CHAPTER 264

An Act to amend Chapter 393 of the Acts of Assembly of 1932, approved
March 29, 1982, which provided a charter for the city of Williams-
burg by adding sections numbered 84.1 through 84.6, providing for
a Department of Finance and divisions thereof for the city, the
director thereof, the powers and duties of the director, and to
transfer certain duties of the treasurer to such department and

director.
[H 343]
Approved March 8, 1956

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That Chapter 393 of the Acts of Assembly of 1932, approved March
29, 1982, be amended by adding thereto sections numbered 34.1 through
34.6 as follows:

§ 34.1. At such time as the city council by ordinance so provides
there shall be a department of finance in and for the city government
which may include bureaus of accounting and control, collection, license
inspection and such other bureaus, divisions and units as may be provided
by ordinance. Upon the establishment of such department all powers and
duties of the city treasurer with respect to the collection, receipt and
disbursement of city taxes, moneys, and funds shall be transferred to
and vested in the department of finance and director thereof together with
all records thereto appertaining.

§ 34.2. The head of the department of finance shall be known as
the director of finance. He shall be a person skilled in municipal accounting
and financial control. He shall give bond in such sum as the council may
prescribe, with surety to be approved by the council, conditioned for the
faithful discharge of his official duties in relation to the revenue of the
city, and of such other official duties as may be imposed upon him by this
charter and the ordinances of the city.

§ 34.8. The director of finance shall have general management and
control of the several bureaus, divisions and other units of the depart-
ment. He shall appoint and remove, all officers and employees of the
department and shall have power to make rules and regulations con-
sistent with this charter and the ordinances of the city for the conduct
of its business. He shall have charge, subject to the direction and control
of the city manager, of the administration of the financial affairs of the
city and to that end shall have authority and be required to:

(a) Cooperate with the city manager in compiling estimates for
the budgets.

(b) Supervise and control all encumbrances, expenditures and dis-
bursements to insure that budget appropriations are not exceeded.

(c) Prescribe the form of receipts, vouchers, bills or claims to be
used and of accounts to be kept by all departments, courts, boards, com-
missions, offices and agencies of the city, including the school board except
for such accounts as are kept by employees of the school board.

(d) Require daily, or at such other intervals as he may deem ex-
pedient, a report of receipts from each of such departments, courts,
boards, commissions, offices and agencies, including the school board,
and prescribe the times at and the manner in which moneys received
by them shall be paid to the office of the director of finance or deposited
in a city bank account under his control.

(e) Examine all contracts, purchase orders and other documents,
which create financial obligations against the city or the school hoard,
and approve the same only upon ascertaining that money has been ap-
propriated and allotted therefor and that an unexpended and unencum-
bered balance is available in such appropriation and allotment to meet the
same, provided that the director of finance may give advance author-
ization for the expenditure from any appropriation for the purchase
of supplies, materials or equipment of such sum, within the current
allotment of such appropriation, as he may deem necessary during a
period of not to exceed three months for the purchase of items not to
exceed in cost twenty-five dollars for any one item, and immediately
encumber such appropriation with the:amount of such advance authoriza-
tion, and thereafter, within the period specified, purchase orders for such
items, to an aggregate not exceeding such authorization, shall be valid
without the prior approval of the director of finance endorsed thereon,
but each such purchase order shall be charged against such authorization
and no such purchase order, which together with all such purchase orders
previously charged within the period specified shall exceed the amount
of such authorization, shall be valid.

(f) Have custody of all funds belonging to the city and the school
board and deposit funds coming into his hands to the account of the city
or the school board, as the case may be, in such banks as may be desig-
nated for the purpose by the council and the school board, respectively,
subject to the laws of the Commonwealth applicable to the city and
school board relative to the deposit of public funds.

(g) Audit before payment, for legality and correctness, all accounts,
claims and demands against the city, and no money shall be drawn from
any bank account of the city or school board except by warrant or check,
signed by the director of finance, based upon a voucher duly approved
by him as above provided.

(h) Have custody of all investments and invested funds of the city
or in its possession in a fiduciary capacity, unless otherwise provided by
this charter or by law, ordinance or the terms of any trust, and the
safekeeping of all bonds and notes of the city and the receipt and delivery
of city bonds and notes for transfer, registration and exchange.

