[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Las Vegas as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted as Ch. 1, Art. 1 of the 1972 City Code[1]]
[1]
Editor's Note: Original Sec. 1-1-1, How Code designated and cited; Sec. 1-1-3, Amendments; Sec. 1-1-4, Severability; Sec. 1-1-5, Repeal; and Sec. 1-1-6, Effect of repealing ordinances, which were a part of Ch. 1, Art. 1 of the 1972 Code, were deleted 4-20-2011 by Ord. No. 11-10. For similar provisions, see Art. II, Adoption of Code, of this chapter.
In the construction of the Code and of all ordinances, the following definitions and rules of construction shall be observed, unless it shall be otherwise expressly provided in any section or ordinances, or unless inconsistent with the manifest intent of the ordinance:
AGENT
A person acting on behalf of another.
CITY or THIS CITY
The City of Las Vegas.
CODE
The Code of the City of Las Vegas as adopted and subsequently amended, unless the context requires otherwise.
COUNCIL
The governing body of the City of Las Vegas.
DAY
The period of time between any 12:00 midnight and the 12:00 midnight following.
DAYTIME
The period of time between sunrise and sunset.
EMPLOYEE
An employee of the City of Las Vegas.
FEE
A sum of money charged by the municipality for the carrying on of a business, profession or occupation.
MONTH
A calendar month.
NIGHTTIME
The period of time between sunset and sunrise.
NMSA 1953
New Mexico Statutes Annotated, 1953 Compilation.
OATH
Includes 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."
OWNER
When applied to a building or land, includes any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership or joint tenant of the whole or of a part of such building or land.
PERSON
Any individual, association, society, club, firm, partnership, corporation, or any other form of association or organization.
PERSONAL PROPERTY
Every species of property except real property, as herein defined.
PRECEDING and FOLLOWING
Next before and next after, respectively.
PROPERTY
Real, tangible and intangible personal property.
REAL PROPERTY
Land, tenements and hereditaments.
SHALL and MAY
"Shall" is mandatory, and "may" is permissive.
SIDEWALK
Any portion of a street between the curbline and the adjacent property line, intended for the use of pedestrians.
STATE
The State of New Mexico.
STREET
Any thoroughfare that can accommodate pedestrian or vehicular traffic, is open to the public and is under the control of the municipality.
TENANT or OCCUPANT
When applied to a building or land, includes any person who occupies the whole or a part of such building or land, whether alone or with others.
THE COUNTY or THIS COUNTY
The County of San Miguel, New Mexico.
WRITTEN or IN WRITING
Includes any representation of words, letters or figures, whether by printing or otherwise.
YEAR
A calendar year, unless otherwise expressed.
The Corporate Seal for the municipality shall be as follows: The official seal of the City of Las Vegas is declared to be an impression, the center of which is the word "SEAL" "TOWN INCORPORATED JULY 1, 1888" and around the outer edge the words "CITY OF LAS VEGAS, NEW MEXICO NAME ADOPTED APRIL 18, 1897 TOWN AND CITY CONSOLIDATED MARCH 16, 1970".
A. 
Whenever in this Code or any other ordinance or resolution of the municipality or any rule or regulations promulgated under the provision of the Code, any act is prohibited or declared to be unlawful or an offense or a misdemeanor or the doing of an act is required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful or an offense or a misdemeanor, where no specific penalty is provided therefor, any person who shall be convicted of the violation of any such provision of this Code or other ordinance or resolution of the municipality hereafter enacted or of such rules or regulations shall be punished by a fine of not more than $300 and/or by imprisonment in jail not exceeding 90 days by suit or prosecution before a Municipal Judge.
B. 
Every day any violation of this Code or any other ordinance or resolution of the municipality or any rule or regulation promulgated under the provisions of this Code shall continue to exist, it shall constitute a separate offense.
C. 
Any person upon whom any fine is imposed in any action for the violation of an ordinance, upon order of the court convicting him, be ordered by the court to work for the municipality at such labor as his strength will permit and designated by the municipality. Such work shall not exceed eight hours for each working day. Each offender shall be credited with $5 per day toward the reduction of his fine.
Prosecution for violations of municipal ordinances prior to the effective date of this Code shall be governed, prosecuted and punished under the ordinances existing at the time such crimes were committed.
[Added 8-20-1987 by Ord. No. 76-6]
A. 
Upon a plea of guilty or a judgment of conviction for violation of a municipal ordinance, the Municipal Court may suspend in whole or in part the execution of sentence or place the defendant on probation for a period not exceeding one year on terms and conditions the Court deems best, or both.
B. 
