§ 41. Passage of ordinances; revision, reenactment or amendment; effective date; publication of caption or title; resolutions and orders.

No ordinance shall be passed, except by bill, and no bill shall be so amended in its passage as to change its original purpose. All bills must be in writing and read in full when presented at a regular or special meeting of council, and except in case of emergency and when so authorized by a vote of four-fifths of the members elected, taken by yeas and nays, no bill shall be considered for final passage at the meeting at which it is introduced; but at any subsequent regular or special meeting bills may be taken up for consideration and final action. No bill except in case of emergency evidenced by a vote of four-fifths of the members of council elected shall be considered for final passage unless the same has been referred to a committee for report. All amendments made by a committee to a bill shall be reported to council and incorporated in said bill, and before final action on said bill, the bill with any amendments shall be fully and distinctly read, after which reading, whether at the meeting at which the bill is reported or a subsequent meeting, the bill may be considered for final action. No bill shall become an ordinance unless on its final passage the vote be taken, the names of the members voting for and against the same be entered of record in the minutes of council, and a majority of all members elected recorded thereon as voting in its favor. Bills referred to a committee may be withdrawn therefrom at any subsequent meeting for present consideration by an affirmative vote of a majority of the members of council present. No bill except general appropriation bills, which may embrace the various subjects and accounts for and on account of which moneys are appropriated, and bills fixing the annual salaries of officers and employees of the city, and bills, providing for the paving or improving of streets, or construction of sewers, shall contain more than one object and that shall be expressed in the title, but if any object shall be embraced in an ordinance which is not so expressed the ordinance shall be void only as to so much thereof as shall not be so expressed. No ordinance shall be revised or reenacted by mere reference to the title thereof, but the same shall be set forth at length as if it were an original ordinance, nor shall any ordinance be amended by providing that, designated words thereof be stricken out and others inserted in lieu thereof, but the ordinance or sections amended shall be set forth in full as amended. All ordinances in force at the time [March 6, 1929] this act [this Charter] goes into effect, not inconsistent herewith, shall remain in full force until altered or repealed as herein provided, and all rights, actions, prescriptions and contracts of the city not inconsistent therewith shall continue to be valid as if this act [this Charter] had not been passed.

Any ordinance heretofore passed which may be void on account of failure of council properly to observe any provisions of the Charter of the City of Charleston or ordinances in force at the time said ordinance was passed shall so far as it may affect the validity of any paving or sewer assessments heretofore laid, be in full force and effect until repealed or amended, the same as if legally passed. No ordinance of the council shall take effect until the expiration of five days after its final passage, unless the council shall by a vote of three-fifths of its members elected, taken by yeas and nays, otherwise direct. It shall be the duty of the city clerk to make publication of the caption or title of every ordinance in a newspaper of general circulation in the City of Charleston within five days after its passage, but failure so to do shall not affect the validity of any such ordinance.

Resolutions and orders of council other than ordinances may be considered for final passage at the meeting at which they are proposed, and shall, unless otherwise provided therein, be in force and effect from and after their passage.

Editor's note

Except for the last paragraph, the provisions of Charter § 41 are superseded by W. Va. Code § 8-11-4. See W. Va. Code § 8-1-6.