CHAPTER 95

An Act to amend Chapter 227 of the Acts of Assembly of 1954, approved
March 12, 1954, which chapter provided a new charter for the City
of Covington, by adding thereto sections numbered 5.021 and 5.041,
which sections relate to the collection and disbursement of local funds
and to the method of making real estate reassessments, respectively;
and to further amend the said chapter by amending and reenacting
8§ 5.12 and 12.01 thereof, which sections relate to the purpose for
which bonds or notes may be issued and to the school board and
superintendent of schools, respectively. CH 65]
5

Approved February 25, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That Chapter 227 of the Acts of Assembly of 1954, approved March
12, 1954, be amended by adding thereto two sections numbered 5.021 and
5.041; and that the chapter be further amended, by amending and re-
enacting §§ 5.12 and 12.01 thereof, as follows:

§ 5.021. Collection, Custody and Disbursement of Local Funds by
Director of Finance.—The Council may, notwithstanding any other pro-
vision of this charter, by ordinance provide that the director of finance
and not the City Treasurer shall collect, have custody of and disburse all
local taxes, revenues and funds which belong to the City and the school
board or to which they or either of them are entitled. In event such an
ordinance is adopted, the director of finance shall have all the rights,
powers and authority conferred upon, and shall be subject to all the duties
and liabilities imposed upon the city treasurer by the general laws of the
ao and this charter with respect to local taxes, revenues and
unds.

§ 5.041. Alternative Method for Real Estate Reassessment.—In
addition to the powers heretofore granted with relation to the reassessment
of real estate:

_ (@) The Council of the City of Covington shall have the power, in
keu of the means and methods prescribed by law, to provide by ordinance
for the annual assessment and reassessment and equalization of assess-
ments of real estate for local taxation and to that end shall appoint as City
assessor or assessors, one or more persons, to assess or reassess for taxa-
tion the real estate within the City of Covington, and to prescribe the duties
and term of office of said assessor or assessors.

Such assessor or assessors shall make such assessment and re-
assessments on the same basis as real estate is required to be assessed
under the provisions of the Code of Virginia and as of the first day of
January of each year, shall have the same authority as the assessors
appointed under the provisions of the Code, and shall be charged with
duties similar to those thereby imposed upon such assessors, except that
such assessments or reassessments shall be made annually and the assess-
ments and reassessments so made shall have the same effect as if they had
been made by assessors appointed under the provisions of the said Code.

(c) The term of such assessor or assessors shall be fixed by the council,
and any vacancy or vacancies, however occurring, shall be filled by the
council. The council shall likewise fix the compensation of any such assessor
or assessors, provide such clerical or other assistance as may be necessary,
and provide for the payment or other assistance as may be necessary, and
provide for the payment of such salaries and other expenses as may be
properly incident to the work involved. And all such salaries, expenses and
other costs incurred in connection with such assessment or reassessment
shall be paid out of the treasury of the city.

(d) The Circuit Court of Alleghany County or the judge thereof in
vacation shall, annually, appoint for said City of Covington, a board of
review of real estate assessments to be composed of three members, who
shall be freeholders of the City of Covington. The terms of such members
shall commence on their appointment and shall expire on the thirtieth day
of November of the year in which they are appointed, unless such terms
are extended. The said court or the judge thereof in vacation may extend
the terms of the members of the said board of review and shall fill any
vacancy therein for the unexpired term. The members of the said board
shall receive per diem compensation for the time actually engaged in the
duties of the board to be fixed by the said court, and to be paid out of the
treasury of the city, and the court may limit the per diem compensation
to such number of days, as, in its judgment, is sufficient for the completion
of the work of the board.

(e) Such board of review shall have and may exercise the powers to
revise, correct, and amend any assessment of real estate made by said
assessor in the year in which they serve, and to that end shall have all
powers conferred upon boards of equalization by general law. The provi-
sions of general law notwithstanding, however, the board of review may
adopt any regulations providing for the oral presentation, with formal
petitions or other pleadings of requests for review, and looking to the
further facilitation and simplification of proceedings before the board.

(f) That any person or the city, if aggrieved by any assessment made
by said board of review, may apply for relief in the manner provided by
general law.

(9) That this section shall not apply to the assessment of any real
estate assessable under the law by the State Corporation Commission.

_ Ch) Allacts and parts of acts relating to the assessment of real estate
tn cities not in conflict with the provisions of this section shall apply to the
assessments made pursuant to this section.

§ 5.12, Purpose for which Bonds or Notes may be Issued.—Bonds,

and notes in anticipation of bonds when the issuance of bonds has been
authorized as hereinafter provided, may be issued for any purpose for
which cities are authorized to issue bonds by the Constitution or general
laws of this State. All bonds shall be in serial form payable, as consecu-
tively numbered, in annual installments the first of which shall be payable
not more than three years from the date of issue of such bonds.
_ Bonds or notes * evidencing short term loans for the purpose of pay-
tng current expenses or debts of the City may be issued, when authorized
by the Council *; provided, however, that * any such bonds or notes may
be renewed from time to time but shall mature not later than twelve
months after the date of issue, and the aggregate amount thereof * out-
standing at any one time shall not exceed an amount equal to twenty-five
per centum of the revenue from all sources collected by the City in the
preceding fiscal year.

§ 12.01. School Board and Superintendent of Schools.—The depart-
ment of education shall consist of the city school board, the division super-
intendent of schools, and the officers and employees thereof. Except as
otherwise provided in this charter, the city school board and the division
superintendent of schools shall exercise all the powers conferred and per-
form all the duties imposed upon them by general law. .

The school board of the City of Covington shall * consist of * fwe
trustees, who shall be residents and qualified voters of the City, and shall
be appointed by a majority vote of all the members of the Council. The
three school trustees of the City in office at the present time * shall * con-
tinue in office for the terms for which they were appointed *. The first
appointments hereunder for the two additional school trustees provided
for herein shall be made one for the term beginning on the date of ap-
pointment and continuing until July one, nineteen hundred fifty-eight,
and the other shall be for a term beginning on the date of appointment and
continuing until July one, nineteen hundred fifty-nine. After the expira-
tion of the terms of the present three members and the terms of the two
additional members herein provided for all five appointments, except
appointments to fill an unexpired term, shall be for the term of three years.
Appointments to fill a vacancy occurring otherwise than by expiration of
term of office shall be for the remainder of the unexpired term. Any
vacancy occurring in said school board by expiration of term of office or
giier qeason shall be filled by a majority vote of all members of the

ouncil.

The division superintendent of schools shall be appointed and serve
for a term of office as prescribed by general law. The person holding office
as division superintendent of schools of Alleghany County and the City of
Covington at the time this charter takes effect shall continue as division
superintendent of schools of Alleghany County and for the City of Coving-
ton and serve for the remainder of the term he would have served, * unless
said division of Alleghany County and the City of Covington be terminated
by the State Board of Education before the expiration of his present term.
After the expiration of said present term or the termination of said divt-
sion by the State Board of Education, whichever shall first occur, the divi-
sion superintendent of schools for the City of Covington shall be appointed
as prescribed by general law.
2, All acts and parts of acts that conflict with this act are hereby re-
pealed insofar as they affect the provisions of these amendments to the
charter of the City of Covington.

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