[R.O. 2012 §100.010; CC 1973 §1-1]
This Code shall be known and may be cited as the "Code of Ordinances of the City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri", or simply as "the Code of Ordinances" or "the Code".
[R.O. 2012 §100.020; CC 1973 §1-2]
A. 
Nothing contained in this Code of Ordinances or the ordinance adopting this Code shall be construed to repeal or otherwise affect the following:
1. 
Any offense or act committed or done or any penalty or forfeiture incurred or any contract or right established or accruing before the effective date of this ordinance;
2. 
Any ordinance promising or guaranteeing the payment of money for the City, or authorizing the issuance of any bonds of the City or any evidence of the City's indebtedness, or any contract or obligation assumed by the City.
3. 
Any appropriation ordinance.
4. 
Any right or franchise granted by the City Council to any person, firm or corporation;
5. 
Any ordinance providing for local improvements or making assessments therefor;
6. 
Any ordinance annexing property to the City;
7. 
Any ordinance enacted by the City after the 8th day of March, 1971;
nor shall such repeal be construed to revive any ordinance or part of an ordinance which is repealed by this ordinance.
[R.O. 2012 §100.030; CC 1973 §1-3]
In the construction of this Code of Ordinances and of all ordinances, the following definitions and rules or construction shall be observed, unless it shall be otherwise expressly provided in any Section or ordinance, or unless inconsistent with the manifest intent of the City Council, or unless the context clearly requires otherwise;
CERTIFIED MAIL OR CERTIFIED MAIL WITH RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
Includes certified mail carried by the United States Postal Service or any parcel or letter carried by an overnight, express or ground delivery service that allows a sender or recipient to electronically track its location and provides a record of the signature of the recipient.
CITY COUNCIL, COUNCIL
Whenever the term "City Council" or the word "Council" is used, unless the context required otherwise, said term or word shall be construed to refer to the City Council of the City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
CITY
The City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
CODE OF ORDINANCES, CODE
The Code of Ordinances of Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
CODIFICATION
This "Codification" shall refer to the Code of Ordinances of Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
COMPUTATION OF TIME
The time within which an act is to be done shall be computed by excluding the first (1st) and including the last day; and if the last day be Sunday or a legal holiday, that shall be excluded.
COUNCILMAN
Any person elected to the City Council, and shall include those persons who hold other offices and who are ex officio.
COUNTY
Clay County or Ray County in the State of Missouri, whichever is appropriate.
DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY
Whenever a provision appears in this Code requiring the head of a department or an officer of the City to do some act or make certain inspections, it may be construed to authorize the head of the department or officer to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to perform the required act or make the required inspections unless the terms of the provision or Section designate otherwise.
GENDER
When any subject matter, party or person is described or referred to by words importing the singular number or the masculine gender, several matters and persons, and females as well as males, and bodies corporate as well as individuals, are included.
JOINT AUTHORITY
Words importing joint authority to three (3) or more persons shall be construed as authority to a majority of such persons.
KEEPER, PROPRIETOR
Means and includes persons, firms, associations, corporations, clubs and partnerships, whether acting by themselves or through a servant, agent, or employee.
MAYOR
Shall mean the Mayor of the City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
MONTH
The word "month" shall mean a calendar month.
NAME OF OFFICER
Whenever the name of an officer is given it shall be construed as though the words "of the City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri", were added.
NON-TECHNICAL AND TECHNICAL WORDS
Words and phrases shall be taken in their plain or ordinary and usual sense, but technical words and phrases having a peculiar and appropriate meaning in law shall be understood according to their technical import.
NUMBER
When any subject matter, party or person is described or referred to by words importing the singular number, the plural and separate matters and persons and bodies corporate shall be deemed to be included.
OATH
Shall be 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".
OR, AND
"Or" may be read "and", and "and" may be read "or" if the sense requires it.
OWNER
The word "owner" applied to a building or land, shall include any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, joint tenant by the entirety, of the whole or a part of such building or land.
PERSON
May extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations.
PERSONAL PROPERTY
Includes money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidences of debt.
PRECEDING, FOLLOWING
When used by way of reference to any Section of the Statutes, mean the Section next preceding or next following that in which the reference is made, unless some other Section is expressly designated in the reference.
PROPERTY
The word "property" shall include real and personal property.
PUBLIC PLACE
Any park, cemetery, schoolyard or open space adjacent thereto.
