Chap. 186.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 5, 16, 22, 35, 60 and
63 of an act approved March 14, 1906, and entitled an act to amend
and re-enact an act of the general assembly of Virginia, in force
January 21, 1884, entitled an act providing a charter for the city of
Norfolk, and repealing the existing charter, approved April 21, 1882,
as amended by the several acts of the general assembly of Virginia,
approved, respectively, April 6, 1887, April 28, 1887, May 14, 1887,
February 14, 1900, February 21, 1900, February 26, 1900, February
2, 1901, February 15, 1901, March 15, 1902; and to define the bound-
aries of the said city of Norfolk, as extended by the several acts of
the general assembly, approved April 6, 1887, February 22, 1890, and
March 14, 1902, and by an order of the circuit court of Norfolk county,
which was entered on the 9th day of January, 1906. (H. B. 188.)

Approved March 16, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
sections five, sixteen, twenty-two, thirty-five, sixty and sixty-
three of an act approved March fourteenth, nineteen hundred
and six, and entitled an act to amend and re-enact an act of the
general assembly of Virginia, in force January twenty-one,
eighteen hundred and eighty-four, entitled an act providing a
charter for the city of Norfolk, and repealing the existing char-
ter, approved April twenty-one, eighteen hundred and eighty-
two, as amended by the several acts of the general assembly of
Virginia, approved, respectively, April sixth, eighteen hundred
and eighty-seven, April twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and
eighty-seven, May fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-
seven, February fourteenth, nineteen hundred, February twenty-
first, nineteen hundred, tebruary twenty-sixth, nineteen hun-
dred, February second, nineteen hundred and one, February
fifteenth, nineteen hundred and one, March fifteenth, nineteen
hundred and two; and to define the boundaries of the said city
of Norfolk, as extended by the several acts of the general as-
sembly, approved April sixth, eighteen hundred and eighty-
seven, February twenty-second, eighteen hundred and ninety,
and March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and two, and by an
order of the circuit court of Norfolk county, which was entered
on the ninth day of January, nineteen hundred and six, be and
the same are hereby amended and re-enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 5. Whenever any special election shall be ordered by
the city council for any object not provided for in the general
election laws of the State, it shall, unless otherwise provided
by law, communicate its order for the same to the judge of the
corporation court of the city of Norfolk, and the same proceed-
ings shall be had as are provided by the laws of the State for
special elections to fill vacancies in any municipal office.

Sec. 16. Each branch of the city council shall elect a presi-
dent and vice-president, and the said council, as hereinafter
provided, shall elect a clerk, who shall be the clerk of each
branch thereof.

When the president of either branch of the city council shall
be absent from the city, or unable to perform the duties of his
office by reason of sickness or other cause, the vice-president
thereof shall perform any and all of the duties required of or
intrusted to such president under any provision of this charter.

When, from any cause, both the president and vice-president
of either branch of the said council shall be absent from any
meeting thereof, a president pro tempore shall be elected by that
branch in which such absence may occur, who shall preside dur-
ing the absence of the president and vice-president thereof.

The president, vice-president, or president pro tempore who
«hall preside when the proceedings of a previous meeting are
read, shall sign the same.

The president of either branch of the city council, or the
vice-president thereof when authorized as above provided to
act for the president, shall have the power at any time to calla
meeting of his branch of the said council, as the case may be;
and in the event of the absence, sickness, disability, or refusal
of both the president and vice-president of either branch of the
said council to act in calling a meeting of his branch of the said
council, such branch of said council may be convened by the
order in writing of any three members thereof.

Each branch of the city council shall have authority to adopt
such rules and appoint such other officers and clerks as it may
deem proper for the regulation of its proceedings, and for the
convenient transaction of its business, which officers shall be
liable to be removed by each branch, respectively, each acting
for itself in this regard, with power to each branch, acting for
itse!f, to supply any vacancy which may occur.

A majority of the members of each branch of the city council
shall constitute a quorum of such branch for the transaction of
business; but a smaller number may adjourn from time to time,
not exceeding three days at any one time. 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.

Each branch of the city council shall have power to compel
the attendance of its members, to punish its members for dis-
orderly behavior, and by a vote of two-thirds of its members
to expel a member for malfeasance or misfeasance in office.

Each branch of the city council shall keep a journal of its
proceedings, and the meetings shall be open, except when by a
recorded vote of two-thirds of those members of either branch
present it shall be declared that the public welfare requires
secrecy of its proceedings.

The citv council, or either branch thereof, or any of its com-
mittees, when authorized by said council or branch, the board
of control, or any other board created by this charter or by ordi-
nance under this charter. may each in any investigation held
by them, respectively, within their respective powers and duties,
order the attendance of any person as a witness and the pro-
ducticn by any person of all proper books and papers. Any per-
son refusing or failing to attend or to testify or to produce such
Pooks and papers may be summoned by such investigating body
before the pol'ce justice or any officer having the power of a
justice cf the pesce of the city, and upon failure to give a satis-
factory excuse may be fined by him not exceeding the sum of
one hundred dollars or imprisoned not exceeding thirty days,
such rersen to rave the right of appeal as in cases of misde-
meanor to the corporation court of the city. Such witness may
be sworn by the officer presiding at such investigation, and shall
be liab'e to prosecution for periury fer any false testimony
given at such investigat’on. There shall be a committee of the
citv council to be known and designated as the finance com-
mit‘ee. The said committee shall be composed of the vice-
president of the common council and two other members thereof,
and the vice-president of the board of aldermen and one other
member thereof, and the vice-president of the common council
shall be the chairman of the said committee.

