The government and administration of the city shall be vested in one body, to be called the council of the City of Staunton, and in one administrative officer, to be styled city manager, and in such other departments, boards and other officers as are hereinafter provided for, or as are permitted or required by law to be appointed by the council, as the council may deem expedient.
The council shall consist of five members until the election to be held in May, nineteen hundred seventy-eight and thereafter the council shall consist of seven members, who shall be elected at large from qualified voters of the city and they shall serve for a term of four years from the first day of July next following the date of their election and until their successors shall have been duly elected and qualified subject to the following provisions:
1.
At the election held on May four, nineteen hundred seventy-six, four of the five members to be elected to council shall be elected for a term of three years ten months to commence on September one, nineteen hundred seventy-six, and to end on June thirty, nineteen hundred eighty, and the remaining member of council elected at said election shall serve a term of two years beginning on September one, nineteen hundred seventy-six, and ending August thirty, nineteen hundred seventy-eight. The said three-year ten-month terms shall be for the four candidates for membership on council receiving the four highest number of votes and the two-year term shall be for the candidate for membership on council receiving the fifth highest number of votes.
2.
At the councilmanic election held in May of nineteen hundred seventy-eight there shall be elected three members of council who shall serve for a term of three years ten months from the first day of September, nineteen hundred seventy-eight, through June thirty, nineteen hundred eighty-two.
3.
Thereafter all members of council shall be elected to serve four-year terms.
4.
All members of council shall serve, even though their terms have expired, until their successors shall have been duly elected and qualified.
5.
If any member of council becomes mentally or physically incapacitated so as to render him incapable of performing his duties as a council member and to render him incapable of attending regular council meetings for a period of at least four months, then council may, upon request of the incapacitated council member or by unanimous vote of the remaining members of council, elect to name a temporary replacement to serve on council until such time as the incapacitated council member is able to resume his duties, or until the expiration of the incapacitated member's term, whichever occurs first. The replacement council member shall be chosen by a majority vote of council and shall have the same voting privileges as an elected member of council.
6.
The membership of the council may be decreased from seven to five or increased from seven to nine if a majority of the qualified voters of the city shall so determine at an election held on the question as next herein provided. Upon the presentation to the circuit court of the city, or to the judge thereof in vacation, of a petition signed by all the members of the then existing council, or by at least five hundred qualified voters of the city, asking that the membership of the council be decreased from seven to five or increased from seven to nine, and calling for an election on the question, the said court, or judge thereof in vacation, shall, by an order entered of record, direct an election to be held on the day fixed in the order, submitting to the qualified voters of the city the question of whether or not the membership of the council shall be decreased from seven to five or increased from seven to nine, according to the number requested in the petition. If two petitions are presented to the said court or judge thereof in vacation, one asking for a decrease in council as provided herein and the other asking for an increase in council as provided herein, then the court or judge thereof, in vacation may order both questions to be submitted to the qualified voters of the city at the same election. Such election shall be held and conducted by the regular election officers of the city in the manner prescribed by law for holding other elections, and the result thereof shall be certified by the electoral board to said court, or to the judge thereof in vacation. Upon receipt whereof, the court or judge, shall enter an order setting forth such result and declaring the effect thereof. If a majority of the votes cast be in favor of decreasing the membership of the council to five, then at the next regular election for members of council when the number of seats on council subject to being filled for full terms would be four, the number to be elected at that election and thereafter on that election cycle shall be two. If a majority of the votes cast be in favor of increasing the membership of the council from seven to nine then the additional number shall be elected at the next regular election of members of council in the City of Staunton when three seats on council are subject to election for full regular terms.
Any election under this section shall be in accordance with the provisions and procedures established by state law. |
Persons holding the office of a member of council as of the date of this act shall continue to hold the same under their previous election or appointment until the term of such office shall expire. (Acts 1976, Ch. 631, § 1; Acts 1991) |
The council shall elect one of its members to preside over its meetings, who shall be entitled president and who shall be ex officio mayor of the city, and shall also elect another member to be vice-president of the council, to act in the place of the president in his absence or incapacity. The president and vice-president of the council shall be elected for a term of two years, and any vacancy in the offices shall be filled by the election by the council for the unexpired term. The mayor shall have the same powers and duties as other members of the council with a vote, but no veto, and shall be the official head of the city. With the exception of those officers required by the Constitution of the state to be elected by popular vote, the members of the council shall be the only elective city officials.