PUBLIC WAY
Includes any street, alley, boulevard, parkway, highway, sidewalk, or other public thoroughfare.
REAL PROPERTY
The terms "real property" or "premises" or "real estate" or "lands" shall be deemed to be co-extensive with lands, tenements and hereditaments.
RESIDENCE
Construed to mean the place adopted by a person as his/her place of habitation, and to which, whenever he/she is absent, he/she 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/her residence.
SEAL
Whenever the word "seal" is used it shall mean the City or Corporate Seal.
SIDEWALK
The portion of the street between the curbline and the adjacent property line, intended for use of pedestrians.
SIGNATURE
Where the written signature of any person is required, the proper handwriting of such person or his/her mark shall be intended.
STATE
The words "the State" shall mean the State of Missouri.
STREET
Shall mean and include any public way, highway, street, avenue, boulevard, parkway, alley or other public thoroughfare, and each of such words shall include every other of them.
TENANT, OCCUPANT
The word "tenant" and "occupant" applied to a building or land, shall include any person who occupies the whole or a part of such building or land, whether alone or with others.
TENSE
Words used in the past or present tense include the future as well as the past and present.
WEEK
The word "week" shall be construed to mean seven (7) days.
WRITTEN, IN WRITING AND WRITING WORD FOR WORD
Includes printing, lithographing, or other mode of representing words and letters, but in all cases where the signature of any person is required, the proper handwriting of the person, or his/her mark, is intended.
YEAR
Shall mean a calendar year.
All general provisions, terms, phrases and expressions contained in this Code of Ordinances shall be liberally construed in order that the true intent and meaning of the City Council may be fully accomplished.
[1]
State Law References — Definitions, rules of construction, etc., §§1.020, et seq., RSMo.
No offense committed and no fine, penalty or forfeiture incurred, or prosecution commenced or pending previous to or at the time when any ordinance provision is repealed or amended, shall be affected by the repeal or amendment, but the trial and punishment of all such offenses and the recovery of the fines, penalties or forfeitures shall be had, in all respects, as if the provision had not been repealed or amended, except that all such proceedings shall be conducted according to existing procedural laws.
[R.O. 2012 §100.050; CC 1973 §1-5]
A. 
The City Clerk shall keep three (3) copies of the Code of Ordinances. These copies shall be so preserved by the City Clerk that any and all amendments to, or general ordinances affecting such codification, shall be shown by appropriate notes. The purpose of this provision is to insure the maintenance in the office of the City Clerk of three (3) master copies of this codification in which shall be shown any and all changes which have taken place since the publication thereof.
B. 
In determining whether or not any ordinances hereafter passed, or any part thereof, shall be noted in the copies of the codification so preserved by the City Clerk, and in determining the form of any such note and its location, if any doubt arises, the City Clerk shall be guided by the advice of the City Attorney or his/her assistants.
[R.O. 2012 §100.060; CC 1973 §1-6]
No officer or employee of the City shall issue, mail or distribute as a publication of the City or any officer, department or branch of the City Government any book, pamphlet, leaflet, card, circular or other printed matter purporting to contain excerpts or quotations from this codification or purporting to give the law on any subject to the public, either as a reprint of any ordinance or other legislative enactment, or as a digest, interpretation, resume, condensation, or explanation of the same without first submitting such book, pamphlet, leaflet, card, circular or other printed matter or portion of the same which purports to give the law, to the City Clerk for examination and approval as to form and as to whether or not the law is correctly stated therein.
[R.O. 2012 §100.070; CC 1973 §1-7]
Any printed copy of this Code of Ordinances containing a printed certificate of the Mayor and the City Clerk as to the correctness of such codification shall be received in evidence in any court for the purpose of providing the ordinances therein contained, the same and for the same purpose as the original ordinances, minutes or journals would be received.
[R.O. 2012 §100.080; CC 1973 §1-8]
Any and all additions and amendments to this Code of Ordinances when passed in such form as to indicate the intention of the City Council to make the same a part thereof shall be deemed to be incorporated in such Code so that reference to the "Code of Ordinances of the City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri", shall be understood and intended to include such additions and amendments.
