate any contract or agrement which may he
made with said company, and shall not be such as to prevent said com-
pany from performing its duties as a navigation company; to take its
said supply of water from the Appomattox river at any point at or above
said city; provided, said taking shall not be such as to prevent said com-
pany from performing its said duties, and, if necessary in order to make
such taking legal, or if deemed advisable by said city, to contract and
agree therefor with all persons claiming any interest in the water in
said river or to have the same condemned in the manner prescribed by
chapter forty-six of the Code of Virginia in respect to land wanted for
the purposes of a city. They shall have the power to protect from injury
by adequate penalties the said works, pipes, poles, wires, and fixtures and
land, or anything connected therewith, within or without the limits of
said city, and to prevent the pollution of the water in Lieutenant run,
the Appomattox river, or any other source of supply, or any branch or
stream flowing into any of them, by prohibiting the throwing of filth,
offensive or deleterious matter or liquid therein, or polluting the same
in any other manner above said works within fifteen miles above said
works: provided, that where natural drainage of any lands is into the
said river, canal or other source of water supply, it shall be the duty of
said council to properly divert such drainage into some other outlet, at
the expense of said city, if they deem such diversion proper or necessary,
and they may condemn such land as may be necessary for that purpose.

Seventh. To establish, construct, and keep in order, alter, or remove
landings, wharves, and docks on land belonging to or which may here-
after belong to said city, and to lay and collect a reasonable duty on
vessels: coming to and using same; to prevent and remove all obstruc-
tions in and upon such landings, wharves, and docks; to preserve peace
and good order upon the same and upon all other wharves and landings
in said city. They_may also appoint port wardens for the port of said
city, prescribe their duties, and fix their fees or compensation: provided,
no salary or compensation shall be paid such port wardens out of the city
treasury.

Eighth. To close or extend, widen or narrow, lay out, and graduate,
pave, and otherwise improve streets and public alleys in the city, and
have them properly lighted and kept in good order; and they shall have
over any street or alley in the city which has been or may be ceded to
the city like authority as over streets or alleys. They may build bridges
over and culverts under said streets, and may prevent or remove any
structure, obstruction, or encroachment over or under or in a street or
alley, or any sidewalk thereof, and may have shade trees planted along
the said street; and no company shall occupy with its works the streets
of the city without the consent of the council. In the meantime no
order shall be made and no injunction shall be awarded by any court or
judge to stay the proceedings of the city in the prosecution of their
work, unless it be manifest that they, their officers, agents, or servants
are transcending the authority given them by this act, and that the
interposition of the court is necessary to prevent injury that cannot be
adequately compensated in damages.

Ninth. To prevent the cumbering of streets, avenues, walks, public
squares, lanes, alleys, or bridges in any manner whatever.

Tenth. To authorize the laying down of street railway tracks and the
running of horse, electric, or other street cars thereon, in the streets of
the city, under such regulations as they may prescribe. ‘

Eleventh. To regulate and prescribe the breadth of the tires upon the
wheels of wagons, carts, and vehicles of heavy draft used upon the streets
of said city: provided, however, that this section shall not apply to
vehicles coming into and not owned in said city.

Twelfth. To require oil, molasses, vinegar, and spirits of turpentine,
ardent spirits, and wines, in casks, to be gauged and inspected; and
may make such provisions for the weighing of hay, fodder, oats, shucks,
or other long forage, as will not be in conflict with the act passed the
twenty-second of March, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, to prevent the
authorities of said city from laying and collecting a tax on the bales of
hay sent by the farmers of the State to said city. They may also provide
for measuring corn, oats, grain, coal, stone, wood, lumber, boards, pota-
toes, and other articles for sale or barter.

Thirteenth. To require every merchant, retailer, trader, and dealer in
merchandise, or property of any description which is sold by measure
or weight to cause their weights and measures to be sealed by the city
sealer, and to be subject to his inspection; and may impose penalties for
any violation of any such ordinance. .

Fourteenth. To grant aid to societies or associations for the advance-
ment of agriculture and the mechanic arts: provided, such societies or
associations are located in or near the city, or, in the case of agricultural
societies, shall hold their fairs in or near the city; and to provide or
aid in support of public libraries and public schools.

