CODE OF THE CITY OF ORLANDO, FLORIDA
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VOLUME I
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GENERAL ORDINANCES OF THE CITY
AND
SPECIAL ACTS OF THE LEGISLATURE
PERTAINING TO THE CITY OF ORLANDO____________
Originally Published by Order of the City Council
in 1982 by the Office of Legal Affairs____________
Republished in 1999 by:
>HISTORICAL NOTE
The history of the progress and growth of Orlando as a municipal corporation is probably best recorded in the development of laws and ordinances adopted for the government of the City.
On June 23, 1875, a group of twenty-nine qualified electors met pursuant to a general Act of February 4, 1869. Chairman R.W. Browne announced "the object of the meeting to be the taking of appropriate steps to incorporate the Town of Orlando." A committee was appointed to give proper legal notice. The meeting was adjourned to reconvene on July 31, 1875. Twenty-two of the qualified electors were present at the adjourned meeting. They apparently voted unanimously to incorporate and decided that the Corporation would be named "ORLANDO," and a Corporate Seal was adopted.
At a meeting on August 2, 1875, William Brock was elected Mayor and James P. Hughey was elected City Clerk. The first Town Marshal was James W. Williams. Seven aldermen were as follows: James A. Montague, Jacob Summerlin, E.W. Spier, W.C. Stubblefield, E.A. Richards, C.A. Boone and J.R. Cohen.
The first meeting of the new Town Council was held August 4, 1875, and R.W. Browne was chosen Attorney.
The Council met again at the Court House on August 6, 1875, at which time the Town Attorney presented the first Code of Orlando. It contained twenty-three ordinances. This Code was passed by the Council August 7, 1875, but two ordinances were vetoed by the Mayor and the veto was subsequently sustained.
The first revised Code of the ordinances of the Town of Orlando was adopted January 3, 1883, when C.A. Boone was Mayor and George C. Munger was City Clerk. This Code consisted of thirty-nine articles and indicated a comprehensive effort to provide for what appears to have been a growing municipality. By a Special Act of the Legislature which came into effect February 4, 1885, the Town of Orlando was legally incorporated as a City under the Laws of Florida.
On July 27, 1888, when C.H. Munger was President of the City Council and John P. Watson was Clerk, we find the first printed publication of all the Ordinances of the City of Orlando.
There appears to have been no attempt to revise the ordinances again until January 3, 1917, when James L. Giles was Mayor and Frank H. Williams was City Clerk. The Clerk was then directed to "prepare the ordinances in such form that the City Solicitor might pass upon them prior to their being printed in a compact and complete form." Under the supervision of the then City Attorney, Edwin W. Davis, the ordinances were prepared and published on May 9, 1918, under the title of "GENERAL ORDINANCES OF ORLANDO."
Eleven years later, on January 19, 1927, when L.M. Autrey was Mayor and J.A. Stinson was City Clerk, the City Solicitor was directed to compile all the applicable Laws of the State and to simplify and consolidate all Ordinances of the City of Orlando. This was done under the supervision of the then City Attorney, C.O. Andrews, and "THE CODE OF CITY OF ORLANDO, 1927" was duly adopted and published June 22, 1927.
There was no subsequent revision or codification of the ordinances until 1948 when the task was assigned to the then City Attorney, Campbell Thornal. Under his supervision the "CODE OF CITY OF ORLANDO, 1948" was prepared and duly adopted on December 29, 1948, containing all ordinances of a general and permanent nature in force as of January 1, 1949. The volume thus published contained for information applicable provisions of the Florida Constitution and local laws pertaining to the City of Orlando. Although it was contemplated at that time that annual supplements would be published, no provision was made therefor.
In 1956, the first codification of the ordinances of the City of Orlando was accomplished by the editorial staff of Michie City Publications Company of Charlottesville, Virginia. Subsequently, and up until mid-1982, the ordinances were codified, edited and indexed by the Municipal Code Corporation of Tallahassee, Florida.