(i) Submit to the city manager for presentation to the council and
to the superintendent of schools for presentation to the school board,
not later than the tenth day of each month, a statement concerning the
financial transactions of the city and each utility and of the school board,
respectively, prepared in accordance with accepted principles of municipal
accounting and budgetary procedure, and showing: (1) the amount of
each appropriation with transfers to and from the same, the allotments
thereof to the end of the preceding month, the encumbrances and ex-
penditures charged against such appropriation and the allotments thereof
during the preceding month, the total of such charges for the fiscal year
to the end of the preceding month, and the unencumbered balance re-
maining in such appropriation and the allotments thereof; (2) the revenue
estimated to be received from each source, the actual receipts from each
source for the preceding month, the total receipts from each source for
the fiscal year to the end of the preceding month, and the balance
remaining to be collected.

(j) Furnish the head of each department, court, board, commission,
office and agency of the city a copy of that portion of the statement relat-
ing to such department, court, board, commission, office or agency.

(k) Prepare and submit to the city manager at the end of each fiscal
year, for the preceding year, a complete financial statement and report
of the financial transactions of the city, and to the school board a complete
— statement and report of the financial transactions of the school

oard.

(1) Designate, with the approval of the city manager, an employee
of the department of finance as deputy director of finance who during
the temporary absence or incapacity of the director of finance shall have
and perform all the powers and duties conferred or imposed upon the
director of finance.

(m) Authorize the deputy director of finance and such other em-
ployees as he may deem necessary, and under such rules and regulations
as he may establish, to affix his signature to checks and other documents.

(n) Protect the interests of the city by withholding the payment of
any claim or demand by any person, firm or corporation against the city
CH. 264] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 315

until any indebtedness or other liability due from such person, firm or
corporation shall first have been settled and adjusted. .

§ 34.4. There may be a bureau of accounting and control of which
the director of finance shall act as the head unless and until the council
shall authorize by ordinance the director of finance to appoint another
head. It shall be the duty of this bureau to maintain a general accounting
system for the city government and each of its departments, courts,
boards, commissions, offices and agencies, including the school board, in
conformity with the best recognized practices in governmental account-
ing; and to encumber each item of appropriation and the allotments
thereof with the amount of each purchase order, pay roll or contract
approved by the director of finance immediately upon such approval,
including each advance authorization as provided in subsection (e) of

§ 34.5. There may be a bureau of collection, the head of which shall
be the collector of city taxes. He shall give bond in such sum as the council
may prescribe, with surety to be approved by the council, conditioned for
the faithful discharge of his official duties in relation to the revenue of the
city, and of such other official duties as may be imposed upon him by this
charter and the ordinances of the city. It shall be the duty of the collector
of city taxes to collect and receive all moneys due the city for taxes whether
current or delinquent, assessments or fees or charges of every kind and
except as otherwise provided by this charter or the general laws of the
Commonwealth as the same may relate to the city. In so doing he shall
have power to employ any procedure that is now or may hereafter be
prescribed by law for the collection of State taxes or local taxes. There
shall be a lien, which shall have precedence over any other lien or encum-
brance thereon, on all real estate and on each and every interest therein,
for the city taxes assessed thereon, from the commencement of the year
for which they are assessed, including penalties and interest on such taxes,
which may be enforced by the collector of city taxes on behalf of the city
in any manner provided by law. All goods and chattels wheresoever found
may be distrained and sold for taxes, interest and penalties assessed and
due thereon and for taxes, interest and penalties assessed against the
owner thereof, and no deed of trust or mortgage upon goods or chattels
shall prevent the same from being distrained and sold for taxes or levies
assessed against the grantor in such deed while such goods and chattels
remain in the grantor’s possession; nor shall any such deed prevent the
goods and chattels conveyed from being distrained and sold for taxes or
levies assessed thereon, no matter in whose possession they may be found.