Fifteenth. To secure the inhabitants from contagious, infectious, or
other dangerous diseases; to establish, erect, and regulate hospitals; to
provide for the removal of patients to said hospitals, who may consent
to be removed, or who may not be provided at their own residences with
necessary accommodations; for the appointment and organization of a
board of health for said city, with the authority necessary for the prompt
and efficient performance of its duties.

Sixteenth. To provide, in or near the city, lands to be appropriated,
improved, and kept in order, as places for the interment of the dead,
and may charge for the use of ground in said places of interment; and
may regulate the same; may prevent the burial of the dead in the city,
except in the public burial grounds; may regulate the burials in said
grounds, and may require the keeping and return of bills of mortality
of the keepers or owners of all cemeteries.

Seventeenth. To require and compel the abatement and removal of all
nuisances within said city, at the expense of the person or persons caus-
ing the same, or the owner or owners of the ground whereon the same
shall be; to regulate and prevent slaughter-houses, soap factories, and
candle factories, or the prosecution of any dangerous, offensive, or un-
healthy business, trade, or employment therein, which may be injurious
to the inhabitants of said city; and to regulate the transportation of coal
or other articles through the streets of the city.

Eighteenth. If any ground in the said city shall be subject to be cov-
ered with stagnant water, or if the owner or owners, occupier or occu-
piers thereof shall permit any offensive or unwholesome substance to
remain or accumulate therein, the council may cause such ground to be
filled up, raised, or drained, or may cause such substance to be covered
or to be removed therefrom, and may collect the expense of so doing
from the said owner or owners, occupier or occupiers, or any of them by
distress and sale, in the same manner in which taxes levied upon
real estate for the benefit of said city are authorized to be collected:
provided, that reasonable notice shall be first given to the said owners
or their agents. In case of non-resident owners, who have no agent in
said city, such notice may be given by publication for not less than two
weeks in any newspaper published in said city.

Nineteenth. To direct the location of all buildings for storing gun-
powder, or other combustible substances, and to regulate the sale and
use of gunpowder or fire-crackers or fire-works prepared therefrom,
kerosene oil, nitroglycerin, camphene, burning fluid, or other com-
bustible material; to regulate or prevent the exhibition of fire-works, the
discharge of fire-arms, the use of candles or lights in barnes, stables, and
other buildings, and to restrain the making of bon-fires in strects and
yards, and the marching or torch-light processions through the public
streets.

Twentieth. To prevent hogs, dogs, and other animals from running
at large in the city, and may subject the same to such confiscations,
regulations, and taxes as they may deem proper, and the council may
prohibit the raising or keeping of hogs in the city.

Twenty-first. To determine and designate the route and grade of any
railroad to be laid in said city; to prevent the riding or driving of horses
or other animal at an improper speed; to prevent the running of steam
engines at an improper speed within the limits of said city, and to
wholly exclude the said engines if they please: provided, no contract or
legislative authority be thereby impaired or violated; to prevent the
flying of kites, throwing stones, or the engaging in any employment or
sports in the streets or public alleys dangerous or annoying to passen-
gers; and to prohibit and punish the abuse of animals.

Twenty-second. To restrain and punish drunkards, vagrants, mendi-
cants, and street beggars.

Twenty-third. To prevent vice and immorality; to preserve public
peace and good order; to prevent and quell riots, disturbances, and dis-
orderly assemblages; to suppress houses of ill-fame and gaming-houses ;
to prevent lewd and disorderly conduct or exhibitions in the city, and
to expel therefrom persons guilty of such conduct who shall not have
resided therein as much as one year.

Twenty-fourth. To forbid and prevent the vending or other disposi-
tion of liquors and other intoxicating drinks, to be drunk in any boat,
store or other place not duly licensed, and to forbid the selling or giving
to be drunk any intoxicating liquors to any child or young person with-
out the consent of his or her parents or guardian, and for violation of
any such ordinances may impose a fine in addition to those prescribed by
the laws of the State.

Twenty-fifth. To prevent the coming into the city, from beyond the
limits of the State, of persons having no ostensible means of support, or
of persons who may be dangerous to the peace and safety of the city,
and for this purpose may require any railroad company or the captain
or master of any vessel bringing such passengers to Petersburg to enter
into bond, with satisfactory security, that such persons shall not become
chargeable to the city for one year, or may compel such company, cap-
tain, or master to take them back from whence they came, and to compel
such persons to leave the city if they have not been therein more than
thirty days before the order is given.

