[Adopted as Ch. 1, Sec. 1-2, of the Code of Ordinances]
A.
In the construction of this Code and of all ordinances of this City,
the following rules of construction and definitions shall be observed,
unless such construction or definition would be inconsistent with
the manifest intent of the City Council or be repugnant to the context
of the provisions or the context clearly requires otherwise.
B.
Generally. All words and phrases shall be construed and understood
according to the common and approved usage of language, but technical
words and phrases and such others as may have acquired a peculiar
and appropriate meaning in the law shall be construed and understood
according to such peculiar and appropriate meaning.
A.
Delegation
of authority. Whenever a provision appears in this Code requiring
a City officer or City employee to do some act, it is to be construed
to authorize such officer or employee to designate, delegate and authorize
subordinates to perform the required act.
B.
Gender.
A word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied
to females and to firms, partnerships, associations and corporations
as well as to males.
C.
Joint authority.
Words purporting to give authority to three or more officers or other
persons shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority
of such officers or other persons.
D.
Number.
Any word importing the singular number shall include the plural and
any word importing the plural number shall include the singular.
E.
Tense. Words
used in the past tense or present tense shall include the future as
well as the past or present.
As used in this Code, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
The City of Española, New Mexico.
The governing body of the City.
The Code of Ordinances of the City of Española, New Mexico, as designated and cited in Article I of this chapter.
Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, and/or Santa Fe County, New
Mexico.
A right, liberty, privilege or advantage without profit which
the owner of one parcel of land may have in the lands of another;
or a right of the owner of one parcel of land, by reason of such ownership,
to use the land of another for a special purpose not inconsistent
with a general property right in the owner.
Any statute, ordinance or regulation promulgated by the United
States, the state, the county, the City or any agencies thereof, as
well as the rules and regulations of other bodies politic that may
be appropriate.
Any person under 18 years of age with respect to all offenses,
except those involving alcoholic beverages.
A calendar month.
The New Mexico Statutes Annotated, 1978 Compilation, as amended.
Construed to include an affirmation in all cases in which,
by law, an affirmation may be substituted for an oath, and in such
cases the words "swear" and "sworn" shall be equivalent to the words
"affirm" and "affirmed."
Whenever reference is made to officials, employees, boards,
commissions or other agencies of the City by title only, i.e., "Mayor,"
"Clerk," "Manager," "Chief of Police," etc., they shall be deemed
to refer to the officials, employees, boards, commissions or other
agencies of this City.
Whenever certain hours are named in this Code they shall
mean standard time or daylight saving time as may be in current use
in the City.
"Or" may be read "and" and "and" may be read "or" if the
context of the provision requires it.
When applied to a building or land, includes any part owner,
joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership, joint tenant
or tenant by the entirety of the whole or of a part of such building
or land.
Includes and shall be applied to a firm, partnership, association,
corporation, organization, club, society, group acting as a unit,
or body politic and corporate, as well as to an individual.
Includes money, goods, chattels, evidences of debt, things
in action, and any other species of property, except real property.
Next before and next after, respectively.
Includes real, personal and mixed property.
Any public way, park, cemetery, school yard or open space
adjacent thereto; any public lake or stream; and any place or business
open to the use of the public in general, open to public view or to
which the public has access.
Any street, alley, boulevard, parkway, highway, sidewalk
or other public thoroughfare.
Includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.
In all cases where any section of this Code or City ordinance
shall require any act to be done in a reasonable time or reasonable
notice to be given, such reasonable time or notice shall be deemed
to mean such time only as may be necessary for the prompt performance
of such duty, or compliance with such notice.
The place adopted by a person as his place of habitation,
and to which, whenever he is absent, he has the intention of returning.
When a person eats at one place and sleeps at another, the place where
such person sleeps shall be deemed his residence.
That portion of a street improved, designed or ordinarily
used for vehicular traffic.
"Shall" is mandatory; and the word "may" is discretionary.
Any portion of the street between the curb or the lateral
line of the roadway and the adjacent property line intended for the
use of pedestrians.
Includes a mark when the person cannot write, when his name
is written near such mark and is witnessed by a person who writes
his own name as witness.
The State of New Mexico.
Includes public streets, avenues, boulevards, highways, roads,
alleys, lanes, viaducts, bridges, public ways and approaches thereto
and other public thoroughfares in the City devoted to public use.
As applied to a building or land means any person who occupies
the whole or a part of such building or land, whether alone or with
others.
Includes typewriting, printing on paper and any other mode
of representing words and letters.
A calendar year.
