Bishop Municipal Code Ch. 1.04 General Provisions

The ordinances embraced in the following chapters and sections shall constitute the Code of Ordinances of the City of Bishop, California, and may be designated as the "Bishop Municipal Code" and may be so cited.

(Prior Code, § 1-1; Code 1985, § 1.04.010)

A. Rules of construction. In the construction of this Code and of all ordinances of the city, the following rules shall be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the city council or the context clearly requires otherwise:

1. Designation of government bodies and entities.

a. When the words "council" or "city council" are used in this Code, it means the city council of the City of Bishop, California.

b. "The city" or "this city" shall be construed as if followed by the words "of Bishop."

c. "The county" or "this county" means the Inyo County, California.

d. "The state" or "this state" means the State of California.

2. References to time.

a. When certain hours are named in this Code, they mean Pacific Standard Time or Daylight-Saving Time, as may be in current use in the city.

b. The time in which any act provided by law is to be done is computed by excluding the first day and including the last, unless the last day is a holiday and then it is also excluded.

c. Daytime is the period of time between sunrise and sunset. Nighttime is the period of time between sunset and sunrise.

d. The term "month" means a calendar month.

e. The term "week" consists of seven consecutive days.

f. The term "day" means the period of time between any midnight and the midnight following.

3. Gender. Words of one gender include other genders.

4. Number. The singular number includes the plural, and the plural includes the singular.

5. Tenses. The present tense includes the past and future tenses, and the future includes the present.

6. References to officers, departments, etc. Departments, officers, departments, boards, commissions and employees referred to in this Code means officers, departments, boards, commissions and employees of the city, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

7. Joint authority. All words giving a joint authority to three or more persons or officers shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such persons or officers.

8. Delegation of authority. When a provision of this Code requires or authorizes an officer or employee of the city to do some act or perform some duty, it shall be construed to authorize such officer or employee to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to perform the act or duty unless the terms of the provision specifically designate otherwise.

9. Amendment of cited provisions of local, state and federal law and rules. When reference is made to sections or portions of this Code or to state or federal law or rules compilations, such references or citations shall be construed to mean the most recent version, as amended, unless otherwise specifically stated.

B. Definitions. In addition, the following words, terms and phrases, when used in this chapter, shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this subsection, except where the context otherwise requires:

1. In the city. The term "in the city" means and includes all territory over which the city now has or shall hereafter acquire jurisdiction for the exercise of its police powers or other regulatory powers.

2. Oath. The term "oath" includes an affirmation.

3. Owner. The term "owner," applied to a building or land, includes 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.

4. Person. The term "person" includes any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation or company.

5. Personal property. The term "personal property" includes every species of property, except real property, as defined in this section.

6. Preceding and following. The terms "preceding" and "following" mean next before and next after, respectively.

7. Process. The term "process" includes a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings of either a civil or criminal nature.

8. Property. The term "property" includes real and personal property.

9. Real property. The term "real property" includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.

10. Shall/may. The term "shall" is mandatory, and the term "may" is permissive.

11. Signature or subscription. The term "signature" or "subscription" 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 their 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.

12. Tenant or occupant. The term "tenant" or "occupant," applied to a building or land, includes any person holding a written or an oral lease of, or who occupies the whole or a part of such building or land, either alone or with others.

13. The Code, Code, or this Code. The term "the Code," "Code," or "this Code" means this compilation of the Bishop Municipal Code.

14. Writing. The term "writing" includes any form of recorded message capable of comprehension by ordinary visual means. When any notice, report, statement or record is required or authorized by this Code, it shall be made in writing in the English language, unless it is expressly provided otherwise.

15. Year. The term "year" means a calendar year, except where otherwise provided.

(Prior Code, §1-2; Code 1985, § 1.04.020)

A. All references to chapters, articles, divisions, subdivisions, or sections are to chapters, articles, divisions, subdivisions, or section of this Code, unless otherwise specified.

