Chap. 2.—An ACT to create for the county of Norfolk a commissiun of roads
and bridges, and to prescribe the powers and duties of such commission,
and thereby to provide for controlling, constructing and keeping in repair
the public roads and bridges within said county, and for acquiring,
establishing, altering and vacating roads and bridges therein; and to
repeal an act entitled an act for working and keeping in repair the public
roads in Norfolk county, approved February 18, 1890, as amended by acts
approved February 26, 1908, and March 14, 1910, respectively, and also
to repeal an act entitled an act for working and keeping in repair the
public roads in Norfolk county, approved February 1, 1894. (H. B. 14)

Approved February 1, 1915.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia as follows:
A permanent commission, to consist of three members, and to be known
as the commission of roads and bridges for the county of Norfolk, is
hereby created. Each of said members shall be a resident of the said
county who is qualified to vote. The commissioners shall be appointed
by the judge of the circuit court of said county, and their regular term
of office shall be three years, respectively, except those first appointed
under this act (who shall be appointed within thirty days after this
act goes into effect), of whom one shall be appointed to hold office until
the first day of July, nineteen hundred and sixteen; one until the first
day of July, nineteen hundred and seventeen, and one until the first
day of July, nineteen hundred and eighteen. Whenever a vacancy in
the commission shall occur, the judge of said court shall forthwith
appoint a qualified person to fill the same for the unexpired term, and
any commissioners shall be removable by the judge of said court for
neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. Commissioners appointed for
regular terms shall, at the beginning of the terms for which appointed,
and those appointed to fill vacancies shall, immediately upon their
appointments, enter upon the duties of their office. The commission
shall annually elect one of their members chairman, and another of
their members secretary of the same, and shall have authority to re-
quire of the sheriff of said county, or any of his deputies, such attend-
ance and service as may be necessary to preserve order and serve notices.
All sessions of the commission shall be public, and a permanent record
(to be prepared by the secretary), shall be kept of its orders, proceed-
ings, receipts and expenditures, and of all reports made to or by it,
which shall at all times, during normal business hours, be open to public
inspection. Two of the commissioners shall constitute a quorum for
the transaction of business, whether there be a vacancy in the com-
mission or not, and a majority of the commissioners present may decide
any question that may properly come before the meeting. The board
of supervisors of said county shall, subject to the approval of the com-
mission, provide suitable quarters and blank records for the commis-
sion, and the judge of the said court shall fix the salaries of the members
of the commission, but the salary of each commissioner shall be not
less than two hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, per
annum, in addition to his necessary traveling expenses while performing
the duties of his office.
2. ‘The said commission shall have the power, and be charged with
the duty, of controlling, supervising, managing, building, improving
and keeping in order all the public roads and bridges within said county
(not included within the corporate limits of any incorporated town in
said county which maintains its own streets), and, as an incident thereto,
the stone quarry operated by said county; and shall make and prescribe
such rules, regulations, specifications and directions as it shall deem
best for building, keeping in order and repairing such roads and bridges.

As used in this act the term “road” or “roads” shall be construed to
include highways, streets, avenues and roads; and the term “bridge” or
“bridges” shall be construed to include bridges, viaducts and causeways.

3. Hach of said commissioners, as well as the road engineer herein-
after provided for, shall qualify as other, county officers are required
by law to qualify, and shall enter into and acknowledge, before the
court or judge before whom he qualifies, a bond, payable to the county,
with security to be approved by such court or judge, in the penalty of
five thousand dollars, conditioned for the faithful performance of the
cuties of his office.’

‘The said commission may appoint a county road engineer (who
shall be a competent civil engineer), who shall devote his whole time to
the duties prescribed by the commission, and who shall attend each
meeting of the commission, and whose salary, to be fixed by it, shall
be not less than twelve hundred dollars, nor more than twenty-five hun-
dred dollars, per annum; and it may ‘appoint or employ, or authorize
the appointment or. employment of, such additional engineers, over-
seers, agents, servants, laborers, and other subordinates as may be neces-
sary for the proper performance and execution of the duties imposed
by this act. It shall also have authority to employ counsel, when the
same is rendered necessary to protect the public interest incident to
its work under this act, and to employ an expert accountant to assist
In opening its initial records and in ascertaining the amounts of the
several funds properly disbursable by it under this act. The terms,
duties and compensation of its respective appointees and employees shall
be as prescribed by it, their compensation shall be a reasonable one,
and any and all of them shall be removable at its pleasure for ineffi-
ciency or other good cause.

5. The said commission shall, on the first Monday in each month,
hold a meeting at the courthouse of the county, for the discharge of
its duties, and may appoint and hold such other regular or special meet-
ings at such times and places as may be necessary for that purpose.
Any commissioner shall have power to call a special meeting, upon
giving the other commissioners reasonable written notice of the time
and place thereof.

The chairman (or in case of his absence the commissioner who shall
then be chosen as temporary chairman) shall preside at all meetings,
and shall have power to administer an oath to any person concerning
any matter submitted to the commission or connected with its duties.

6. It shall be the duty of the said commission, or a majority thereof,
to go over the public roads and bridges of said county at least once
during the months of February and August of each year, and to keep
itself informed, by means of personal investigation or otherwise, as to
the condition of the public roads and bridges of said county, the man-
ner in which they are worked, and kept in order, and whether or not
its appointees and employees and their subordinates have performed
their respective duties. The said commission shall have regard not
only to the development of the road and bridge system of the county
as a whole, but to the needs of the inhabitants of each magisterial dis-
trict respecting the same.