The council shall meet at such times as may be prescribed by ordinance or resolution, provided, however, that it shall hold at least one regular meeting each month. No business shall be transacted at a special meeting except that for which it shall have been called, unless all members of the council attend such special meeting or give their written consent thereto. For lack of quorum, any regular meeting may be postponed to such time as the council may determine.
The president or any other two members of the council may call special meetings of the council at any time upon at least twelve hours' written notice to each member served personally or left at his usual place of business or residence, but special meetings may be held at any time without notice, provided all members of the council attend said meetings or waive notice thereof.
No ordinance or resolution appropriating money exceeding the sum of one thousand dollars, imposing taxes, or authorizing the borrowing of money, shall be passed by the council on the same day on which it is introduced, nor shall any such ordinance or resolution be valid unless at least three days intervene between its introduction and date of passage. No ordinance or resolution appropriating money exceeding the sum of one hundred dollars, imposing taxes or authorizing the borrowing of money shall be passed except by recorded affirmative vote of a majority of all members elected to the council.
Upon the announcement by the president of the adoption of resolutions or ordinances having for their object the increase of the indebtedness of the city, or the expenditure of its revenues, except for the payment of its salaried officers and employees, any two councilmen may give notice of a motion to reconsider, which motion shall delay the question until said reconsideration shall be finally acted on at the next regular meeting of the council.
The council shall elect a city clerk, who shall also be clerk of the council, and a city attorney, and may elect a constable and a city collector, each of whom shall serve for such term as may be provided by the council, and until his successor has been elected and qualified.
They shall perform such duties and receive such compensation as shall be prescribed by the council.
The council shall have all the general powers vested in it by the Constitution and laws of the state, and it shall have power to enact ordinances providing for the exercise within its jurisdiction of all police powers which the state itself may exercise under the Constitution, except such as may be specifically denied by act of the General Assembly; and shall further have power:
FIRST. To control and manage the fiscal and municipal affairs of the city, and all property, real and personal, belonging to the city, and make such ordinances, orders and bylaws, relating to the same as it may deem proper and necessary.
SECOND. To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation, or otherwise, property, real and personal, or any estate or interest therein, within or without the city or state and for any of the purposes of the city as provided by law; and to hold, improve, sell, lease, mortgage or pledge the same or any part thereof, including any property now owned by the city; to issue purchase money obligations without a vote of the people provided such obligations shall not be general obligations of the City of Staunton, but shall be secured solely by the property purchased; and such obligations as may be from time to time issued for the purchase of property shall clearly show that such obligations are not general obligations of the city, but are secured only as herein provided, provided that nothing herein contained is contrary to or inconsistent with the Constitution of Virginia.
THIRD. To establish markets in the city and regulate the same.
FOURTH. To erect in or near the city limits suitable workhouses, jails[1], houses of correction or reformation, and houses for the reception and maintenance of the poor and destitute. It shall appoint necessary officers and other persons proper to be connected with any institution or house which it may establish, and regulate pauperism within the limits of the city, and the council, through such agencies as it may appoint for the direction and management of the poor of the city, shall exercise the powers and perform the duties vested by law in overseers of the poor.
FIFTH. To erect and keep in order all necessary public buildings; to establish and regulate public squares, airports, playgrounds and parks in or near the city, and to acquire by purchase, condemnation, or otherwise, the land it may deem necessary for such uses, and to construct in such public squares, playgrounds, or parks, as it may maintain, or upon any city property, stadiums, swimming pools, and recreation or amusement buildings, structures, or enclosures of every character, refreshment stands and restaurants; to charge for admissions, and to rent out or lease the privileges of construction or using such swimming pools, recreation or amusement buildings, structures or enclosures of every character, refreshment stands or restaurants.
SIXTH. To acquire, establish, maintain and enlarge water works within or without said city; to contract with the owners of land, water and riparian rights, for the use or purchase thereof, for an estate, or interest in lands or, any right or easement therein, or to have the same condemned for the location or enlargement of said works or the pipe, pipe lines, and fixtures thereof, and to acquire by purchase or condemnation such quantity of the watershed land adjacent to the intake or source of supply, as in the judgment of the said council may be necessary to insure a sufficient supply of water for the said city, and to protect the same from pollution; and to prevent by injunction any pollution or threatened pollution of such water supply, and any and all acts likely to impair the purity thereof; to acquire by purchase or condemnation from lower riparian owners the right to divert streams into the present or any future reservoir; and to protect said water supply, works, pipes, reservoirs and fixtures, whether within or without the city, against injury and pollution, by appropriate ordinances and penalties, to be enforced as are other ordinances of said city. The said city may sell or supply to persons, firms or industries residing or located outside of the city limits any surplus of water it may have over and above the amount required to supply its own inhabitants.
