Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 15.2 > Subtitle II > Chapter 14 - Governing Bodies of Localities

• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Adjournment sine die: The end of a legislative session "without day." These adjournments are used to indicate the final adjournment of an annual or the two-year session of legislature.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• Bail recovery: means an act whereby a person arrests a bailee with the object of surrendering the bailee to the appropriate court, jail, or police department, for the purpose of discharging the bailee's surety from liability on his bond. See Virginia Code 9.1-186
• Bailee: means a person who has been released on bail, and who is or has been subject to a bond, as defined in § 19. See Virginia Code 9.1-186
• Board: means the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board. See Virginia Code 10.1-500
• Board: means the Criminal Justice Services Board. See Virginia Code 9.1-101
• Board of supervisors: means the governing body of a county. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Body-worn camera system: means the same as that term is defined in § 15. See Virginia Code 9.1-193
• Camping and recreational facilities: means camp sites, cabins, lodges, halls, tent camps, trailer camps, public and park lands, as well as equipment, structures and roads which are appurtenant to and useful in connection with state parks including, but not limited to sanitary and utility services, restaurants, cafeterias, stables, horses and riding equipment, bathing beaches, boathouses, boats, conference facilities, sightseeing facilities, sports facilities, bridges, access highways, and all incidental rights, easements, equipment and structures now under the control of the Department or acquired, constructed, enlarged or improved under the provisions of this chapter. See Virginia Code 10.1-300
• City: includes all cities chartered under the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 10.1-500
• Community care team: means the same as that term is defined in § 37. See Virginia Code 9.1-193
• Comprehensive crisis system: means the same as that term is defined in § 37. See Virginia Code 9.1-193
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Cost of camping and recreational facilities: means the purchase price, the cost of construction, the cost of all lands, properties, rights, easements and franchises acquired for construction, enlargements or improvements, reserve funds for the payment of principal or interest on the bonds, interest during construction of the enlargements or improvements, engineering and legal expenses, cost of plans, specifications, surveys, estimates of cost and of revenues, expenses for determining the feasibility or practicability of the enterprise, administrative expense, and other expenses necessary or incident to the financing and operation of any authorized project. See Virginia Code 10.1-300
• Council: means the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• County: includes towns. See Virginia Code 10.1-500
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Court: means any court vested with appropriate jurisdiction under the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 19.2-5
• Criminal history record information: means records and data collected by criminal justice agencies on adult individuals consisting of identifiable descriptions and notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, informations, or other formal charges, and any disposition arising therefrom. See Virginia Code 9.1-101
• Defense attorney: Represent defendants in criminal matters.
• Department: means the Department of Conservation and Recreation. See Virginia Code 10.1-100
• Department: means the Department of Criminal Justice Services. See Virginia Code 9.1-101
• Developmental services: means the same as that term is defined in § 37. See Virginia Code 9.1-193
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. See Virginia Code 10.1-100
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Due notice: means notice published at least twice, with an interval of at least seven days between the two publication dates, in a newspaper or other publication of general circulation within the appropriate area, or if no such publication of general circulation is available, by posting at a reasonable number of conspicuous places within the appropriate area. See Virginia Code 10.1-500
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the board of supervisors of a county, council of a city, or council of a town, as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• inhabitants: means with reference to any county, city, town, political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any combination thereof, the natural persons in such county, city, town, political subdivision or combination as shown by the unadjusted United States decennial census last preceding the time at which any provision dependent upon population is being applied or the time as of which it is being construed. See Virginia Code 1-235
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
• Law-enforcement officer: means any full-time or part-time employee of a police department or sheriff's office which is a part of or administered by the Commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, or any full-time or part-time employee of a private police department, and who is responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the enforcement of the penal, traffic or highway laws of the Commonwealth, and shall include any (i) special agent of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority; (ii) police agent appointed under the provisions of § 56-353; (iii) officer of the Virginia Marine Police; (iv) conservation police officer who is a full-time sworn member of the enforcement division of the Department of Wildlife Resources; (v) investigator who is a sworn member of the security division of the Virginia Lottery; (vi) conservation officer of the Department of Conservation and Recreation commissioned pursuant to § 10. See Virginia Code 9.1-101
• local government: shall be construed to mean a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Marcus alert system: means the same as that term is defined in § 37. See Virginia Code 9.1-193
• member of the council: means a member of the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Mobile crisis response: means the same as that term is defined in § 37. See Virginia Code 9.1-193
• Notary: means notary public. See Virginia Code 1-226
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Virginia Code 1-228
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § 2. See Virginia Code 1-206
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Substance abuse: means the same as that term is defined in § 37. See Virginia Code 9.1-193
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supervisor: means a member of the board of supervisors of a county. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
• Voice vote: A vote in which the Presiding Officer states the question, then asks those in favor and against to say "Yea" or "Nay," respectively, and announces the result according to his or her judgment. The names or numbers of legisators voting on each side are not recorded.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.