Chap. 252.—-An ACT to amend and. re-enact sections 12, 13, 14 and 15 of a
act entitled “An act to provide a new charter for the town of Salem, Vii
ginia, and to repeal all acts or parts of acts in conflict therewith”, approve
March 20, 1924, in relation to ordinances. . [H B 322

Approved March 26, 1938

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That Sec
tions twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen of an act entitled an ac
to provide a new charter for the town of Salem, Virginia, and to re
peal all acts or parts of acts in conflict therewith, approved Marcl
twentieth, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, be amended and re
enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 12. Legislative procedure.——Except in dealing with par
liamentary procedure the council shall act only by ordinance or reso
lution, and with the exception of ordinances making appropriations
or authorizing the contracting of indebtedness, shall be confined tc
one general subject.

Section 13. Enactments.—(a) Each proposed ordinance, or reso-
lution, shall be introduced in a written or printed form, and the en:
acting clause of all ordinances passed by the council shall substantially
be, “Be it ordained by the council of the town of Salem, Virginia.”

(b) No ordinance, or resolution having the effect of an ordinance.
or resolution suspending an ordinance, unless it be an emergency
measure, shall be passed until it has been read at two meetings not
less than ten days apart, provided the requirement of a second reading
by the affirmative vote of two members of the council may be con-
fined to the reading of the title only. Any ordinance or resolution
read at one such meeting may be amended and passed as amended
at the next such meeting, provided that the amendment does not ma-
terially change the purpose and character of the proposed ordinance.
No ordinance shall be amended unless such section or sections, as are
intended to be amended, shall be re-enacted. The ayes and noes shall
be taken and recorded upon the final passage of all ordinances or
resolutions and entered upon the journal of the proceedings of the
council. Except as otherwise provided in this charter an affirmative
vote of a majority of the members elected to the council shall be
vecessary to pass any ordinance or resolution.

Section 14. Emergency measures.—(a) No ordinance passed by
he council shall take effect until at least thirty days from the date of
ts passage except that the council may, by the affirmative vote of
wo of its members, pass emergency measures to take effect at the time
ndicated therein.

(b) An emergency measure is an ordinance for the immediate
reservation of the public peace, property, health or safety, or pro-
iding for the immediate and necessary daily operation of a municipal
lepartment. The fact that an emergency exists shall be stated in every
uch measure. Ordinances appropriating money may be passed as
mergency measures, but no measure selling or convevine anv real
estate or making a grant, renewal, extension of a tranchise or other
special privilege or regulating the rate to be charged for its service
by any public utility, shall ever be so passed.

Section 15. Record and publication—(a) Every ordinance or
resolution having the effect of an ordinance when passed shall be re-
corded by the town clerk in a book kept for that purpose, and shall be
authenticated by the signature of the presiding officer and the town
clerk.

(b) Every ordinance of a general or permanent nature shall be
published in full once within ten days after its final passage by posting
a copy thereof at the front door of the municipal building and at
two other public places in the town or, when ordered by the council, by
publication, for such time as the council may direct, in a newspaper
published or circulated in the town; provided, that the foregoing re-
quirements as to publication shall not apply to ordinances re-ordained
in or by a general compilation or codification of ordinances printed
by authority of the council, and provided still further, however, that
in the case of any ordinance of a general, or more or less permanent
nature, either or both, it shall not be necessary to publish, as herein-
before provided for, any portion thereof except the section or sec-
tions thereof amended, added to, or otherwise changed.

(c) A record or entry made by the town clerk, or a copy of such
record or entry duly certified by him, shall be prima facie evidence
of the passage of the ordinance, its due publication, and the terms
thereof.

All ordinances and resolutions of the council may be read in evi-
dence in all courts and in all other proceedings in which it may be
necessary to refer thereto, either from the original record thereof.
from a copy thereof certified by the town clerk, or from any volume
of ordinances printed by authority of the council.