In late 1981, the City Council authorized a complete revision of the City Charter and City Code and further authorized the codification, editing, indexing and actual publication of the Code in-house by City staff. In 1982, under the direction of City Attorney Robert L. Hamilton, this code revision—the first since 1956—was completed and a new 2-volume set of the "CODE OF THE CITY OF ORLANDO" was issued.
Special acknowledgment is due Robert L. Hamilton, City Attorney, Grace A. Chewning, City Clerk, and the staff of the Office of Legal Affairs for their many long and tedious hours in bringing the code revision of 1982 to a successful and expeditious completion. In particular, commendation is due Senior Assistant City Attorney Michael S. Webb and Assistant City Attorneys Ann E. Colby, Richard D. Oldham III, and Robert D. Guthrie, Jr., together with Police Legal Advisor Jody M. Litchford, City Prosecutor Dana Harden and Senior Legal Secretary Marjanet W. Ford.
In 1997, during an internal review of how to streamline operations within City government and improve delivery of services, a joint recommendation evolved from the City Clerk's Office and the Office of Legal Affairs to pursue the conversion of the Orlando City Charter/Code from in-house publication to outsourcing in an electronic format that would allow placement on the internet and intranet. A significant reduction in printing and distribution costs as well as staff time in duplicating copies requested by the public was projected.
Following support of the concept by the City administration, the first step was to research and input legislative history of each City Code section since 1982 when the City undertook in-house publication. College interns were hired mid-1997 to perform this aspect which was completed that Fall. Special thanks go to Michael S. Bloomer, Tea M. English and Edward E. Phlegar for an outstanding accomplishment.
Next, Requests for Proposals on the conversion project were evaluated from vendors; and Municipal Code Corporation was awarded a contract in November 1998 to undertake reformatting and republishing the City Charter/City Code.
This publication has been made possible by the dedicated performance, cooperation and expert assistance of City Clerk Grace Ann Chewning, Assistant City Attorney Amy T. Iennaco, Application Developer Suzanne C. Burns, Purchasing Agent Dianne Farrell, Legal Secretary Dolores Meyer and City Clerk Aide Shirley Z. Sirota. Their efforts and those of Municipal Code Corporation Senior Editor Linda G. Davis have resulted in a text-searchable product that will make the City Code more accessible.
The City of Orlando takes considerable pride in having its Code published not only in hard copy but on the internet [www.ci.orlando.fl.us] which makes the contents and our local standards available World-wide. By opening the doors to these diverse communication capabilities, we have provided a valuable tool to assist others in the research and development of strategies and procedures on a universal basis.
April 1999
PREFACE
This volume is a republication of the 1982 Code of the City of Orlando, Florida. The original arrangement and the original numbering system have been retained. A state law reference table was prepared. Obvious typographical errors and misspellings have been corrected without notation. For stylistic purposes, a uniform system of headings, catchlines, and citations to state law has been used. Material added to the text by the editor for clarity is enclosed in brackets.
Page Numbering System
The page numbering system used in this Code is a prefix system. The letters to the left of the colon are an abbreviation which represents a certain portion of the volume. The number to the right of the colon represents the number of the page in that portion. In the case of a chapter of the Code, the number to the left of the colon indicates the number of the chapter. In the case of an appendix to the Code, the letter immediately to the left of the colon indicates the letter of the appendix. The following are typical parts of codes of ordinances, which may or may not appear in this Code at this time, and their corresponding prefixes:
CHARTER CHT 1-1 CHARTER COMPARATIVE TABLE CHTCT 1-1 CODE CD 1-1 CODE COMPARATIVE TABLE CCT 1-1 STATE LAW REFERENCE TABLE SLT 1-1 INDEX TO CITY CODE CDI 1-1 Looseleaf Supplements
Upon passage of ordinances amending either the Charter or the Code, supplements will be printed and distributed with instructions for inserting new pages and removing obsolete pages. Keeping this publication up-to-date at all times will depend largely upon the holder of the publication. As revised pages are received, it will become the responsibility of the holder to make the necessary insertions and/or deletions according to the attached instructions.