?. From and after the passage of this act, the road and quarry
machinery, equipment and material now belonging to the county of
Norfolk, shall be subject to the authority and control of the said com-
mission, and it shall have power to purchase machinery, teams, equip-
ment, supplies and material, and to perform all other things necessary
to carry out the purpose of this act. It shall also have authority to
prevent the public from traveling on any road or bridge, or any portion
thereof, while the same is being built, improved or repaired. Said com-
mission may make all necessary contracts, and may require proper
bonds from all contractors and material men for the faithful perform-
ance of their contracts or undertakings. Any rules and regulations of
a general nature that the commission shall prescribe respecting travel by
the public shall be published at least twice in a newspaper of general
circulation published in the city of Norfolk or Portsmouth.

8. The commission shall from time to time cause to be prepared
and placed on file, open to convenient public inspection, plans and speci-
fications of work to be done under this act, and (unless in the judg-
ment of the commission the public interest will best be subserved by
having the same done directly by itself rather than by contract), it
shall call for bids therefor by means of an advertisement published
for ten days in a newspaper of the character hereinabove described, and
award the contract to the lowest bidder, subject to its right to reject
any or all bids. ,

9. The board of supervisors of Norfolk county shall annually levy
and appropriate, for general road purposes under this act, a tax upon
the property, real and personal, assessed for taxation in the county
(and not included within the corporate limits of any incorporated town
in said county which maintains its own streets), which shall be applied
to the working, keeping in order and repairing the public roads and
bridges, including the compensation of the officers and subordinates ap-
pointed or employed under this act. Such tax shall not be less than
fifteen nor more than thirty cents upon every hundred dollars in value
of such property, and the same-shall be collected, accounted for, and
applied as road funds under this act, as if it were a county levy, except
that the funds collected from each magisterial district shall be kept
separate by the county treasurer. The board of supervisors shall also
annually appropriate for general road purposes under this act so much
of the county’s annual income from the Norfolk county ferries as is
not required for the county’s proportion of interest on bonds that are
now or may hereafter be predicated upon said ferry property and sinking
fund to retire the same. The said board of supervisors shall also forth-
with appropriate for general road purposes under this act all portions
of previous appropriations for roads unexpended at the date this act
shall go into effect. The said board of supervisors shall have power to
make additional appropriations for general road purposes under this act
from the general county levy not otherwise expended. The said several
funds, so appropriated, shall be disbursable for the expenses (including
cost of material, equipment and labor, and compensation of commis-
sioners and its appointees and employees) necessary to accomplish the
purpose of this act, by warrants upon the county treasurer, authorized
by the said commission, signed by its chairman and countersigned by
its secretary. The said several funds shall be applied by the said
commission, first, to the cost and expense of working, keeping in order
and repairing the public roads and bridges, and secondly, if any of
said funds shall then remain, to the cost and expense of building, acquir-
ing and permanently improving new or additional roads and bridges,
and for this latter purpose the said commission shall have the right
and authority to expend, in the manner herein provided, all unexpended
proceeds of bonds heretofore authorized and issued for the purpose of
acquiring or improving roads or bridges in said county.

10. The commission shall annually, at its meeting in March, make
in writing a detailed report of its year’s work and expenditures, and an
estimate for the ensuing year of the funds under this act necessary to
be applied to the working, keeping in order and repairing the public
roads and bridges in the county, and file a copy of such report and esti-
mate with the board of supervisors at their regular meeting in April
of each year.

11. No commissioner or engineer appointed or employed by virtue
of this act shall become pecuniarily interested, directly or indirectly, in
any contract, or in the profits of any contract, made by or with any
person, firm or corporation that may contract for work on, or material,
equipment or supplies for, roads or bridges; and if this provision is
violated, the commissioner or engineer so violating the same shall, by
means of an action or motion brought within two years thereafter in the
circuit court of said county, be liable to the county for a sum of money
equal to double the amount of his interest aforesaid.

12. The said commission shall have, and may exercise, the powers,
authority and jurisdiction now or hereafter conferred upon boards of
supervisors by general law (so far as not inconsistent with this act) in
regard to establishing, altering and vacating roads and bridges, and in
such cases the procedure, right of appeal, and other proceedings shall
be the same, mutatis mutandis, as those provided by general law in the
case of similar proceedings before boards of supervisors. The attorney
for the Commonwealth of said county shall render such legal service
to the said commission as may be proper under this act, without addi-
tional compensation to him.

13. The said commission shall have the right to apply for and re-
ceive, and make use of, under this act, such State money or convict aid
as may be properly applicable to the county of Norfolk under the gen-
eral laws of the State on those subjects.

14. An act entitled an act for working and keeping in repair the
public roads in Norfolk county, approved February 18, 1890, as amended
by acts approved February 26, 1908, and March 14, 1910, respectively,
and an act entitled an act for working and keeping in repair the public
roads in Norfolk county, approved February 1, 1894, are hereby repealed.

15. All other acts or parts of acts inconsistent or in conflict with
this act are hereby repealed.

16. In the event that any part or parts of this act shall be in con-
flict with the Constitution of Virginia, the residue thereof shall never-
theless be valid, and such conflicting part or parts shall be superseded
by the proper constitutional provision. : |

17. The act approved March 4, 1914, whereby there was attempted
to be created for the county of Norfolk a commission of roads and bridges,
having been held unconstitutional, and there being pressing need for
the public roads and bridges in said county to be improved and con-
trolled in accordance with the terms thereof, an emergency exists, and
this act shall be in force from its passage.