Effective August 16, 1994, the following procedure shall be followed
to create or amend an ordinance in the Village of Wrightstown:
A. The proposed village ordinance should be prepared in
writing.
B. The proposed village ordinance should be carefully drafted,
edited and revised, if possible, by the appropriate village committees, the
appropriate village officers and, finally, the Village Board. The Village
Attorney should be asked by the Village Board to review, draft, edit and comment
upon the proposed ordinance.
C. The proposed village ordinance should, prior to enactment,
have a public hearing. This hearing should allow for discussion on the ordinance
and to allow the village to meet any statutory and constitutional requirements
regarding public hearings and due process.
D. The proposed village ordinance should be enacted at a
lawfully noticed public meeting of the Village Board.
E. The proposed village ordinance shall be enacted by a
majority vote of a quorum of the Village Board present and voting at the time
of the enactment of the ordinance. If certain Village Board members decline
to vote, the record should note the abstention and the reasons for abstention.
All members, unless absent or in abstention, including the Village President,
shall vote on the ordinance.
F. The proposed village ordinance should be only enacted
when the enactment of the ordinance was a lawfully noticed item of business
on the lawfully established and published written agenda of the Village Board.
G. The proposed village ordinance should be enacted in open
session of the Village Board and in full compliance with the open meetings
law.
H. The proposed village ordinance, at time of enactment,
should advisably contain:
(1) The title of the ordinance.
(2) An intent or purpose clause describing the intent or
purpose of the ordinance.
(3) A statutory authority clause describing the general or
specific statutory authority for the Village Board to enact the ordinance.
(5) The body of the document, including exceptions to coverage
under the ordinance, including the procedural process to be followed under
the ordinance and including any applicability provision that describe specific
items covered by the ordinance.
(6) The enforcement and penalties provision.
(7) The effective date and the termination date, if any.
(8) The date of publication or posting.
I. The proposed village ordinance should be enacted by a
motion to enact, a second to the motion, discussion on the ordinance and then
a roll call vote of the Village Board. Amendments to the ordinance should
be in written form and should be offered for enactment prior to enactment
of the final ordinance.
J. The village ordinance, once enacted, should be signed,
attested, certified and dated by the Village Clerk-Treasurer.
K. The village ordinance, once enacted, attested, signed
and dated, shall be published by the village pursuant to W.S.A. s. 60.80,
unless no penalty provision exists, in which case it must be either published
or posted in at least three usual and customary places in the village likely
to give notice to the public.
L. The village ordinance, once enacted, attested, signed,
dated and published, shall have the affidavit of publication or posting attached
to it.
M. The village ordinance, once enacted, attested, signed,
dated and published, shall be recorded in the ordinance record book, pursuant
to W.S.A. s. 889.04.
N. In lieu of publication, under W.S.A. s. 60.80, the Village
Board, under W.S.A. s. 66.035, may adopt a Code book and publish the ordinance
adopting the Code. Filing of the ordinance with the Code in the office of
the Village Clerk-Treasurer not less than two weeks before adoption must occur.
O. The village ordinance, once enacted, pursuant to W.S.A.
s. 60.80, shall be effective the day after publication or the day after posting
or at a later date, if the later date is expressly so provided in the ordinance.
P. The village ordinance, once enacted by the Village Board,
if the ordinance imposes a forfeiture, shall be published and not posted pursuant
to W.S.A. s. 60.80.
Q. If the village ordinance, once enacted, is posted, the
Village Clerk-Treasurer shall sign an affidavit attesting that the item was
posted as required by W.S.A. s. 60.80, and the affidavit shall state the date
and places of posting. This affidavit shall be filed with other records under
the jurisdiction of the Village Clerk-Treasurer.
Failure to follow all of the foregoing steps in creating or amending
an ordinance shall not render the ordinance invalid, provided that a good
faith effort was made to comply with this chapter when creating or changing
an ordinance.