CHAPTER 63

An Act to amend and reenact § 8 of Chapter 184 of the Acts of Assembly
of 1988, approved March 18, 1988, which provided a new charter for
the Town of Manassas, so as to define the powers of the mayor and
provide for the appointment of a police justice and defining his powers.

[H 296]
Approved February 20, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 8 of Chapter 184 of the Acts of Assembly of 1938, approved
March 18, 1938, be amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 8. The mayor shall preside at the meetings of the council and
perform such other duties as may be prescribed by this charter and by
pevenel law, and such as may be imposed by the council, consistent with

8 Office.

The mayor shall have no right to vote in the council except that in
every case of a tie vote of the council, the mayor shall be entitled to vote.

The mayor shall * be clothed with authority to try all violations of
any ordinance of the said town. ; .

The council shall have power to elect a legally qualified person trained
tn the law, who is a resident of the town of Manassas, to be known as the
police justice of the town of Manassas, who shall have the power to issue
process, hear and determine prosecutions and controversies which may
arise under the ordinances of the town, impose fines and inflict punishment
when and wherever they are authorized by the said ordinances; and to
issue executions for the collections of fines. Appeals may be taken from the
decision of the police justice to the circuit court of Prince William County.

Such police justice shall qualify in the same manner as the mayor
and shall hold office until January one, nineteen hundred fifty-nine. The
term of the office shall thereafter be four years beginning January one,
nineteen hundred fifty-nine. Such police justice shall be paid a salary by
the town to be fixed by the council. The police justice may be removed
from office for cause by the council. — ; i.

The police justice shall have original jurisdiction in criminal matters
involving the violation of any ordinance of the town of Manassas, which
violations occur within the corporate limits of the said town and within
an area of one mile from the corporate limits of said town. .

In instances where a warrant is issued charging the violation of a
town ordinance and it develops prior to trial or at any time prior to the
imposition of sentence that the alleged offense involved is a felony, then
the police justice may certify said case to the Judge of the County Court
for Prince William County, Virginia, to there be dealt with as provided
by law, and it may be there dealt with on the original warrant the same
as though said warrant had charged the violation of a State law and had
been issued by a person authorized to issue State warrants provided such
warrant is amended to charge that the offense was committed against the
peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.

_ The police justice shall have power to issue warrants for the viola-
tions of town ordinances; to issue subpoenas for witnesses, take recog-
nizances and bail bonds, and in the performance of such duties to ad-
minister oaths.

Nothing herein contained shall impair the authority of the mayor to
exercise the same powers as the police justice in any case in which the
mayor shall act.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.