Chap. 524.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 18 of an act entitled an
act providing a charter for the city of Norfolk, and repealing the existing
charter, approved April 21, 1882, in force January 21, 1884, as to the powers
of the councils of the city of Norfolk, and restrictions on the councils in
passing certain resolutions and ordinances.

Approved February 26, 1900.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
eighteen of an act entitled an act providing a charter for the city of
Norfolk, and repealing the existing charter, approved April twenty-first,
eighteen hundred and eighty-two, in force January twenty-first, eigh-
teen hundred and eighty-four, be amended and re-enacted so as to read
as follows:

§ 18. The councils shall have authority to compel the attendance of
absent members; to punish members for disorderly behavior; and by a
vote of two-thirds of the council to expel a member for malfeasance or
misfeasance in the office. They shall keep a journal of their proceedings;
and their meetings shall be open. A majority of the members of each
council shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. But
on all ordinances or resolutions, appropriating money, imposing or re-
leasing taxes, authorizing the borrowing of money, granting franchises,
or authorizing the conveyance of any property of the city, or increasing
any salary or pay of an employee of the city, a vote of a majority of all
the members elected to each council in favor of such ordinance or reso-
lution shall be necessary to give them force of law, and the yeas and
nays shall be entered on the journal of each council, respectively. No
vote shall be reconsidered or rescinded at a special meeting, unless there
be present at such special meeting as large a number of members as were
present when such vote was taken. No ordinance or resolution appro-
priating money exceeding the sum of one thousand dollars, imposing
taxes, or authorizing the borrowing of money, shall be passed by the
two councils on the same day, nor shall any such ordinance or resolution
be valid, unless at least three days intervene between its passage by the
said councils, respectively, and no ordinance granting a franchise shall
be introduced except at a regular meeting, nor be passed until the next
regular meeting of the councils in which it was first introduced. The
compensation of no officer, whether paid in whole or in part by the city
of Norfolk, shall be increased or diminished by the said city during his
term of office; and this also shall apply to all officers whose compensation
is made up of fees, in whole or in part. But this prohibition shall not
be construed to repeal or modify an act passed at the present session of
the general assembly entitled “an act allowing the city of Norfolk to
increase the salary of the judge of the court of law and chancery of said
city, and to still further increase the salary of the judge of the corpora-
tion court of said city,” or to take away the powers therein conferred
upon the councils of the city of Norfolk.
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.