CHAPTER 52

Arn Act to amend and reenact § 58 of Chapter $34 of the Acts of the
General Assembly of 1918, approved February 7, 1918, as amended,
which provided a charter and special form of government for the city
of Norfolk, which section relates to the Department of Public Welfare
so as to provide for the suspension of portions thereof on certain con-
ditions and to grant powers to and prescribe duties for certain
officials.

[H 219}

Approved February 26, 1966

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 58 of Chapter 34 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1918,
approved February 7, 1918, as amended, which provided a charter and
special form of government for the city of Norfolk, be and the same is
hereby amended and reenacted so as to read as follows: —

§ 58. General powers and duties.

The head of the Department of Public Welfare shall be known as the
Director of Public Welfare.

Subject to the supervision and control of the City Manager in all
matters, he shall administer the affairs of his department, which shall
include the management and supervision of all charitable, correctional and
reformatory institutions and agencies belonging to the City; the use of all
recreative facilities of the City, including parks and playgrounds other
than school playgrounds; the management and supervision of cemeteries;
the maintenance and preservation of shade trees and shrubbery; the
inspection and supervision of all public amusements and entertainments,
and of the places where the same are held; the enforcement of all laws,
ordinances and regulations relative to the preservation and promotion of
the public health; the prevention and restriction of all disease, including
the enforcement in time of threatened epidemic, of such quarantine and
isolation regulations as are appropriate to the emergency; the prevention,
abatement and suppression of nuisances; the sanitary inspection and
supervision of the production, transportation, storage and sale of food and
foodstuffs; the inspecting, testing, measuring and weighing of any com-
modity or article of consumption or use within the City, as well as the
inspection of weights, measures and meters used for the purpose afore-
said. The said department shall keep a complete and accurate system of
vital statistics.

The Council shall provide for the establishment and organization
within the said department and subject to the supervision of the director
thereof, of the following divisions or bureaus:

(a) Bureau of Public Health, which shall be charged with the conser-
vation of the public health, with the supervision, management and control
of all hospitals, municipal clinics and dispensaries, of all detention or
isolation stations for contagious diseases; with the sanitary supervision of
the City water supply and the sanitary policing and patrol of the territory
constituting the watershed thereof; the sanitary inspection of all plumb-
ing, buildings, grounds and premises, including public buildings and public
school buildings; the physical inspection of the pupils of public schools,
and the administration to such pupils of such medical and surgical super-
vision and attention as the Council may by ordinance provide; the sanitary
inspection and supervision of the production, transportation, storage, and
sale of all foods and foodstuffs and of all articles and things intended for
aaa consumption; and the keeping of a complete record of vital
statistics.

The Superintendent of the Bureau of Public Health shall be the Health
Officer of the City.

He shall be a physician, a graduate of a medical college which is now,
or was at the time of his graduation, recognized by the Virginia State
Board of Medical Examiners, and shall have had training in the adminis-
tration of public health duties.

The appointment of such officer shall not be limited to the inhabitants
of the City or State, unless otherwise required by the Constitution of the
State. He shall give his entire time to the duties of his position; and shall
have such assistants as the Council may by ordinance provide; provided,
however, that the provisions of paragraph (a) shall be suspended during
any period when the City has established a District Health Department
and has contracted with the State of Virginia, or any department, board
or agency thereof, for the operation thereof; and during any such contract
period, the City Manager may appoint the person operating the District
Health Department for the State as the Director of Public Health, and
Health Officer, of the City and when so appointed, such person is empow-
ered and directed to enforce all local laws and ordinances of the City relat-
ang to public health and to carry out all duties and responsibilities imposed
upon the Director of Public Health, and Health Officer, of the City by
State statute or local ordinances.

(b) Bureau of Markets, which shall be charged with the supervision,
management and control of all public markets; and with the collection of
all market fees, and the proper accounting for the same.

(c) Bureau of Recreations and Charities, which shall be charged with
the supervision and control of all charitable, correctional and reformative
institutions belonging to the City, and of all recreational facilities of the
City, including parks and playgrounds, other than school playgrounds;
with the management and supervision of cemeteries and also with the
inspection and supervision of all public amusements and entertainments
and of the places where the same are held. |

The Director of Public Welfare shall endeavor to correlate all private
and public charities within said City, and so far as is practicable to avoid
duplication of effort.

The Council shall make no appropriation of public funds towards the
maintenance and support of any private charity except upon conditions
that the City shall have representation upon the board of directors, board
of managers or other governing body of such private charity, and that a
detailed financial report, showing all receipts and disbursements by such
private charity, shall be made to the Director of Public Welfare at least
once in each year. But nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the
City from contracting with any private hospital or similar institution for
the care of indigent sick or injured persons, or for other services.

The Director of Public Welfare, or such other person within said
department as he may designate, shall represent the City on the board of
directors, board of managers or other governing body of any charity to
which public funds shall have been contributed upon the conditions afore-
8aj

(d) Bureau of Standards, which shall be charged with the inspection
and testing of all weights, scales, meters, and measures for the weighing
or measuring of any article or commodity of consumption or use within
the City, including the inspection and testing of the quality and sufficiency
of electric current and gas and meters used in measuring the same.

The Council may by ordinance add to the functions and duties of the
said several divisions or bureaus; or rearrange and group the said func-
tions as said Council may deem expedient.

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