§ 6. Equalization.

The assessor shall complete the assessment roll on or before the fifteenth day of August in each year and shall submit it to the City Council by the fifteenth day of September in each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable at either a regular or a special meeting, for the purpose of reviewing, correcting and equalizing said assessment, and of hearing and determining petitions relating thereto; which meeting may be continued from day to day or by adjournment to other specified day or days so long as may be necessary for the complete equalization and correction of the assessment roll. If for any reason a quorum of the Council should not attend such meeting or any of its adjournments, the City Clerk shall proclaim such meeting adjourned unto some other hour of the same day or to another day not more than five days distant, and shall enter the fact of the adjournment on the minute book of the Council. The City Clerk, shall thus adjourn the meeting as often as may be necessary until a quorum shall appear.

The Mayor or the City Clerk, by publication at least once in a newspaper published in the City or by posting in three public places in the City, or both, shall give at least ten days previous notice of the day, hour, and place of the meeting for equalization and correction, and call upon all persons to file with the City Clerk before such meeting their written petitions to the City Council, setting forth any objections they may have to the assessment roll and the corrections they desire made; and during the time of running of the notice the public shall have access to the assessment roll at the City Hall each day, Sundays and legal holidays excepted, from nine o'clock in the morning to four o'clock in the afternoon, except between noon and two o'clock p.m., for the purpose of examining the same and of preparing their petitions, but any failure to give such access during all prescribed hours shall not invalidate the proceedings if there shall be on each day a substantial opportunity to have access to the assessment roll aforesaid between the hours limited for that purpose in this section. The Council shall have power to ordain that all such petitions shall be made on blank forms prepared by the City and furnished by it on application, and to make all reasonable rules and regulations in reference to the said petitions.

The City Clerk shall deliver all the petitions filed with the prescribed time to the Council at such meeting, and the Council shall give opportunity to the petitioners to be heard in person or by attorney in open session, by written or oral argument, or both, and on such evidence as they may present to sustain their petitions; but the Council may, by resolution, regulate the order of hearing, and limit the time to be given to each petitioner. The Council shall make such changes and corrections in the assessment roll as may be necessary for a proper assessment and for the just and legal equalizing thereof.

(Laws of Fla. ch. 15394(1931), § 6; Laws of Fla. ch. 69-1391, § 2)