Is it Time for a Legal Review of your Code of Ordinances?

When was the last time you gave your municipal Code of ordinances a thorough review? If your answer is 10 years or more, it is recommended you consider a legal review of your Code.  This may sound intimidating. However, we can make the process relatively simple.

First, your Code is reviewed by one of our Code Attorneys, who will look at all of your laws of a general and permanent nature, checking for two things:

1. Identification of conflicts, inconsistencies and obsolete ordinance provisions in connection with the State statutes, as amended through the most recent legislative session
2. Identification of conflicting or obsolete ordinances and Code provisions

The legal review is then sent to the city attorney.

Once the city attorney receives the legal review, your Code Attorney is available to answer any questions and discuss their findings with you. Your staff can then decide how to address the recommendations made in the legal review. Our team of attorneys will be with you each and every step of the process. 

After completion of the legal review, your municipality has two options to adopt the needed changes to your Code:

1. You can have Municode implement the recommendations and then send you an adopting ordinance that would adopt all the changes in full. (This option is an additional cost.)
2. You can go through the Code on your own and adopt the changes either individually or, however, else your City Attorney advises you to do so. If you choose this option, you oversee the implementation of any or all of the changes suggested in the legal review and then adopting the changes via ordinances. Your Code would then be updated on your next supplement cycle.

An estimate for implementing the changes can be provided once the legal review is complete, and the extent of changes is known. 

In this new decade, it is vital for your municipality to have a legally sound code. Our team at Municode is here to help you. Contact us below if your Code needs a fresh look. 

By Julie Lovelace | Vice President - Code Department Julie has overall supervision of the legal work of all code projects and ensures that the final product is up to Municode’s demanding standards. Julie earned her J.D. from Samford University Cumberland School of Law and holds a B.A. in History and Speech Communications from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.  Julie has almost 30 years of experience in local government law and is a member of the Florida Bar.