Chap. 465.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 11 of Chapter 6; Sections 5
and 7 of Chapter 8, as heretofore amended, and Sections 2 and 3 of Chapter 9,
of an act entitled “An Act to incorporate the City of Danville.”, approved Feb-
ruary 17, 1890, relating to public utilities ; bonds and bond issues; and collection

of taxes, et cetera. : [H B 540]
Approved April 6, 1942

1. Beit enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
eleven of chapter six; sections five and seven of chapter eight, as here-
tofore amended, and sections two and three of chapter nine, of an act
entitled ““An Act to incorporate the City of Danville.”, approved Febru-
ary seventeenth, eighteen hundred and ninety, be amended and re-enacted,
as follows:

CHAPTER VI

Section 11. In addition to powers granted under general statutes
to acquire, establish, maintain, operate, extend and enlarge water works,
gas works, steam and hydro-electric plants and other public utilities
within and without the limits of said city, the council may also regulate
and prescribe the rates, rents, charges and prices at which gas and water
and electric energy shall be furnished to its customers and may provide
ordinances or resolutions for the collection of all such charges by levy
or distress and may pursue and adopt all other remedies authorized by
general law or its ordinances for the collection thereof.

The council may also adopt all penal ordinances authorized by
general law or by other provisions of the city charter which it may deem
necessary to fully protect its water, gas and electric plants, poles, wires
and appliances and other property used in connection with such utilities,
whether located within or without said city, from trespass, damage, pollu-
tion or injury from any source.

The council may also withhold the supplying of water, gas and
electric energy to any building, apartment, store or room until all unpaid
charges due for either of such services which have been supplied at such
premises have been paid and satisfied.
The council may also make all rules and regulations necessary to
enforce the collection of receipts from its public utilities by requiring
cash deposits or other security for the payment thereof.

CHAPTER VIII

Section 5. All bonds of the City of Danville hereafter issued shall
be serial in form; that is to say, the aggregate principal of the bonds to
be issued shall be divided by the number of years which represents the
probable life of the improvement or undertaking, as ascertained and
determined by the council, so that the bonds will mature in annual install-
ments, the maturity date of those first falling due to be not more than
two years after the date of the bonds. The annual maturities, except the
last, shall be in equal amounts provided however, that during the calendar
years nineteen hundred and forty-two to nineteen hundred and forty-six,
both inclusive, the council may, at its discretion, issue bonds either in
serial form or so that all of the issue will mature at the same time.

Section 7. In all instances where under the Constitution and
general laws of Virginia or under the city charter the question of bor-
rowing money and issuing bonds, including both general obligation bonds
and revenue bonds, must be submitted to the decision of the qualified
voters of the city and approved by them in the manner prescribed by
law, the council shall have no power, prior to the voters’ approval of
the proposition to incur any indebtedness or make any contract, express
or implied, to be discharged out of such borrowed funds.

Whenever the borrowing of money and the issuance of bonds
therefor may be effected by the city council without the previous author-
ization of the voters, and the issuance of such bonds has been duly
authorized by the council, if the council enters of record the existence
of some emergency it may borrow money in anticipation of the receipts
of the proceeds of sale of the contemplated bond issue and within the
maximum authorized amount of such bond issue. Such loans, however,
shall be paid within twelve months after they are made out of the pro-
ceeds of the sale of such bond issue.

The council may also borrow money in anticipation of the collec-
tion of taxes and revenues in the city in amounts not exceeding two
hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000.00) in any one calendar or
fiscal year. The council may issue negotiable notes or other evidences of
debt for all temporary loans authorized under this section. Such notes
or other evidences of debt may be renewed from time to time but all
such notes or other evidences of debt shall mature within twelve
months. No temporary loans shall be negotiated under this section at a
rate of interest exceeding six (6) per centum per annum. The said
notes or other evidences of debt may be disposed of by public or private
negotiations. The issuance of such notes or other evidences of debt may
be authorized by resolution of the council adopted by the affirmative vote
of two-thirds of all the members elected to the council.
cH. 465] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 739

CHAPTER IX

Section 2. The council may vest in the collector of city taxes and
assessments, the collector of water, gas and electric rates, rents and
charges and in any other collector of license fees, rents and other sums
due the city which it may appoint, all powers which are now or may be
hereafter vested in county and city treasurers or which it may prescribe
to enforce collection by levy, distress or any other legal proceeding pro-
vided for by general laws or by city ordinances. Any goods or chattels
in the city belonging to the person or estate liable for taxes or levies,
water, gas and electric rates, rents or charges may be distrained there-
for. In all cases property liable hereunder to levy or distress may be
subjected by levy or distress in the hands of any person, except that
goods or chattels in the actual possession of a bona fide purchaser shall
not be liable to such levy, or distress, except for taxes assessed against
the specific property levied on. ,

No deed of trust, chattel mortgage or conditional sales contract
upon goods or chattels shall prevent the same from being distrained
and sold under distress warrant for taxes, levies, water, gas and electric
rates, rents or charges against the owner while such goods and chattels
remain in his possession, nor shall any prior lien prevent the goods and
chattels subject thereto from being distrained and sold for taxes or
levies assessed thereon, no matter in whose possession they may be found.

No landlord’s lien or distress for rent shall have priority over a
distress for taxes, levies, water, gas or electric rates, rents or charges
even though such landlord’s lien or distress is prior in point of time to
the levy made for the city. In any distribution of the assets of any per-
son, firm or corporation liable for city taxes, levies, water, gas and
electric rates, rents or charges, whether actually distrained therefor or
not, the sums due the city shall have priority over all claims of general
creditors and over all liens thereon, whether voluntary or created by
operation of law; provided nothing herein contained shall be construed
to affect general statutes regulating the marshalling of assets of an
insolvent decedent’s estate or those in regard to the exemption of poor
debtors. ,

Section 3. The goods and chattels of a tenant, or other person in
possession claiming under the party or estate assessed with taxes, or
levies, may be distrained therefor if found on the premises, but not for
an amount exceeding the rent contracted to be paid by such tenant for
said premises nor until the property of the landlord subject to distress
within the city shall have been exhausted.

A tenant from whom payment shall be obtained, by distress ot
otherwise, of taxes or levies due from a person under whom he holds,
shall have credit for the same against such person out of the rents. he
may owe him, except where the tenant is bound to pay such taxes and
levies by an express contract with such person. : |
740 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY [va., 1942