Twenty-sixth. They may make all needful ordinances for the protec-
tion of property, and for that purpose may, from time to time, designate
such portions and parts of said city as it shall think proper, within
which no buildings of wood shall be erected, and may regulate the
manner of construction of all buildings. They may prohibit the erec-
tion of wooden buildings in any portion of the city, without permission
obtained from them, and shall, on the petition of the owner or owners
of not less than one-fourth of the ground included in any square of the
city, prohibit the erection in such square of any building, or addition
to any building, unless the outer walls thereof be made of brick or
mortar or some other fire-proof material, and provide for the removal
of any such building, or addition which may be erected contrary to such
prohibition; at the expense of the builder or owner thereof. And if any
building shall have been commenced hefore said petition can be acted
on by the council, or if a building in progress appear clearly to be unsafe,
the council may have such building taken down, at the exclusive proper
cost of the owners of such. Whenever any building in the said city shall
be on fire, it shall be the duty of and be lawful for the chief engineer
to order and direct such building, or any other building which he may
deem hazardous and likely to communicate fire to other buildings, or
any part of such buildings, to be pulled down and destroyed; and no
action shall be maintained against any person or against the city therefor,
but any person interested in any such building so destroyed or injured
may, within three months thereafter, apply to the council to assess and
pay the damages he has sustained. At the expiration of three months
if any such application shall be made in writing, the council shall either
pay the said claimant such sum as shall be agreed upon by them and the
said claimant for damages, or if no such agreement shall be effected,
shall proceed to ascertain the amount of such damages, and shall provide
for the appraisal, assessment, collection, and payment in the same man-
ner as is provided for the ascertainment, assessment, collection, and pay-
ment of damages sustained by the taking of land for the purpose of
public improvement. The commissioner appointed to appraise and
assess the damages incurred by the said claimant, by the pulling down
or destruction of said building, or any part thereof, by the direction of
the said officer, as above provided, shall take into account the probability
of the same having been destroyed or injured by fire if it had not been
so pulled down or destroyed, and may report that no damages should
equitably be allowed to such claimant. Whenever a report shall be made
and confirmed in the said proceedings for appraising and assessing the
damages, a compliance with the term thereof by the council shall be
deemed a full satisfaction of all said damages to the said complainant.
But any party feeling aggrieved thereby, may appeal to the hustings or
circuit court for the city of Petersburg, which court, in taking jurisdic-
tion therefore, shall be controlled by the laws regulating assessment of
damage to real estate in other cases, in all such cases such court taking
into account the probabilities of the damage from destruction of the
property under the circumstances.

Twenty-seventh. To elect, in joint meeting, a board to be known as
the “police commission,” and a board to be known as the “fire com-
mission,” each to consist of three members, who shall be qualified electors
of the city. The members of the boards first elected hereunder shall be
elected on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and six, or as soon
thereafter as practicable, for terms of one, two and three years, respec-
tively, and thereafter they shall be elected for terms of three years. But
no person shall be elected as a member of either board who shall not
receive the votes of a majority of all the members elected to each branch
of the council. Their terms shall begin on the first day of July in the
year in which they are herein directed to be elected, and they shall
continue in office until their successors are qualified. They shall qualify
within ten days after their election by taking and subscribing the oath
required of other city officers, and filing the same with the city auditor.
If a member of either board shall fail to qualify within that time, the
council in joint meeting shall elect another in his place, and all vacan-
cies shall be filled by the council, in like manner, for the unexpired term.
The respective boards shall elect one of their number president and an-
other secretary, but any two of them shall constitute a quorum for the
transaction of business, and in case of the absence of either its president
or secretary, may elect a president or secretary pro tempore. A member
of either board may be removed for good cause at any time, by the
council, in joint meeting, by the vote in the affirmative of a majority
of all the members elected to each branch thereof; and if any member
of either board is named as an applicant or candidate or as a proper
man to be supported as a candidate for any office or to receive such
office, the president of the board of aldermen or in his absence the
president of the common coancil, on receiving information thereof, shall
notify him of the fact, and if he shall not within ten days thereafter
‘file with the city auditor a statement in writing signed by him that he
is neither a candidate nor applicant for such office, and that he will not
serve if elected or appointed, the council shall in joint meeting declare
his place vacant, and fill the same as hereinbefore prescribed.