Suspension of execution of the sentence or probation, or both, shall be granted only when the Municipal Judge is satisfied it will serve the ends of justice and of the public.
C. 
The defendant's liability for any fine or other punishment imposed shall be fully discharged upon successful completion of the terms of probation.
D. 
The Municipal Court may as a condition of probation require the defendant to serve a period of time in volunteer labor to be known as "community service." The type of labor and period of service shall be at the sole discretion of the Court, provided that any person receiving community service shall be immune from any civil liability other than gross negligence arising out of the community service, and any person who performs community service pursuant to court order or any criminal diversion program shall not be entitled to any wages, shall not be considered an employee for any purpose and shall not be entitled to workers' compensation, unemployment benefits or any other benefits otherwise provided by law. As used in this section, "community service" means any labor that benefits the public at large or any public, charitable or education entity or institution.
[Adopted 4-20-2011 by Ord. No. 11-10]
The ordinances of the City of Las Vegas of a general and permanent nature adopted by the City Council of the City of Las Vegas, as revised, codified and consolidated into chapters and sections by General Code, and consisting of Chapters 1 through 450, together with an Appendix, are hereby approved, adopted, ordained and enacted as the "Code of the City of Las Vegas," hereinafter known and referred to as the "Code."
This ordinance and the Code shall supersede all other general and permanent ordinances enacted prior to the enactment of this Code, except such ordinances as are hereinafter expressly saved from repeal or continued in force. This ordinance supersedes and replaces the Code of the City of Las Vegas, New Mexico, adopted March 20, 1972 by Ord. No. 60-5, as amended and supplemented.
A copy of the Code in loose-leaf form has been filed in the office of the City Clerk and shall remain there for use and examination by the public until final action is taken on this ordinance; and, if this ordinance shall be adopted, such copy shall be certified to by the Clerk of the City of Las Vegas by impressing thereon the Seal of the City, as provided by law, and such certified copy shall remain on file in the office of the Clerk of the City, to be made available to persons desiring to examine the same during all times while said Code is in effect.
Any and all additions, amendments or supplements to the Code, when passed and adopted in such form as to indicate the intent of the governing body to make them a part thereof, shall be deemed to be incorporated into such Code so that reference to the "Code of the City of Las Vegas" shall be understood and intended to include such additions and amendments. Whenever such additions, amendments or supplements to the Code shall be adopted, they shall thereafter be printed and, as provided hereunder, inserted in the loose-leaf book containing said Code as amendments and supplements thereto.
The Clerk of the City of Las Vegas, pursuant to NMSA 1978, § 3-17-5C, shall cause this Adopting Ordinance to be published, in the manner required, in a newspaper of general circulation in the City. Sufficient copies of the Code shall be maintained in the office of the Clerk for inspection by the public at all times during regular office hours. The enactment and publication of this Adopting Ordinance, coupled with availability of copies of the Code for inspection by the public, shall be deemed, held and considered to be due and legal publication of all provisions of the Code for all purposes.
A. 
It shall be the duty of the Clerk or someone authorized and directed by the Clerk to keep up-to-date the certified copy of the book containing the Code required to be filed in his or her office for the use of the public. All changes in said Code and all ordinances adopted subsequent to the effective date of this codification which shall be adopted specifically as part of the Code shall, when finally adopted, be included therein by reference until such changes or new ordinances are printed as supplements to said Code book, at which time such supplements shall be inserted therein.
B. 
When preparing a supplement to this Code, the codifier (meaning the person, agency or organization authorized to prepare the supplement) may make formal, nonsubstantive changes in ordinances and parts of ordinances included in the supplement, insofar as it is necessary to do so to embody them into a unified code. For example, the codifier may:
(1) 
Organize the ordinance material into appropriate chapters, articles, sections and subsections;
(2) 
Provide appropriate headlines, headings and titles for chapters, articles, sections, subsections and tabular material of the Code included in the supplement, and make changes in such headlines, headings and titles;
(3) 
Assign appropriate numbers or letters to chapters, articles, sections and subsections to be inserted in the Code;
(4) 
Change the words "this ordinance" or words of the same meaning to "this chapter," "this article," "this section," etc., as the case may be, or to "§ _________" (inserting section number to indicate the section of the Code which embodies the substantive section of the ordinance incorporated into the Code); and
(5) 
Make other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning of ordinance sections inserted into the Code; but in no case shall the codifier make any change in the meaning or effect of ordinance material included in the supplement or already embodied in the Code.
Copies of the Code, or any chapter or portion of it, may be purchased from the Clerk, or an authorized agent of the Clerk, upon the payment of a fee authorized by the City. The Clerk shall also arrange for procedures for the periodic supplementation of the Code.