Sec. 22. No ordinance hereafter passed for the violation
of which any punishment is imposed shall take effect until the
same shall have been published for two days (of which Sunday
may be one) in consecutive issues in one or not exceeding two
of the daily newspapers published in the city of Norfolk; pro-
vided, however, that this requirement shall not apply to an ordi-
nance merely granting some right or privilege, not otherwise
required by law to be published, nor to an ordinance re-ordained
or amended and re-ordained in or by a general compilation or
codificaticn of ordinances printed by authority of the council.

A record or entry made by the city clerk or a copy of such
record or entry duly certified by him shall be prima facie evi-
dence of the terms of the ordinance and its due publication.

All laws, regulations, and ordinances of the city council may
be read in evidence in all courts and in all other proceedings in
which it may be necessary to refer thereto, either from a copy
thereof certified by the city clerk or from the volume of ordi-
nances printed by authority of the council.

Sec. 35. There shall be elected by the qualified voters of
the city of Norfolk, one commissioner of the revenue, who shall
hold his office for the term of four years and until his successor
shall be elected or appointed and qualify, unless sooner removed
from office. He shall give bond with surety in a sum not less
than ten thousand dollars. He shall perform such duties not
inconsistent with the laws of the State in relation to the assess-
ment of property and licenses, as may be required by the city
council for the purpose of levying city taxes and licenses. He
shall have power to administer such oaths as may be required
by the city council in the assessment of licenses or other taxes
for the city. He shall make such reports in regard to the said
assessment of both property and licenses, or either, as may be
required by the city council, or either branch thereof, or the
finance committee of said council.

Sec. 60. The commissioners appointed to ascertain and as-
sess the damages incurred by the said claimant, by the pulling
down or destruction of such building, or any part thereof, by
the direction of the said officer of the city, as provided above,
shall take into account the probability of the same having been
destroyed, or injured by fire, if it had not been so pulled down
or destroyed, and may report that no damages should equitably
be allowed to such claimant beyond the amount of insurance
which would have been payable to the owner, had the building
not been so destroyed, upon the payment of which the city shall
stand subrogated to all rights of the owner against the insurer.
Whenever a report shall be made and finally confirmed in the
said proceedings, for appraising and assessing the damages, a
compliance with the terms thereof by the city council shall be
deemed a full satisfaction of all damages of the said claimant.
sec. 63. The school trustees of the city of Norfolk shall be
a body corporate under the name and style of “the school board
of the city of Norfolk,” and shall have all the powers, perform
all the duties, and be subject to all the limitations now provided
or which may hereafter be provided by law in regard to school
boards of cities, except that all real estate with the buildings
and improvements thereon, purchased with money appropriated
by the city council, or received from any other source, for the
purpose of public education, shall be the property of the said
city cf Norfolk, unless such money so received from anv other
source be received on other conditions. The said school board
shall on the first day of the months of January and July in each
year transmit to the city council and to the city comptroller a
detailed statement of all money received by said board or placed
to its credit and all moneys disbursed by said board during the
preceding six months, whether such moneys shall have been
appropriated by the city council, or received from any other
source for the purpose of public education. Separate accounts
shall be kept of the moneys appropriated by the city council and
moneys received from other sources, and every such statement
shall show the balance of each class of said funds on hand or
under control of said board as of the date thereof.

Each school trustee shall, at the time of his election, be a
resident of the school district from which he may be elected,
and if any trustee shall, during the terin of his office, remove
from the district for which he was elected, such removal shall
vacate his office. Each school trustee shall, before entering
upon the duties of his office, take and subscribe before some
officer authorized to administer oaths, the oaths prescribed for
State officers, and file said oaths in the office of the city clerk.
No person ineligible under the laws of the State as school
trustee shall be elected to that office.

The school board of the city of Norfolk shall have power,
subject to the approval of the city council, to prescribe the
number and boundaries of the school districts in said citv, and
when the school districts are so prescribed and approved by
the city council, the resolution approving the number and bound-
aries of the said districts, shall have the force and effect of an
ordinance of the said city. The number and boundaries of dis-
tricts shall be revorted to the superintendent of public instruc-
tion and recorded in his office, and shall also be recorded in the
office of the clerk of the corporation court of said city, until the
said city shall have been divided into schon] districts. as here-
inbefore provided, each ward of the said city shall constitute a
school district.

The city council, in joint session, shall at its first meeting in
Julv, nineteen hundred and six, or as soon thereafter as prac-
ticable. elect three school trustees for each school district in
the said city, one to serve for the term of one year, one for the
term of two years, and the third for the term of three years,
from the first of August, nineteen hundred and six, and an-
nually thereafter the said city council, in joint session, shall,
at its first meeting in July, or as soon thereafter as practicable,
elect one trustee for each school district in said city, to serve for
the term of three years from the first day of August, in said
year, the said trustees so elected to serve until their respective
successors are duly elected and qualified.

In case the school districts shall be changed, by redistricting,
the school trustees then in office shall continue in office until the
first day of August following the next election by the city coun-
cil for school trustees, and the said council shall have the power
to elect the trustees to meet the requirements caused by said
redistricting, in the same manner and for the same terms as
hereinbefore first provided, and all the trustees in office on the
said first day of August following such election shall vacate
their offices as soon as their successors are duly elected and qual-
ified. Any vacancy occurring in the board of school trustees
shall be filled by the city council, in joint session, for the unex-
pired term. The several school trustees in office when this char-
ter goes into effect, shall continue in office until the first dav of
August, nineteen hundred and six, when their term shall expire.

2. All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby
repealed.

38. On account of the proper administration of the govern-
mental affairs of the city of Ncrfolk an emergency exists and
this act is hereby declared to be an emergency act within the
provision of section fifty-three of the Constitution, and shall b2
in force from its passage.