Sec. 1033f. Regulating the grant of franchise, et cetera,
by cities and towns, and providing for the advertisement
thereof and the public reception of bids therefor,
and providing for the enforcement of the obligations
of the grantees, grantors, or owners of franchises,
and providing penalties for the usurpation of
or violation of the terms and provisions of franchises.
(1) Before granting any franchise, privilege, lease, or right
of any kind to use any public property, or easement of any description,
except in the case of and for a trunk railway, it shall
be the duty of the city or town proposing to make the grant to
advertise the ordinance proposing to make the grant, after its
terms shall have been approved by the mayor, or the ordinance
passed over the mayor's veto, as in case of other ordinances,
once a week for four successive weeks in a newspaper published
in said city or town; or, if no newspaper be published therein,
then in some newspaper having general circulation therein; and
the ordinance may be also advertised as many times in such
other newspaper or newspapers, published in or out of the city
or State, as the council or board of trustees, as the case may
be, may select and determine upon.
(2) Such advertisement shall invite bids for the franchise,
privilege, or right proposed to be granted in the ordinance, which
bids are to be in writing and delivered upon a day and hour
named in the advertisement to the presiding officer of the council
or board of trustees of the city or town; or, if there be more
than one branch thereof, to the presiding officer of the most
numerous branch of the city council, in open session. The costs
of the advertising herein required shall be paid by the city or
town; which, however, shall be reimbursed by the person or
corporation to whom the grant is finally made. The city or town
shall have the right to reject any and all bids, and shall reserve
this right in the advertisement hereinbefore required.
(3) The presiding officer aforesaid shall read aloud, or cause
to be read aloud, the bids that have been received for public
information, and shall then inquire if any further bids are offered.
If further bids are offered they shall be received until
no further bid is offered; but if not, the presiding officer shall declare
the bidding closed, and the bids that have been received shall
be communicated in due course to the other branch of the city
council, if there be another branch. After reference to committee
and such other investigation as the council, or either
branch of the council, sees fit to make, it shall be the duty of
the council, if it sees fit to make the grant, to accept the highest
and best bid, and to enact the ordinance as advertised, without
substantial variation, except as to the insertion of the name
of the accepted bidder: provided, that the council may, by a
recorded vote of a majority of the members elected to the council,
and to each branch thereof, if it be a council having two
branches, reject a higher and accept a lower bid, and award the
said franchise, right, or privilege to the lower bidder, if, in its
opinion, some reason affecting the interest of the city or town
makes it advisable so to do, which reason shall be itself expressed
in the body of the subsequent ordinance granting the
franchise, right, or privilege; but if, after such advertisements,
no bid, or no satisfactory bid, shall be made, the council may advertise
for further bids, and in case no bid at all is made, the
council may, if it sees fit so to do, enact an ordinance in the manner
required by law granting such franchises, rights, or privileges
to any person or corporation making application therefor:
provided, further, however, that the person or corporation to
whom any such franchise, right or privilege is awarded, whether
by competing bids or otherwise, as hereinbefore provided, shall
first execute a bond, with good and sufficient security, in favor
of the city or town, in such sum as said city or town shall determine,
conditioned upon the constructing and putting into operation
and maintaining the plant or plants provided for in the
franchise, right, or privilege granted.
(4) The subsequent ordinance actually making the grant, with
a detailed list giving names, amounts, and addresses of all bidders,
shall be presented to the mayor for his information and
for his approval or disapproval, as in the case of all other ordinances.
(5) No amendment or extension of any such franchise, right,
or privilege that now exists, or that may hereafter be authorized,
which extends or enlarges such franchise, right, or privilege,
either as to the time during which it is to last or as to the territory
in which it is to be enjoyed, shall be granted by any city
or town until the provisions of this act shall have been complied
with; and no amendment that releases the grantee, or his
assignee, from the performance of any duty required by the ordinance
granting the franchise, or that authorizes an increase in
the charges to be made by such grantee or assignee, for the use
by the public of the benefits of such franchise, shall be granted
unless and until notice of such proposed amendment shall be
given to the public by advertising the proposed amendment for
ten days in some newspaper published in the city or town; or,
if there be no newspaper published therein, then in some newspaper
having circulation therein. The cost of such advertising
shall be paid by the city or town, which shall be reimbursed by
the person to whom the amendment is granted. No such amendment
shall be adopted except by ordinance.
(6) The corporation courts of the cities and the circuit courts
of the counties in which the towns may be situated shall have
jurisdiction by mandamus, according to the provisions of section
one hundred and forty-four of the Code of Virginia, to enforce
compliance by said cities or towns and by all grantees of
franchises, whether now in force or granted under the provisions
of this act, with all the terms and contracts and obligations of
either party, as contained in franchises. Services of process in
such mandamus proceeding may be made upon any agent or
employee of such grantees residing in said city or town, or
otherwise, as provided by law for service of process on a defendant:
provided, however, that such jurisdiction in mandamus
shall not preclude any party from bringing any other suit or
action which such party would be entitled to bring without the
passage of this act, at law or in equity.
(7) Any person or corporation that shall undertake to occupy
or use any of the streets, avenues, parks, bridges, or any
other public places or public property, or any public easement of
any description in any city or town, in a manner not permitted to
the general public, without having first legally obtained the consent
thereto of the city council or board of trustees, as the
case may be, or a franchise therefor, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,
and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less
than five dollars nor more than fifty dollars, each day's continuance
thereof to be a separate offense, and such occupancy shall
be deemed a nuisance, and the court or justice trying the case
shall have power to cause the said nuisance to be abated, and
to commit the offenders and all their agents and employees engaged
in such offenses to jail until such order of the court shall
be obeyed.
