CHAPTER 1-1: ADOPTION OF OFFICIAL CODE
SECTIONS:
1-1-9: CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL AND GRAMMATICAL ERRORS:
1-1-1 TITLE:
This compilation and codification of the general ordinances of the City is hereby declared to be and shall hereafter constitute the Official City Code of the City. Any reference to the number of any section contained herein shall be understood to refer to the position of the same under its appropriate title heading, its chapter heading, and its section heading, and to the general penalty clause relating thereto, as well as to the section itself, when any reference is made to this Code by title in any legal document. (1964 Code)
1-1-2 ACCEPTANCE:
This City Code as hereby presented in printed form, shall hereafter be received without further proof in all courts and in all administrative tribunals of this State as the ordinances of a general and permanent effect of the City. (1964 Code)
1-1-3 AMENDMENTS:
Any ordinance amending this Code shall set forth the title, chapter, and section number of the section or sections to be amended, and this shall constitute sufficient compliance with any statutory requirement pertaining to the amendment or revision by ordinance of any part of this Code. All such amendments or revisions by ordinance shall be immediately forwarded to the codifiers and the said ordinance material shall be prepared for insertion in its proper place in each copy of the City Code. Each such replacement page shall be properly identified and shall be inserted in each copy of the City Code within thirty (30) days from the date of its final passage. (1964 Code)
1-1-4 CONSTRUCTION OF WORDS:
Whenever any word in any section of this Code importing the plural number is used in describing or referring to any matters, parties, or persons, any single matter, party, or person shall be deemed to be included although distributive words may not have been used. When any subject matter, party, or person is referred to in this Code by words importing the singular number only, or the masculine gender, several matters, parties, or persons, and females, as well as males, and bodies corporate shall be deemed to be included. The word “person” shall be deemed to include any person, firm, association, or corporation, or any organization of any kind. The words “written” and “in writing” may include printing, provided, that these rules of construction shall not be applied to any section of this Code which contains any express provision excluding such construction or where the subject matter or content may be repugnant thereto. (1964 Code)
1-1-5 DEFINITIONS:
Wherever used in this Code the following words shall have the meanings herein given them. Words prohibiting anything being done, except in accordance with a license or permit or authority from a board or officer, shall be construed as giving such board or officer power to license or permit or authorize such thing to be done.
INTENTIONALLY, WITH INTENT TO, OR WILFULLY: Mean, with respect to a result or to conduct described by an ordinance describing an offense or violation that a person’s objective is to cause that result or to engage in that conduct.
KNOWINGLY: Means, with respect to conduct or to a circumstance described by an ordinance defining an offense or violation, that a person is aware or believes that his or her conduct is of that nature or that the circumstance exists. It does not require any knowledge of the unlawfulness of the act or omission.
NEGLECT, NEGLIGENTLY OR NEGLIGENT: Imports a want of such attention to the nature or probable consequences of the act or omission as a prudent man ordinarily bestows in acting in his own concern.
OFFICER: Shall include officers and boards in charge of departments and the members of such boards. Such reference as use of the word “City” shall mean this Municipality. “Clerk” or “Treasurer” and reference to other City officers shall mean the City Clerk, the City Treasurer, or other officer as the case may be applicable.
OWNER: Applied to a building or land, shall include any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, joint tenant or lessee of the whole or of a part of such building or land.
PERSONAL PROPERTY: Includes every description of money, goods, chattels, effects, evidence of rights in action, and all written instruments by which any pecuniary obligation, right or title to property is created, acknowledged, transferred, increased, defeated, discharged or diminished, and every right or interest therein.
PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICES: Shall mean expenditures from the City’s general fund, or from any voter approved initiative to increase the City’s transaction privilege tax for public safety services, directed solely to the public safety of life, health, property and the welfare of inhabitants of the City and such expenditures shall only be available to the Prescott Fire Department and Prescott Police Department, including dispatch and emergency medical services.
RECKLESSLY: Means, with respect to a result or to a circumstance described by an ordinance defining an offense, that a person is aware of and consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur or that the circumstance exists. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that disregard of such risk constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.
STREETS: Includes all alleys, lanes, courts, boulevards, public ways, public squares, public places and sidewalks.
TENANT OR OCCUPANT: Applied to a building or land, shall include any person who occupies the whole or any part of such building or land whether alone or with others. (1964 Code; Ord. 1834, 9-23-1986; Ord. 2024-1874, 9-10-2024)
1-1-6 INTERPRETATIONS:
In the determination of the provisions of each section of the City Code the following rules shall be observed:
(A) Intent To Defraud: Whenever an intent to defraud is required in order to constitute an offense, it shall be sufficient if an intent appears to defraud any person.
(B) Liability Of Employers And Agents: When the provisions of any section of this Code prohibit the commission of an act, not only the person actually doing the prohibited act or omitting the directed act, but also the employer and all other persons concerned with or in aiding or abetting the said person shall be guilty of the offense described and liable to the penalty set forth. (1964 Code)
1-1-7 PENALTIES:
An act or omission which is made punishable in different ways by different sections of this Code, may be punishable under both but in no event may sentences be other than concurrent, provided that the revocation of a license or
permit shall not be considered as a penalty so as to bar any other punishment being enforced. (Ord. 1834, 9-23-1986)
Whenever the doing of any act or the omission to do any act constitutes a breach of any section or provision of this Code, and there shall be no fine or penalty specifically declared for such breach, the provisions of the general penalty clause shall apply and a separate offense shall be deemed committed upon each day during or on which a breach or violation occurs or continues. (1964 Code)
1-1-8 LIABILITY OF OFFICERS:
No provision of the Official City Code designating the duties of any officer or employee shall be so construed as to make such officer or employee liable for any fine or penalty provided for a failure to perform such duty unless the intention of the Council to impose such fine or penalty on such officer or employee is specifically and clearly expressed in the section creating the duty. (1964 Code)
1-1-9 CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL AND GRAMMATICAL ERRORS:
The City Clerk, with the concurrence of the City Attorney, is hereby authorized to correct typographical or grammatical errors in ordinances and resolutions; provided, however, that said corrections may not effect a substantive change in the ordinance or resolution. (Ord. 3730, 2-24-1998)