[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Fall River as Ch. 1 of the 1999 Revised Ordinances. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Noncriminal disposition of ordinance violations — See Ch. 2, Art. X.
[Amended 5-29-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-21]
The ordinances embraced in this and the following chapters shall be designated the "Code of the City of Fall River," and may be so cited.
A. 
The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this Code, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
CHARTER
The Charter of the City of Fall River, Massachusetts.
CITY
The City of Fall River, in the County of Bristol and Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
CITY BOARDS, COMMITTEES, COMMISSIONS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, ETC.
Whenever reference is made to a board, committee, commission, officer, employee, etc., in this Code, it shall be construed to mean that of the City of Fall River, Massachusetts.
CITY COUNCIL and COUNCIL
The City Council of the City of Fall River.
CODE
The Code of the City of Fall River, Massachusetts.
COMMONWEALTH and STATE
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
COUNTY
The County of Bristol, Massachusetts.
MGL
The latest edition or supplement of the Massachusetts General Laws Annotated.
MONTH
A calendar month.
OATH
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."
OWNER
As applied to a building or land, shall include 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.
PERSON
Extends and shall be applied to associations, firms, partnerships and bodies politic and corporate as well as to individuals.
PRECEDING; FOLLOWING
Next before and next after, respectively.
PUBLIC PLACE
Includes all commons, parks and squares.
STREET
Construed to embrace public ways, streets, avenues, boulevards, roads, alleys, lanes, courts, viaducts, public squares, sidewalks and all other public highways in the City.
TENANT and OCCUPANT
As applied to a building or land, shall include any person holding a written or oral lease of or who occupies the whole or a part of such building or land, either alone or with others.
WRITTEN and IN WRITING
Construed to include any representation of words, letters or figures, whether by printing or otherwise.
B. 
Interpretation of terms.
(1) 
Computation of time. In computing any period of time prescribed or allowed by this Code, the day of the act, event or default after which the designated period of time begins to run shall not be included. The last day of the period so computed shall be included, unless it is a Saturday, a Sunday or a legal holiday, in which event the period runs until the end of the next day which is not a Saturday, a Sunday or a legal holiday. When the period of time prescribed or allowed is less than seven days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays shall be excluded in the computation.
(2) 
Delegation of authority. Whenever a provision appears requiring the head of a department or other officer of the City to do some act or perform some duty, or granting some right to him as such official, it shall be construed to authorize such department head or officer to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to do the required act or perform the required duty, or it shall grant to them such right, unless the terms of the provisions designate otherwise unless otherwise provided by statute or ordinance.
(3) 
Gender. A word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to females and to firms, partnerships and corporations as well as to males.
(4) 
Joint authority. Words purporting to give a joint authority to three or more officers or other persons shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such officers or persons.
(5) 
Number. A word importing the singular number only may extend and be applied to several persons and things, as well as to one person and thing.
(6) 
Statute references. Whenever reference is made to the general laws, this shall mean the Massachusetts General Laws Annotated and shall be cited as "MGL."
(7) 
Tense. Words used in the past or present tense include the future as well as the past and present.
The catchlines of the several sections of the Code 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, or any part of the section, nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so deemed when any of such sections, including the catchlines, are amended or reenacted.
All references in this Code to chapters, articles, divisions or sections shall be to those chapters, articles, divisions or sections of the Code of the City of Fall River, Massachusetts, as republished, unless otherwise specified.
The history notes appearing in brackets in sections of this Code are not intended to have any legal effect, but are merely intended to indicate the source of matter contained in the section.
The references and editor's notes appearing throughout this Code are not intended to have any legal effect, but are merely intended to assist the users of this Code.
The provisions of this Code, insofar as they are the same as those of previously existing ordinances, shall be construed as a continuation of such ordinances.
Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall be construed to repeal or otherwise affect the validity of any of the following when not inconsistent with this Code:
A. 
Any ordinance promising or guaranteeing the payment of money by the City, or authorizing the issuance of any bonds of the City, or any evidence of the City's indebtedness, or any contract, agreement, lease, deed or other instrument or obligation assumed by the City.
B. 
Any ordinance accepting or adopting the provisions of any statute or act of the commonwealth.
C. 
Any right or franchise, permit or other right granted by any ordinance.
D. 
Any ordinance dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, relocating, opening, paving, widening, repairing or vacating any street, alley or other public way in the City.
E. 
Any ordinance establishing and prescribing the street grades in the City.
F. 
Any rezoning ordinance.
G. 
Any ordinance annexing territory or excluding territory from the City or redefining the boundaries.
H. 
Any appropriation ordinance or any ordinance levying or imposing taxes.
I. 
Any ordinance providing for local improvements and assessing taxes therefor.
J. 
Any ordinance dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision in the City.
K. 
Any ordinance establishing the official plat of the City, the Zoning Map or any amendments thereof not included in this Code.
L. 
Any temporary or special ordinance.
M. 
Any administrative ordinances or resolutions of the City Council.
N. 
Any traffic ordinances of the City not contained in this volume until such time as the State Department of Transportation approves the traffic regulations and they are codified in this volume.
[Amended5-29-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-21]
O. 
Any ordinance pertaining to salaries of incumbents in office at the time of the passage of such ordinance.
Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall affect 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 Code.
