CHAPTER 431

An Act to amend and reenact § 4 as amended, of Chapter 412 of the Acts
of Assembly of 1922, approved March 24, 1922, which provided a
charter for the town of Woodstock, and to amend said chapter by
adding sections numbered 4a through 4d, inclusive, the amended and
new sections relating, respectively, to powers of the town; composition
and election of the governing body; appointment of a town manager;
legislative procedure; and continuing effect of certain ordinances.

[(S 143]
Approved March 31, 1960

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 4 as amended, of Chapter 412 of the Acts of Assembly of 1922,

approved March 24, 1922, be amended and reenacted and that said chapter

pe emetined by adding sections numbered 4a through 4d, inclusive, as
ollows:

§ 4. * The powers set forth in §§ 15-77.1 through 15-77.70 of the Code
of Virginia as in force on January one, nineteen hundred sixty, are hereby
conferred on and vested in the town of Woodstock, Virgmia.

§ 4a. A mayor and six councilmen shall be elected by the qualified
voters of the town on the second Tuesday in June, nineteen hundred sixty-
two, and on the second Tuesday of June of every fourth year thereafter;
all of whom shall hold office for terms of four years, beginning on the first
day of September next succeeding their election, and shall continue in offtce
until their successors shall have qualified. Any person qualified to vote
in the town shall be eligible to the office of mayor or councilman. But no
member of the council or other officer shall be interested directly or tn-
directly in the profits of any contract or work, or be financtally interested
directly or indirectly in the sale to the town of any land, materials, sup-
plies or unofficial services.

§ 4b. The council may, without adopting any of the alternative forms
of government provided by law, nevertheless employ a person, who may
or may not be a resident or qualified voter of such city or town or of this
State, to be known as the “Town Manager’, who shall, under the control
of the council, have general charge and management of the administrative
affairs and work of the town and shall perform such other duties as may be
required of him. He shall receive such salary as may be allowed him by
the council and may be dismissed at any time by the council.

§ 4c. Proposed ordinances shall be introduced in written or printed
form, and the enacting clause of all ordinances shall substantially be “Be it
Ordained by the Council of the Town of Woodstock’, and all ordinances
shall be read at two meetings not less than a week apart, one of which
shall be a regular meeting and the other of which may be either an ad-
journed or called meeting, provided the requirement of a second reading
may be confined to the reading of the title only upon the vote of four mem-
bers of the council; provided, further, that emergency measures may be
passed upon a single reading. The vote of each member of the council on
all ordinances shall be recorded in the minutes. All ordinances passed by
the council shall take effect thirty days after the date of passage, unless
another later effective date shall be designated therein, except that the
council may by affirmative vote of a majority of its members pass emer-
gency measures to take effect immediately upon passage.

Every ordinance upon its final passage shall be recorded in a book
kept for the purpose, and shall be authenticated by the signature of the
presiding officer and the town clerk. Every ordinance of a general or
permanent nature shall be published in full once, within ten days ajter the
final passage, in a newspaper or newspapers of general circulation in the
municipality; and where legally permissible, such publication shall be
made but once; provided that where any such ordinance is amended, the
council may direct that only the amendment or the substance of such
amendment be published and such publication shall be a sufficient com-
pliance with this section; and provided, further, that the foregoing re-
quirements as to publication shall not apply to ordinances reordained tn or
by a general compilation, codification or recodification of ordinances printed
by authority of the council, nor to any ordinance contained tm, or re-
ordained or amended by, a general compilation, codification or recodtfica-
tion of ordinances printed as a code of ordinances, provided that such
printed code of ordinances shall not take effect until thirty days after the
same shall have been printed in quantity and delivered to and lodged in
the office of the town clerk.

A record or entry made by the town clerk or a copy of such record or
entry duly certified by him shall be prima facie evidence of the terms of
the ordinance or any amendment thereof and its due publication, or tts
receipt in quantity as a printed code of ordinances. ; ;

All ordinances and resolutions of the 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 clerk or from the
volume or code of ordinances printed by authority of the council.

§ 4d. The present mayor and councilmen, and all other officers of the
town of Woodstock shall continue to hold office and to perform the duttes
of their respective offices for the said town for the terms for which they
were elected and until their successors be elected and qualify, and all
liabilities, actions, claims, contracts heretofore existing under the former
charter and amendatory acts under the corporate name of the town of
Woodstock shall remain and continue in force and effect as if this act had
not been passed. And all ordinances now in force in the town of Wood-
stock, not inconsistent with this charter shall be and remain in full force
until altered, amended or repealed by the council of said town.

. If any section, clause, sentence, paragraph, part, or application of
this act shall for any reason be adjudged by any court of competent juris-
diction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate
the remainder of this act.

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