§ 34.6. (a) The officer or board responsible for making any assess-
ment of taxes or levies or the director of finance may require the produc-
tion of the books and records of any taxpayer containing information
concerning the tax liability of such taxpayer for the purpose of verifying
or amending or correcting the assessment of city taxes for any tax year of
the three tax years last past or for the then current tax year. The council
may provide by ordinance for the issuance of a summons requiring the
production of the taxpayers’ books and records and for the imposition of
fines and penalties for the failure to obey such summons.

(b) If the officer or board responsible for making any assessment
or the director of finance ascertain that any taxpayer has not been
assessed with taxes of any kind for any tax year of the three tax years
last past or for the then current tax year, or that said taxpayer has been
assessed with taxes of any kind at less than the law required for or during
any one or more of such years, or that the said taxes for any cause have
not been realized, it shall be the duty of the officer or board responsible
for making the assessment or the director of finance, upon his or its own
examination and audit, to assess the taxpayer with the taxes at the rate
or rates prescribed for said year or years and to include in such assess-
ment penalties and interest as may be prescribed by council, not to exceed,
however, a penalty of five per cent of the tax and interest upon said tax
and penalty at the rate of six per cent per annum from the time when
such tax would have borne a penalty for nonpayment had it been regu-
larly assessed and remained unpaid, and the council may provide for the
imposition of additional interest, not to exceed interest upon the entire
assessment at the rate of six per cent per annum from the date of assess-
ment, if such assessment be not paid within thirty days after its date.

(c) If in the regular course of the audit of such taxpayers’ records
the officer or board responsible for making any assessment and the direc-
tor of finance ascertain that the amount of license taxes assessed against
the taxpayer for any one or more of said years is in excess of the amount
of license taxes which should have been assessed against said taxpayer
upon a correct computation thereof then the director of finance, with the
approval of the city attorney, may refund out of the city treasury the
excess of such taxes erroneously assessed if said excess be paid or exon-
erate the taxpayer: from the payment of said excess if the excess be not
paid. If the officer or hoard responsihle for making the assessment or
the director of finance ascertain that there be additional liability for one
or more years and also an excessive assessment for one or more years then
the excess of one assessment may be credited against the deficiency of
the other assessment and the taxpayer he assessed with the net deficiency
or be refunded the net excess if paid or exonerated from the payment of
the net excess if unpaid, by order of the director of finance, with the
approval of the city attorney.

(d) Any person, firm or corporation assessed with any local tax
or levy and who is aggrieved thereby may, at any time within one year
from the thirty-first day of December of the year in which such assess-
ment is made, apply to the officer or board making such assessment for a
correction of said assessment. Notice of such application shall also be
given to the director of finance and the city attorney and if the officer
or board making such assessment, with the approval of both the director
of finance and the city attorney, be satisfied that such person, firm or
corporation has been erroneously assessed with any such tax or levy
then the director of finance, with the approval of the city attorney, may
order the officer or board making such assessment to correct the assess-
ment and it shall be the duty of said officer or hoard to make such
correction in accordance with the orders of the director of finance, with
the approval of the city attorney. The director of finance, with the ap-
proval of the city attorney, shall have -the power to order that the tax-
payer be exonerated from the payment of so much as is erroneously
charged if unpaid and if said assessment be paid then the director of
finance, with the approval of the city attorney, shall have the power to
order the refund of the excess of said assessment out of the treasury of
the city. But where it is shown to the satisfaction of the officer or board
making such assessment, with the approval of both the director of
finance and the city attorney, that there has been a double assessment in
any case, one of which assessments is proper and the other erroneous,
and that a proper single tax has been paid thereon, the director of finance,
with the approval of the city attorney, may order that such erroneous
assessment be corrected whether the erroneous tax has been paid or not
and even though the application be not made within the one year as
hereinbefore required. The remedy granted by this section shall be in
addition to the right of any taxpayer to apply within the time prescribed
by law to the proper court as provided by law for the correction of
erroneous assessments of the taxes described in this section and applica-
tion may be made to the proper court irrespective of whether such appli-
cant has or has not theretofore made application to the officer or board
making such assessment for the correction of any such assessment.

2. At such time as the city council by ordinance finds that the need
for a department of finance exists the provisions of §§ 34.1 through 34.6
shall be in force and for the purpose of such determination being made
an emergency exists and this act is otherwise in force from its passage.