This Code, and the repeal in the adopting ordinance of any ordinance, or the repeal of any ordinance, shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or established, or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil case, before the time when such repeal shall take effect, or any offense committed, or any penalty or forfeiture incurred, or any suit or prosecution pending at the time of such repeal for any offense committed or for the recovery of any penalty or forfeiture incurred under any of the provisions so repealed. All persons who, at the time when the repeal shall take effect, shall hold any office under any of the ordinances so repealed shall continue to hold the office according to the tenure thereof, except those offices which may have been abolished, and those as to which a different provision shall have been made by such ordinances. No ordinance or part of an ordinance which has been heretofore repealed shall be revived by the repeal of any of the ordinances or parts of ordinances mentioned in this section, and when any ordinance repealing a former ordinance, clause or provision shall itself be repealed, such repeal shall not be construed to revive such former ordinance, clause or provision, unless it shall be expressly so provided.
A. 
All ordinances passed subsequent to this Code which amend, repeal or in any way affect this Code may be numbered in accordance with the numbering system of this Code and printed for inclusion in this Code. When subsequent ordinances repeal any chapter, section or subsection or any portion thereof, such repealed portions may be excluded from this Code by omission from the publication. 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 and subsequent ordinances numbered or omitted are readopted as a new revision by the City Council.
B. 
Amendments to any of the provisions of this Code shall be made by amending such provisions by specific reference to the section number of this Code in the following language: "Section _______ of the Code of the City of Fall River, Massachusetts, is hereby amended as follows: . . . ." The new provisions shall then be set out in full as desired.
C. 
If a new section not heretofore existing in this Code is to be added, the following language shall be used: "The Code of the City of Fall River, Massachusetts is hereby amended by adding a section as follows: . . . ." The new section shall then be set out in full as desired.
D. 
All sections, divisions, articles, chapters or other provisions desired to be repealed should be specifically repealed by section, division, article or chapter number, as the case may be.
[Amended 6-20-2019 by Ord. No. 2019-21]
Any and all additions and amendments to this Code, when passed in such form as to indicate the intention of the City Council to make the addition or amendment a part of this Code, shall be deemed to be incorporated in this Code as provided by Section 2-9 of The Charter, so that reference to this Code shall be understood and intended to include such additions and amendments.
A. 
By contract or by City personnel, supplements to this Code shall be prepared and published whenever authorized or directed by the City Clerk. A supplement to this Code shall include all substantive permanent and general parts of ordinances passed by the City Council or adopted by initiative and referendum during the period covered by the supplement and all changes made thereby in this Code, and shall also include all amendments to the Charter during the period. The pages of a printed supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into this Code and will, where necessary, replace pages which have become obsolete or partially obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared that, when they have been inserted, this Code will be current through the date of adoption of the latest ordinance included in the supplement.
B. 
In preparing a supplement to this Code, all portions of this Code which have been repealed shall be excluded from this Code by the omission thereof from the publication.
C. 
When preparing a supplement to this Code, the codifier, meaning the person 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 subdivisions;
(2) 
Provide appropriate catchlines, headings and titles for sections and other subdivisions of this Code printed in the supplement and make changes in catchlines, headings and titles;
(3) 
Assign appropriate numbers to sections and other subdivisions to be inserted in this Code and, where necessary to accommodate new material, change existing section or other subdivision numbers;
(4) 
Change the words "this ordinance" or words of the same meaning to "this chapter," "this article," "this division," etc., as the case may be, or to "sections __________ through __________." The inserted section numbers will indicate the sections of the Code which embody the substantive sections of the ordinance incorporated into the Code; and
(5) 
Make other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning of ordinance sections inserted in this 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 this Code.
It is hereby declared to be the intention of the City Council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this volume are severable, and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this volume shall be declared unconstitutional by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this volume, since such provisions would have been enacted by the City Council without the incorporation in this volume of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.
Any person who violates a provision of this Code or of any ordinance of the City, whether included in this Code or hereafter enacted, whereby any act or thing is enjoined or prohibited or required, shall, unless other provision is expressly made, upon conviction, be liable for a penalty not exceeding $300 for each offense. This section shall not preclude the City from proceedings to restrain the violation of any provision of this Code or other ordinance of the City by injunction where such proceeding is more appropriate. Each day a violation continues shall constitute a separate offense.
[1]
Editor's Note: See also Ch. 2, Art. X, Noncriminal Disposition of Ordinance Violations.
All fines and penalties for the violation of any ordinance or any order of the City Council shall, when recovered, inure to the use of the City and be paid into the City treasury, unless otherwise directed by law or ordinance.
[Adopted 5-29-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-21]
The revised ordinances of the City of Fall River of a general and permanent nature adopted by the City Council, as previously codified in the 1999 Revised Ordinances of the City of Fall River, and the ordinances of a general and permanent nature adopted by the City Council subsequent to that codification, all as revised and codified by General Code, LLC, are hereby approved, adopted, ordained and enacted as the Code of the City of Fall River, hereinafter known and referred to as the "Code."
A. 
In compiling and preparing the ordinances for adoption and revision as part of the 2018 Code of the City of Fall River, 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 said 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 amendments and/or additions are effective upon the effective date of this ordinance.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: The amendments and/or additions referred to in § 1-22B, which were added, amended, adopted or repealed 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, repealed) 5-29-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-21." A complete description of all changes is set forth in Sections 2 through 20 of Ord. No. 2018-21, which is on file in the City offices.