SEVENTH. To establish or acquire by purchase and to maintain and operate within and without the corporate limits suitable works for gas and the generation of electricity for illumination or other purposes, and to supply the same to consumers, in or near the city, at such price and on such terms as it may prescribe, and to that end may contract with owners of land and water power for the use thereof, or may have the same condemned.
EIGHTH. To establish, or acquire by purchase, such other public utilities, abattoirs, and other enterprises, either within or without the city, as may in its judgment be in the public interest, and to that end may contract with owners of land, with or without buildings, for the use or the purchase thereof, or may have the same condemned.
NINTH. To establish, open, widen, extend, grade, improve, construct, maintain, light, and clean public highways, streets, alleys and sidewalks, boulevards and parkways, and to alter or close the same; make or construct sewers or public ducts through the same or wherever else they may deem expedient; build bridges in or culverts under said streets or alleys, prevent or remove obstructions or encroachments over, under, or in the same; plant shade trees along the same, and prevent the cumbering of streets, alleys, walks, public squares, lanes or bridges in any manner whatsoever.
TENTH. To acquire and own land suitable for stone quarries, or the quarry rights in such lands; to take stone therefrom and to manufacture the same into crushed stone for city uses.
ELEVENTH. To grant aid to military companies and to contribute to the support of a band maintained within the city, to grant aid to literary, educational or benevolent organizations or institutions, and to a public library, provided such action is not prohibited by the Constitution of the state, and that such organizations or institutions be located in the city.
TWELFTH. To secure the inhabitants from contagious, infectious or other dangerous diseases; to establish a quarantine ground; to provide, regulate and maintain hospitals; to compel the removal of patients to said hospitals; to appoint and organize a board of health and a department of public welfare[2]; to define their duties and grant to them the necessary authority effectually to discharge them, including the authority to coordinate their duties and efforts with appropriate agencies and departments of State of Virginia and other of its political subdivisions.
THIRTEENTH. To compel the abatement and removal of all nuisances within the city at the expense of the person or persons causing the same, or of the owner or occupant of the ground or premises whereon the same may be; to require all lands, lots and other premises within the city to be kept clean, sanitary and free from weeds or stagnant water, or to make them so at the expense of the owners or occupants thereof; to regulate or prevent slaughter houses or other noisome or offensive business within the said city, the keeping of animals, poultry or other fowl therein, or the exercise of any dangerous or unwelcome business, trade or employment therein; to compel the abatement of smoke and dust; to prevent unnecessary noise therein; to regulate the location of stables, garages and gasoline filling stations, and the manner in which they shall be kept and constructed; and generally to define, prohibit, abate, suppress and prevent all things detrimental to the health, morals, safety, comfort, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the city.
FOURTEENTH. To direct the location of all buildings for storing explosives or combustible substances; to regulate the sale and use of gunpowder, nitroglycerine, dynamite, fireworks, kerosene, oil, gasoline or other combustible material; to regulate the exhibition of fireworks, the discharge of firearms and the making of bonfires in the streets and yards.
FIFTEENTH. To prescribe traffic regulations upon the streets, alleys, and parkways of the city, not in conflict with general law, and shall have full authority by ordinance to require all public conveyances, cabs, buses, and trucks, operated by motor or other power, within the city, or in and out of the city, to provide terminals at such points as shall meet with the approval of the council, and to provide all reasonable regulations governing the same, to regulate the operation and speed of engines and cars upon the railroads within the city; to prevent any sort of employment or sports in the public streets which is dangerous or annoying to passersby, and to prohibit and punish the abuse of animals.
SIXTEENTH. To restrain and punish vagrants and mendicants; to prevent vice and immorality; to preserve public peace and good order; to prevent and quell riots, disturbances and disorderly assemblages; to suppress houses of ill-fame and gaming houses and gambling devices of all kinds; to prevent lewd, indecent and disorderly conduct or exhibitions in the city, and to expel therefrom persons guilty of such conduct who have resided therein less than one year.
SEVENTEENTH. To remove, or require to be removed, any building, walls, structure, or addition thereto which, by reason of dilapidation, defect or structure, or other causes, may have become dangerous to life or property, or which may be erected contrary to law.
EIGHTEENTH. To provide for the regular and safe construction of houses in the city for the future, and to provide a complete building code for the city, and to provide setback lines on the streets beyond which no building may be constructed.
