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§ 10.03 RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.
   (A)   Common and technical usage. Words and phrases shall be read in context and construed according to the rules of grammar and common usage. Words and phrases that have acquired a technical or particular meaning, whether by legislative definition or otherwise, shall be construed accordingly.
(R.C. § 1.42)
   (B)   Singular and plural; gender; tenses. As used in this code, unless the context otherwise requires:
      (1)   The singular includes the plural, and the plural includes the singular.
      (2)   Words of one gender include the other genders.
      (3)   Words in the present tense include the future tense.
(R.C. § 1.43)
   (C)   Calendar; computation of time.
      (1)   The time within which an act is required by law to be done shall be computed by excluding the first and including the last day; except that when the last day falls on Sunday or a legal holiday, then the act may be done on the next succeeding day that is not a Sunday or a legal holiday.
      (2)   When a public office, in which an act required by law is to be performed, is closed to the public for the entire day that constitutes the last day for doing the act or before its usual closing time on that day, the act may be performed on the next succeeding day that is not a Sunday or a legal holiday.
      (3)   LEGAL HOLIDAY, as used in divisions (C)(1) and (C)(2) of this section, means the following days:
         (a)   The first day of January, known as New Year's day;
         (b)   The third Monday in January, known as Martin Luther King day;
         (c)   The third Monday in February, known as Washington-Lincoln day;
         (d)   The day designated in the “Act of June 28, 1968,” 82 Stat. 250, 5 USC 6103, as amended, for the commemoration of Memorial day;
         (e)   The nineteenth day of June, known as Juneteenth day;
         (f)   The fourth day of July, known as Independence day;
         (g)   The first Monday in September, known as Labor day;
         (h)   The second Monday in October, known as Columbus day;
         (i)   The eleventh day of November, known as Veteran’s day;
         (j)   The fourth Thursday in November, known as Thanksgiving day;
         (k)   The twenty- fifth day of December, known as Christmas day;
         (l)   Any day appointed and recommended by the Governor of this state or the President of the United States as a holiday.
      (4)   If any day designated in this section as a legal holiday falls on a Sunday, the next succeeding day is a legal holiday.
(R.C. § 1.14)
      (5)   When an act is to take effect or become operative from and after a day named, no part of that day shall be included. If priority of legal rights depends upon the order of events on the same day, such priority shall be determined by the times in the day at which they respectively occurred.
(R.C. § 1.15)
      (6)   If a number of months is to be computed by counting the months from a particular day, the period ends on the same numerical day in the concluding month as the day of the month from which the computation is begun, unless there are not that many days in the concluding month, in which case the period ends on the last day of that month.
(R.C. § 1.45)
      (7)   In all cases where the law shall require any act to be done in a reasonable time or reasonable notice to be given, reasonable time or notice shall mean such time only as may be necessary for the prompt performance of such duty or compliance with such notice.
   (D)   Numbers. If there is a conflict between figures and words in expressing a number, the words govern.
(R.C. § 1.46)
   (E)   Authority. When the law requires an act to be done which may by law as well be done by an agent as by the principal, such requirement shall be construed to include all such acts when done by an authorized agent.
   (F)   Joint authority. All words purporting to give joint authority to three or more municipal officers or other persons shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such officers or other persons, unless it shall be otherwise expressly declared in the law giving the authority, or it is inconsistent with state law or municipal charter provisions.
   (G)   Exceptions. The rules of construction shall not apply to any law which contains any express provision excluding such construction, or when the subject matter or context of such law is repugnant thereto.
§ 10.04 REVIVOR; EFFECT OF AMENDMENT OR REPEAL.
   (A)   The repeal of a repealing statute does not revive the ordinance originally repealed nor impair the effect of any saving clause therein.
(R.C. § 1.57)
   (B)   The re-enactment, amendment, or repeal of an ordinance does not, except as provided in division (C) of this section:
      (1)   Affect the prior operation of the ordinance or any prior action taken thereunder.
      (2)   Affect any validation, cure, right, privilege, obligation, or liability previously acquired, accrued, accorded, or incurred thereunder.
      (3)   Affect any violation thereof or penalty, forfeiture, or punishment incurred in respect thereto, prior to the amendment or repeal.
      (4)   Affect any investigation, proceeding, or remedy in respect of any privilege, obligation, liability, penalty, forfeiture, or punishment; and the investigation, proceeding, or remedy may be instituted, continued, or enforced, and the penalty, forfeiture, or punishment imposed, as if the ordinance had not been repealed or amended.
   (C)   If the penalty, forfeiture, or punishment for any offense is reduced by a re-enactment or amendment of an ordinance, the penalty, forfeiture, or punishment, if not already imposed, shall be imposed according to the ordinance as amended.
(R.C. § 1.58)
   (D)   An ordinance which is re-enacted or amended is intended to be a continuation of the prior ordinance and not a new enactment, so far as it is the same as the prior ordinance.
(R.C. § 1.54)
§ 10.05 CONSTRUCTION OF SECTION REFERENCES.
   (A)   Wherever in a penalty section reference is made to a violation of a section or an inclusive group of sections, or of divisions or subdivisions of a section, such reference shall be construed to mean a violation of any provision of the section, sections, divisions or subdivisions included in the reference.
   (B)   References in the code to action taken or authorized under designated sections of the code include, in every case, action taken or authorized under the applicable legislative provision which is superseded by this code.
(R.C. § 1.23)
   (C)   A reference to any portion of a provision of this code applies to all re-enactments or amendments thereof.
(R.C. § 1.55)
   (D)   If a section refers to a series of numbers or letters, the first and the last numbers or letters are included.
(R.C. § 1.56)
   (E)   Whenever in one section reference is made to another section hereof, the reference shall extend and apply to the section referred to as subsequently amended, revised, recodified, or renumbered, unless the subject matter has been changed or materially altered by the amendment or revision.
§ 10.06 CONFLICTING PROVISIONS.
   (A)   If a general provision conflicts with a special or local provision, they shall be construed, if possible, so that effect is given to both. If the conflict between the provisions is irreconcilable, the special or local provision prevails as an exception to the general provision, unless the general provision is the later adoption and the manifest intent is that the general provision prevail.
(R.C. § 1.51)
   (B)   (1)   If ordinances enacted at different meetings of the Legislative Authority are irreconcilable, the ordinance latest in date of enactment prevails.
      (2)   If amendments to the same ordinance are enacted at different meetings of the Legislative Authority, one amendment without reference to another, the amendments are to be harmonized, if possible, so that effect may be given to each. If the amendments are substantively irreconcilable, the latest in date of enactment prevails. The fact that a later amendment restates language deleted by an earlier amendment, or fails to include language inserted by an earlier amendment, does not of itself make the amendments irreconcilable. Amendments are irreconcilable only when changes made by each cannot reasonably be put into simultaneous operation.
(R.C. § 1.52)
   (C)   In the event of a conflict between any of the provisions of this code, or between any of the provisions of this code and any standard code adopted by the municipality pursuant to R.C. § 731.231, the provision that establishes the higher or stricter standard shall control.
§ 10.07 SEVERABILITY.
   If any provisions of a section of this code or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the section or related sections which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions are severable.
(R.C. § 1.50)
§ 10.08 REFERENCE TO OFFICES.
   Reference to a public office or officer shall be deemed to apply to any office, officer, or employee of the municipality exercising the powers, duties, or functions contemplated in the provision, irrespective of any transfer of functions or change in the official title of the functionary.
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