Each of said boards shall keep a record of its proceedings, and on the
first day of July each year, and oftener if occasion requires, submit to
the council a report of its operations and of the condition of the de-
partment under its control, and its recommendations for the advance-
ment and efficiency thereof.

In July, nineteen hundred and six, and every four years thereafter,
the police commission, as soon as its members shall have been qualified,
as hereinbefore prescribed, shall elect a police corps for the city, con-
sisting of such officers and patrolmen as are now or may hereafter be
prescribed by the council, whose term of office shall be four years, be-
ginning on the first day of July in the year in which they are herein
directed to be elected, and who shall continue in office until their suc-
cessors are qualified. From the patrolmen it shall designate as many
sergeants as the council may prescribe, who may be returned to ranks
and others designated by it whenever and as often as the interests of
the service may, in its judgment, require, and who shall receive a ser-
geant’s pay, as prescribed by the council, only while filling the position
of sergeant. The members of the police force shall perform such duties
as may be prescribed by law and the ordinances of the city, and the
rules, regulations, and orders of the police commission not inconsistent
therewith. The chief of police shall be responsible to the police com-
mission for the good order and efficiency of the force, and all orders to
the other officers and patrolmen of the force shall pass through him.

In like manner the fire commission shall, in July, nineteen hundred
and six, and every four years thereafter, as soon as its members shall
have been qualified, elect a chief of the fire department, and such other
officers thereof as the council shall from time to time prescribe, whose
term of office shall be four years, beginning on the first day of July
in the year in which they are herein directed to be elected, and who
shall continue in office until their successors are qualified. It shall also
from time to time employ such minute men, at such rate of compensa-
tion as the council may prescribe, for such time as it may think proper,
and may, at any time, discharge them and employ others. It shall have
control of the buildings and apparatus of the fire department, and make
regulations for the use and care thereof.

The members of the fire department shall perform such duties as arc
or may be prescribed by law and the ordinances of the city, and the
rules, regulations, and orders of the fire commission not inconsistent
therewith. The chief of the fire department shall be responsible to the
fire commission for the good order and efficiency of the department, and
all orders to the other officers and minute men thereof shall pass through
him.

The police commission and fire commission may each adopt, pro-
mulgate, and enforce rules, regulations, and orders for the organization,
government, training and efficiency of the force under its control, not
inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the State or of the United
States, the ordinance of the city, or the power of the mayor, under the
Constitution of the State, to temporarily suspend a member of either
force until the offense with which he may be charged can be investigated,
and fo prescribe what dresses or badges of authority shall be worn by
them. As a punishment for any misfeasance in office or neglect of duty,
or the infraction of any rule, regulation, or order adopted for the gov-
ernment or conduct of the police and fire departments, respectively, or
their members, the police commission, or the fire commission, as the
case may be, may fine the offending member of the department under its
control not exceeding twenty dollars, or suspend him not exceeding
twenty days, or remove him from office: provided,.he is first given an
opportunity to be present and to be heard touching the charge against
him. At such hearing he shall have the right to be confronted with the
witnesses against him, and to introduce evidence in his defense. In case
a fine is imposed it shall be deducted from his pay, and in case of sus-
pension it shall be without pay during its continuance. In case of
suspension or removal the accused may appeal of right within five days
thereafter to the judge of the hustings or corporation court, who shall
hear the case do novo, without a jury, in term time or in vacation, and
his decision shall be final. In time of exigency the police commission,
or any one of them, if the others be absent from the city or be unable to
act, may appoint temporarily, without authority from the council, a
suitable number of additional policemen for such time, not exceeding
five days, as shall appear necessary, at such compensation as is paid to
the regular policemen. The person so appointed shall be subject to the
same government and control as the regular police force, and shall per-
form such police duties as may be assigned to them. The mayor may,
by warrant in writing, signed by him, confer police powers upon the
port warden, the clerks of the markets, the keepers of the parks and
cemetery, the watchmen and custodians of the city reservoirs, the janitor
of the courthouse and other public buildings, and such other officers
and employees of the city as shall have custody of any other of the city’s
property, to be exercised with respect to the property under the charge
of the person so appointed.