NINETEENTH. To designate and prescribe from time to time the parts of the city within which no buildings of wood shall be erected, and to regulate the construction of buildings in the city so as to protect it against danger from fire; and to enact an ordinance dividing the city into zones under the provisions of the state law; and to provide for a city planning commission[3] and define its powers.
TWENTIETH. To provide any penalty for the violation of any city ordinance, not exceeding one thousand dollars, or twelve months' imprisonment in the city or Augusta County jail, or both.
TWENTY-FIRST. To pass all bylaws, rules and ordinances not repugnant to the Constitution and laws of the state which it may deem necessary for the good order and government of the city, the management of its property, the conduct of its fiscal and municipal affairs, the peace, comfort, convenience, order, morals, health and protection of its citizens or their property, and do such other things and pass such other laws as may be necessary or proper to carry into full effect any power, authority, capacity, or jurisdiction, which is or shall be granted to or vested in said city, or in the council, court, or officers thereof, or which may be necessarily incident to a municipal corporation.
TWENTY-SECOND. To provide for the due publication in the newspapers or otherwise of its ordinances and resolutions.
TWENTY-THIRD. No ordinance hereafter passed or amended by the council for the violation of which any penalty is imposed shall take effect until the same shall have been published for five days consecutively in one of the daily newspapers of said city to be designated by the said council, or posted in at least two public places in the city; a certificate of such posting shall be filed by the sergeant in the city clerk's office; provided, however, that this requirement as to publication shall not apply to any ordinance reordained or restated in or by a compilation or codification of said ordinances provided the ordinance adopting such codification or restatement shall have been duly published as aforesaid.
TWENTY-FOURTH. For the execution of its powers and duties the council may raise annually, by taxes and assessments in said city, such sums of money as it shall deem necessary to defray the expenses of the same, and in such manner as it shall deem expedient, in accordance with the laws of this state and of the United States, and may by curative ordinance, ratify and confirm regular assessments and levies of taxes heretofore or hereafter made, and the acts of all ministerial officers in connection therewith, and any such ordinance heretofore passed is hereby ratified and confirmed.
TWENTY-FIFTH. The council may provide, by ordinance, for the collection of city taxes or levies on property at such times and with such penalties for nonpayment in time as may be fixed by ordinance.
TWENTY-SIXTH. The council may levy a tax or a license on any person, firm, or corporation conducting any business or profession whatsoever in the city, except when prohibited by general law, whether a license may be required therefore by the state or not, and may exceed the state license, if any be required.
TWENTY-SEVENTH. The council may provide by ordinance for the levy of an admission tax on persons paying an admission charge or persons admitted free, when an admission charge is paid by others, to places of amusement or entertainment, for the amount of such tax, for the collection thereof and for penalties for the failure to pay such tax so levied. For the purpose of this subsection, admission charge and place of amusement or entertainment shall mean.
(a)
Admission Charge. The charge made for admission to any entertainment, exclusive of any federal tax thereon, including a charge made for season tickets whether obtained by contribution or subscription, a cover charge or a charge made for the use of seats or tables, reserved or otherwise, and similar accommodations, in the city.
(b)
Place of Amusement or Entertainment. Any place in the city wherein or whereat any of the following are located, conducted, performed, exhibited or operated and for which an admission charge is made: a circus, a carnival, a menagerie, a moving picture show, a fair, a show or an exhibition of any kind, a dance; a baseball, basketball or football game; a wrestling match or a boxing match or a sport of any kind; a swimming contest or exhibition; a swimming pool; a concert; a theatrical, vaudeville, dramatic, operatic or musical performance or a performance similar thereto; a lecture, talk, literary reading or performance similar thereto; an attraction such as a merry-go-round, ferris wheel, roller coaster, leap-the-dips or the like; an automobile race, a midget auto race, or a horse race; a horse show; an ice skating or roller skating rink or arena; or any other public amusement, performance or exhibition. The foregoing enumeration of specific amusements and entertainments shall not be deemed to exclude other amusements and entertainments otherwise within the meaning of those words.
TWENTY-EIGHTH. In addition to the other powers conferred by law, the city shall have power to impose, levy and collect, in such manner as its council shall deem expedient, a consumer or subscriber tax upon the amount paid for the use within the city of water, electricity, gas, telephone and any other public utility service or upon the amount paid for any one or more of such public utility services, used within the city and the council may provide that such tax shall be added to and collected with bills rendered consumers for such services. |
(Acts 1950, Ch. 249; Acts 1964, Ch. 107; Acts 1972, Ch. 545, § 1) |