[R.O. 2012 §100.090; CC 1973 §1-9]
All ordinances passed subsequent to this Code of Ordinances which amend, repeal or in any way affect this Code of Ordinances, may be numbered in accordance with the numbering system of this Code and printed for inclusion therein, or in the case of repealed Chapters, Sections and Subsections or any part thereof, by subsequent ordinances, such repealed portions may be excluded from the Code by omission from reprinted pages affected thereby, and the subsequent ordinances as numbered and printed or omitted, in the case of repeal, shall be prima facie evidence of such subsequent ordinances until such time that this Code of Ordinances and subsequent ordinances numbered or omitted are readopted as a new Code of Ordinances by the City Council.
[R.O. 2012 §100.100; CC 1973 §1-10]
Amendments to any of the provisions of this Code should be made by amending such provisions by specific reference to the Section of this Code in substantially the following language:
"That Section of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri, is hereby amended to read as follows ______________________________(Set out new provisions in full)_____."
[1]
State Law Reference — Style of ordinances, how enacted, §77.080, RSMo.
[R.O. 2012 §100.110; CC 1973 §1-11]
A. 
In the event a new Section not heretofore existing in the Code is to be added, the following language may be used:
"That the Code of Ordinances of the City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri, is hereby amended by adding a Section (or Article, Chapter, or other designation, as the case may be), to be numbered, which reads as follows: . . . (Set out new provisions in full) . . ."
B. 
In lieu of Subsection (A) hereof, when the City Council desires to enact an ordinance of a general and permanent nature embracing a subject not previously existing in the Code, which the City Council desires to incorporate into the Code, a provision in substantially the following language may be made a part of the ordinance:
"It is the intention of the City Council, and it is hereby ordained, that the provisions of this ordinance shall become and be made part of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri, and the Sections of this ordinance may be renumbered to accomplish such intention."
[R.O. 2012 §100.120; CC 1973 §1-12]
All Sections, Articles, Chapters, or other provisions of this Code desired to be repealed should be specifically repealed by Section number, Article number, Chapter or other numbers or ordinance number, as the case may be.
[R.O. 2012 §100.130; CC 1973 §1-13]
The catchlines of the several Sections of this codification printed in boldface type are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the Section and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such Sections, nor as any part of the Section, nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so deemed when any of such Section, including the catchlines, are amended or re-enacted.
[R.O. 2012 §100.140; CC 1973 §1-14]
It shall be unlawful for any person in the City to change or amend by additions or deletions, any part or portion of this Code, or to insert or delete pages, or portions thereof, or to alter or tamper with such Code in any manner whatsoever which will cause the law of the City of Excelsior Springs, Missouri, to be misrepresented thereby.
[R.O. 2012 §100.150; Ord. No. 6525, 8-18-1975]
A. 
Whenever in the Code or in any ordinance of the City any act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense, or whenever in such Code or ordinance the doing of any act is required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful, where no specific penalty is provided therefor, the violation of any such provision of this Code or ordinance shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00), or by imprisonment not exceeding three (3) months, or by both such fine and imprisonment; provided, however, that in any case wherein the penalty for an offense is fixed by any State law or Statute, the same penalty so fixed by State law or Statute may be imposed for the punishment of such offense and no other, except that imprisonments, when made under this Section may be in the City Jail instead of the County Jail.
B. 
Each day any violation of any provision of this Code or of any such ordinance shall continue shall constitute a separate offense.
C. 
In addition to the penalty hereinabove provided, any condition caused or permitted to exist in violation of any of the provisions of this Code or any such ordinance shall be deemed a public nuisance and may be, by the City, abated as provided by law, and each day that such condition continues shall be regarded as a new and separate offense.
[1]
State Law Reference — Limitation on penalty, §77.590, RSMo.
[R.O. 2012 §100.160; CC 1973 §1-16]
In case of the amendment by the City Council of any Section of this Code for which a penalty is not provided, the general penalty as provided in Section 100.150 of this Chapter shall apply to the Section as amended; or in case such amendment contains provisions for which a penalty, other than the aforementioned general penalty, is provided in another Section in the same Chapter, the penalty so provided in such other Section shall be held to relate to the Section so amended, unless such penalty is specifically repealed therein.
[R.O. 2012 §100.170; CC 1973 §1-17]
All fines and costs collected for the violation of any provision of this Code shall be turned into the City Treasury to the credit of the General Fund.
[R.O. 2012 §100.180; CC 1973 §1-18]
Each Section of ordinances enacted by the City Council shall be appropriately numbered.