CHAPTER 72

An Act to amend and reenact § 148(a) of Chapter 34 of the Acts of
Assembly of 1918, approved February 7, 1918, as amended, which
chapter provided a new charter for the city of Norfolk, and which
section relates to the power of the city to establish and maintain a
system of pensions, retirement allowances and death benefits for
certain officers and employees, and validating the inclusion of certain
officers and employees in said system by an ordinance that became
effective on January 1, 1954; to amend and reenact § 13, as amended,
of said chapter, which section relates to the penalty for the absence
of councilmen from regular council meetings; and to repeal § 115 of
said chapter, which section provides for an efficiency board for the

city.
[H 173]
Approved February 27, 1954

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 143(a) of Chapter 34 of the Acts of Assembly of 1918,
approved February 7, 1918, as amended, be amended and reenacted as
ollows:

§ 143(a). In addition to the other powers conferred by law, the
council of said city shall have the right and power to establish and main-
tain, in such manner and to such extent and in such combination thereof
as said council may deem desirable, a system or systems of pensions and
retirement allowances for, and death benefits for the designated bene-
ficiaries of, the officers and employees of said city, including policemen
and firemen and such other officers and employees whose entire compen-
sation is paid directly by said city but not to include officials elected by
the people or the General Assembly, * except that the council of said city
may, in * its discretion, include therein * the city treasurer and the
employees in his office, the commissioner of the revenue and the employees
in his office, the city sergeant * and the employees in his office, the clerks
of the courts of record of the city and the employees in their respective
offices, the Commonwealth’s attorney of the city and the employees in his
office, the civil justice of the city, the judge of the juvenile and domestic
relations court of the city, and the employees in the welfare department *
of * the city, or any of them, and to that end, shall have authority to
establish a fund or funds for the payment of such pensions, retirement
allowances and death benefits by making appropriations out of the
treasury of said city, by requiring contributions from time to time from
those participating in any such system, or by any other mode not pro-
hibited by law, or by any combination of said methods, to make rules
and regulations for the management, investment and administration of
such fund or funds, and the payment of such pensions, retirement allow-
ances and death benefits, and to do all such other things that may be
deemed necessary or advisable to carry into effect the provisions of any
such system or systems.

The pensions accruing and to accrue to any such officer or employee
or to the beneficiary thereof, under any such system, and the accumulated
contributions, securities, moneys and assets of any such fund, are hereby
exempted from state, county and municipal taxation, and shall not be
subject to execution, attachment or garnishment, or any other process
whatsoever, and shall be unassignable except as provided by a regulation
of such system.

The council shall have the continuing right and power to amend at
any time any ordinance adopted pursuant to the provisions hereof, which
right and power is expressly reserved to them, but no such amendment
shall be adopted which will reduce the then accrued benefits of such officers
and employees and beneficiaries covered by any such system or systems
below the extent they may be then covered by accumulative reserves in
any such fund or funds, which shall constitute a trust fund or funds for
the payment of such benefits.

The inclusion in the system of pensions, retirement allowances and
death benefits heretofore established by the city of any of the officers or
employees embraced within the provisions of this section as above
amended, but not embraced within the provisions thereof prior to the
above amendment, by an ordinance effective January one, nineteen hun-
dred fifty-four, are hereby authorized, ratified and confirmed, and said
ordinance shall have the same force and effect as if this act had become
effective on January one, nineteen hundred fifty-four.
2. That § 18 as amended of Chapter 34 of the Acts of Assembly of
1918, approved February 7, 1918, be amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 13. For each absence of a councilman from a regular meeting of
the council, except where such absence is occasioned or required by city
business, sickness, or other unavoidable cause, in which case the absence
of such councilman may be excused by a * two-thirds vote of the council,
there shall be deducted from his pay a sum equal to two per centum of
his annual salary. Absence from five consecutive regular meetings shall
operate to vacate the seat of a member, unless the absence is excused by
a council resolution setting forth the reason thereof, and entered upon
the journal.
8. § 115 of Chapter 34 of the Acts of Assembly of 1918, approved
February 7, 1918, is repealed.
4. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.