B. The catchlines of the several sections of this Code 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, nor as 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.

C. The history or source notes appearing in parentheses after sections in this Code are not intended to have any legal effect but are intended merely to indicate the source of matter contained in the section.

D. Editor's notes, charter references and state law references that appear after sections or subsections of this Code or which otherwise appear in footnote form are provided for the convenience of the user of the Code and have no legal effect.

(Prior Code, § 1-5; Code 1985, § 1.04.050)

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 and not as new enactments.

(Prior Code, § 1-3; Code 1985, § 1.04.030)

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 or creating interest and sinking funds;

B. Any right or franchise, permit or other right granted by any ordinance;

C. Any personnel regulations and any ordinance establishing salaries of city officers and employees or civil service rules;

D. 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 such Code;

E. Any ordinance dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, opening, paving, widening, vacating, etc., any street or public way in the city;

F. Any ordinance relating to municipal street maintenance agreements with the state;

G. Any ordinance establishing or prescribing grades for streets in the city;

H. Any appropriation ordinance or ordinance providing for the levy of taxes or for adopting an annual budget;

I. Any ordinance relating to local improvements and assessments therefor;

J. Any ordinance annexing territory to the city or discontinuing territory as a part of the city;

K. Any ordinance dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision in the city;

L. Any ordinance creating special districts or assessing taxes therefor;

M. Any ordinance granting specific tax exemptions;

N. Any temporary or special ordinance; and

O. Any administrative or policy ordinance.

A. The repeal of an ordinance shall not revive any ordinances 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 pending at the time of the repeal, for any offense committed under the ordinance repealed.

(Prior Code, § 1-4; Code 1985, § 1.04.040)

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 or otherwise invalid by the valid judgment or decree of a court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality or invalidity shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this Code.

(Prior Code, § 1-6; Code 1985, § 1.04.060)

Unless otherwise provided in this Code for specific provisions:

A. If the provisions of different chapters conflict with each other, the provisions of each individual chapter shall control all issues arising out of the events and persons intended to be governed by that chapter.

B. If the provisions of different sections of the same chapter conflict with each other, the provision which is more specific in its application to the events or persons raising the conflict shall control over the more general provision.

C. If any of the provisions hereof conflict and the conflict cannot be resolved by application of subsections A and B of this section, the more stringent regulation shall apply and the specific provision shall prevail over the general.

All ordinances of a general and permanent nature, and amendments to such ordinances, hereafter enacted or presented to the city council for enactment, shall be drafted, so far as possible, as specific amendments of, or additions to, this Code. Amendments to this Code shall be made by reference to the chapter and section to be amended, and additions shall bear an appropriate designation of chapter, article and section; provided, however, that the failure to do so shall in no way affect the validity or enforceability of such ordinances.

A. By contract or by city personnel, supplements to this Code shall be prepared and printed when authorized or directed by the city council. A supplement to the Code shall include all substantive permanent and general parts of ordinances passed by the city council during the period covered by the supplement and all changes made thereby in the Code. The pages of a supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into the Code and will, where necessary, replace pages that have become obsolete or partially obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared that, when they have been inserted, the Code will be current through the date of the adoption of the latest ordinance included in the supplement.

B. In preparing a supplement to this Code, all portions of the Code which have been repealed shall be excluded from the Code by omission thereof from reprinted pages.

C. When preparing a supplement to this Code, the codifier (meaning the person, agency or organization 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 articles, sections and other subdivisions of the Code printed in the supplement and make changes in such catchlines, headings and titles;

3. Assign appropriate numbers to articles, sections and other subdivisions to be inserted in the Code and, where necessary to accommodate new material, change existing article or section or other subdivision numbers;

4. Change the words "this ordinance" or words of the same meaning to "this chapter," "this article," "this section," "this subsection," etc., as the case may be; and

5. Make other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning of ordinance material inserted into the 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 the Code.