It shall be unlawful for anyone to improperly change or amend, by additions or deletions, any part or portion of the Code or to alter or tamper with such Code in any manner whatsoever which will cause the law of the City of Las Vegas to be misrepresented thereby. Anyone violating this section or any part of this ordinance shall be subject, upon conviction, to the general penalty set forth in § 1-3, General penalty and continuing violations, of the Code of the City of Las Vegas.
Each section of the Code and every part of each section is an independent section or part of a section, and the holding of any section or a part thereof to be unconstitutional, void or ineffective for any cause shall not be deemed to affect the validity or constitutionality of any other sections or parts thereof.
Each section of this ordinance is an independent section, and the holding of any section or part thereof to be unconstitutional, void or ineffective for any cause shall not be deemed to affect the validity or constitutionality of any other sections or parts thereof.
Except as provided in § 1-18, Ordinances saved from repeal, below, all ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent with the provisions contained in the Code adopted by this ordinance are hereby repealed; provided, however, that such repeal shall only be to the extent of such inconsistency, and any valid legislation of the City of Las Vegas which is not in conflict with the provisions of the Code shall be deemed to remain in full force and effect.
The adoption of this Code and the repeal of ordinances provided for in § 1-17 of this ordinance shall not affect the following ordinances, rights and obligations, which are hereby expressly saved from repeal:
A. 
Any ordinance adopted subsequent to January 5, 2011.
B. 
Any right or liability established, accrued or incurred under any legislative provision prior to the effective date of this ordinance or any action or proceeding brought for the enforcement of such right or liability.
C. 
Any offense or act committed or done before the effective date of this ordinance in violation of any legislative provision or any penalty, punishment or forfeiture which may result therefrom.
D. 
Any prosecution, indictment, action, suit or other proceeding pending or any judgment rendered, prior to the effective date of this ordinance, brought pursuant to any legislative provision.
E. 
Any franchise, license, right, easement or privilege heretofore granted or conferred.
F. 
Any ordinance providing for the laying out, opening, altering, widening, relocating, straightening, establishing of grade, changing of name, improvement, acceptance or vacation of any right-of-way, easement, street, road, highway, park or other public place or any portion thereof.
G. 
Any ordinance relative to the location of restrictions on limited parking zones, restricted speed areas, one-way streets, limited access streets, play streets, through or arterial streets, stop streets, parking meter spaces in controlled parking zones, parking decals for certain City vehicles and vehicles of certain officials, parking meter zones, U-turns, school zones, crosswalks, hospital zones, safety zones, loading and unloading zones, quiet zones, bus stops, taxicab stands, truck routes, parking of vehicles of various sizes and weights, traffic lanes and the location of traffic control devices.
H. 
Any ordinance or resolution appropriating money or transferring funds, promising or guaranteeing the payment of money or authorizing the issuance and delivery of any bond or other instruments or evidence of the City's indebtedness.
I. 
Ordinances authorizing the purchase, sale, lease or transfer of property or any lawful contract, agreement or obligation.
J. 
The levy or imposition of taxes, assessments or charges or the approval of the municipal budget.
K. 
The dedication of property or approval of preliminary or final subdivision plats.
L. 
Extending or contracting the boundaries of the City.
M. 
Any resolution, administrative ordinance, directive or order of the governing body or rules or regulations of other agencies of the City having law-making or contracting powers which are not in conflict or consistent with the provisions of this Code.
N. 
All currently effective ordinances pertaining to the rate and manner of payment of salaries and compensation of officers and employees.
O. 
Any ordinance adopting or amending the Zoning Map.
P. 
Any ordinance relating to or establishing a pension plan or pension fund for municipal employees.
A. 
In compiling and preparing the ordinances for adoption and revision as part of the Code, certain grammatical changes and other minor changes were made in one or more of said ordinances. It is the intention of the City Council that all such changes be adopted as part of the Code as if the ordinances so changed had been previously formally amended to read as such.
B. 
In addition, the changes, amendments or revisions as set forth in Schedule A attached hereto and made a part hereof are made herewith, to become effective upon the effective date of this ordinance. (Chapter and section number references are to the ordinances as they have been renumbered and appear in the Code.)[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: In accordance with § 1-19B, the chapters, parts and sections which were added, amended, adopted or deleted by this ordinance are indicated throughout the Code by a footnote referring to Chapter 1, General Provisions, Article II. During routine supplementation, footnotes indicating amendments, additions or deletions will be replaced with the following history: "Amended (added, deleted) _________________." Schedule A, which contains a complete description of all changes, is on file in the City offices.