The ordinances embraced in the following chapters and sections shall constitute and be designated as the "Lawndale Municipal Code," and may be so cited.
(Prior code § 1-1)
A. 
Construction. All general provisions, terms, phrases and expressions contained in this code shall be liberally construed in order that the true intent and meaning of the city council may be fully carried out.
B. 
Interpretation. In the interpretation and application of any provision of this code, they shall be held to be the minimum requirements adopted for the promotion of the public health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare. Where any provision of this code imposes greater restrictions upon the subject matter than the general provision imposed by this code, the provision imposing the greater restriction or regulation shall be deemed to be controlling.
C. 
Computation of Time. Unless otherwise specifically provided, the time within which an act is required to be done shall be computed by excluding the first day and including the last, unless the last day is a holiday, in which case it is also excluded.
D. 
Delegation of Authority. Whenever a power is granted to or duty is imposed upon a public officer or employee by this code, or any other ordinance of the city, the power may be exercised or the duty may be performed by a deputy of such officer or employee, or by a person otherwise duly authorized pursuant to law or ordinance, or by an officer of the county of Los Angeles, or by a deputy or employee of such officer, when by contract with the city of Lawndale such officer is obligated and has agreed to perform certain duties on behalf of the city, unless this code expressly provides otherwise.
E. 
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.
F. 
Joint Authority. Whenever a joint authority is given to three or more persons or officers, it shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of them.
G. 
Number. The singular number shall include the plural and the plural number shall include the singular.
H. 
Official Time. Whenever certain hours are named in this code, they shall mean Pacific Standard Time or Pacific Daylight Saving Time, as may be in current use in the city.
I. 
Officials, Officers, Departments. Whenever reference is made to officials, boards, commissions, departments or other municipal agents by title only, such reference shall be read as though followed by the words "of the city of Lawndale, California."
J. 
Shall and May. "Shall" is mandatory and "may" is permissive.
K. 
Tenses. The present tense includes the past and future tenses, and the future includes the present.
(Prior code § 1-2)
In the construction of this code, the rules and definitions set out in Section 1.04.020 and this section shall be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the city council. The rules of construction and definitions set out herein shall not be applied to any section of this code which contains any express provision excluding such construction, or where the subject matter or context of such section may be repugnant thereto.
"City"
means the city of Lawndale, California. The words "in the city" shall mean and include all territory over which the city now has or shall hereafter acquire jurisdiction for the exercise of its police powers or other regulatory powers.
"Council"
means the city council of the city of Lawndale, California.
"County"
means the county of Los Angeles in the state of California, unless obviously from the context it is intended to mean the city of Lawndale.
"Day"
means the period of time between any midnight and the midnight following.
"Daytime"
means the period of time between sunrise and sunset; "nighttime" means the period of time between sunset and sunrise.
"Goods"
means and includes wares or merchandise.
"Month"
means a calendar month.
"Oath"
means and 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."
"Operate"
means and includes carry on, keep, conduct or maintain.
"Owner,"
when applied to real estate, means and includes any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership, joint interest or other fee interest in the whole or a part of such real estate.
"Person,"
as used in this code or in any ordinance or code adopted hereby, means and includes any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, company or corporation, and any municipal, political or governmental corporation, district, body or agency other than the city.
"Personal property"
means and includes every species of property, except real property, as defined in this section.
"Preceding" and "following"
mean next before and next after, respectively.
"Process"
means and includes a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings of either a civil or criminal nature.
"Property"
means and includes real and personal property.
"Real property"
means and includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.
"Responsible party"
means the person or people who a city official believes is causing, performing, or permitting to exist or otherwise maintaining a public nuisance and includes the owner of the real property involved and any tenant, occupant or user thereof, or any other person in real or apparent charge or control of said real property.
"Sale"
means and includes any sale, exchange, barter or offer for sale.
"Signature" or "subscription"
means and includes a mark when the signer or subscriber cannot write, such signer's or subscriber's name being written near the mark by a witness who writes his own name near the signer's or subscriber's name; but a signature or subscription by mark can be acknowledged or can serve as a signature or subscription to a sworn statement only when two witnesses so sign their own names thereto.
"State"
means the state of California.
"Street"
means and includes streets, avenues, boulevards, roads, alleys, lanes, viaducts and all other public ways in the city, and includes all parts thereof constituting the designated right-of-way.
"Tenant" or "occupant,"
as applied to a building or land, means and includes any person holding a written or an oral lease on, or who occupies the whole or a part of, the building or land, either alone or with others.
"Unincorporated territory of the county of Los Angeles,"
as used in this code or any code, ordinance or other regulation adopted by reference herein, means the city of Lawndale.
"Week"
means seven consecutive days.
"Writing"
means and includes any form of recorded message capable of comprehension by ordinary visual means. Whenever any notice, report, statement or record is required or authorized by this code, it shall be made in writing in the English language, unless expressly provided otherwise.
"Year"
means a period of three hundred sixty-five days; "half year" means one hundred eighty-two days; "quarter of a year" means ninety-one days. The added day of a leap year, and the day immediately preceding, if they occur in any such period, shall be reckoned together as one day.
(Prior code § 1-2; Ord. 1172-20 § 1)
The catchlines of the several sections of this code printed in boldface type are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the sections, and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such sections, nor as any part of the sections, unless otherwise expressly provided; nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so deemed when any of such sections, including the catchlines, are amended or reenacted.
(Prior code § 1-3)
The provisions appearing in this code, so far as they are the same as those of ordinances existing at the time of the effective date of this code, shall be considered as continuations thereof insofar as they apply to conditions existing prior to the effective date of this code.
(Prior code § 1-4)
A. 
The repeal of an ordinance shall not revive any ordinance in force before or at the time the ordinance repealed took effect.
B. 
The repeal of an ordinance shall not affect any punishment or penalty incurred before the repeal took effect, nor any suit, prosecution or proceeding for violation of said ordinance pending at the time of the repeal.
(Prior code § 1-5)
It is declared to be the intention of the city council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this code are severable; and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this code is declared unconstitutional, invalid or unenforceable by the valid judgment or decree of a court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality, invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this code.
(Prior code § 1-6)
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 herein. 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 reprinted pages. 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 as this code and subsequent ordinances numbered or omitted are readopted as a new code by the city council.
B. 
Amendments to any of the provisions of this code may be made by amending such provisions by specific reference to the section number of this code in the following language:
That section________of the Lawndale Municipal Code is hereby amended to read as follows: .....
The new provisions shall then be set out in full as desired.
C. 
In the event a new section not heretofore existing in the code is to be added, the following language may be used:
That the Lawndale Municipal Code is hereby amended by adding a section, to be numbered_______, which said section reads as follows: ...
The new section shall then be set out in full as desired.
D. 
All sections, articles, chapters or provisions desired to be repealed must be specifically repealed by section, article or chapter number, with reference to the subject matter, as the case may be.
(Prior code § 1-7)
Whenever in this code any act or omission is made unlawful, it shall include causing, permitting, aiding, abetting, suffering or concealing such act or omission.
(Prior code § 1-9)