Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, and 3.4:1, as amended, of Chapter 247 of the Acts of Assembly of 1968 are amended and reenacted as follows:

§3.1. Composition of council; election, qualifications and term of office of councilmen and mayor council members.

The town of Culpeper shall be governed by a town council composed of eight councilmen council members and a mayor, to be elected from the town at large. Councilmen Council members shall be qualified electors of the town, and shall serve for terms of four years. Four councilmen council members shall be elected on the first Tuesday in May, nineteen hundred eighty, after the first Monday in November 2015 and every four years thereafter. Four councilmen council members shall be elected on the first Tuesday in May, nineteen hundred seventy-eight, after the first Monday in November 2017 and every four years thereafter. Council members elected to terms ending June 30, 2016, shall remain in office through December 31, 2015. Council members elected to terms ending June 30, 2018, shall remain in office through December 31, 2017.

§3.2. When terms of office to begin.

The terms of office for the town councilmen council members shall begin on the first day of July January next following their election.

§3.3. Vacancies on council.

Vacancies on the town council shall be filled from among the qualified electors of the town within sixty days for the unexpired terms by a majority vote of the remaining members; provided, that where a vacancy shall occur more than six months prior to the regular town election next succeeding that at which the member of council whose seat was vacated was elected, the person so appointed shall serve only until a successor for the unexpired term shall have been elected in a special election held at the same time as that succeeding regular town election and the person so elected qualifies as provided by law and takes office on July 1 next following his election in accordance with general law.

§3.4. Election and term of office of mayor and vice-mayor.

The mayor shall be a qualified elector of the town and shall serve for a term of four years. The election of the mayor for a four-year term shall be on the first Tuesday in May, 1986, after the first Monday in November 2017 and every four years thereafter. The mayor elected at the May 2014 election shall remain in office through December 31, 2017. At the first meeting of the town council held on or after July January one in each even-numbered year, the town council shall elect from its members, by a majority vote of the members elected, a vice-mayor, who shall serve for a term of two years.

§3.4:1. Vacancy in the office of mayor.

A vacancy in the office of the mayor shall be filled for the unexpired term within sixty days by appointment of a qualified elector of the town by a majority vote of the remaining members of council; provided that where a vacancy shall occur more than six months prior to the regular town election next succeeding that at which the mayor was elected, the person so appointed shall serve only until a successor for the unexpired term shall have been elected in a special election held at the same time as that succeeding regular town election and the person so elected qualifies as provided by law and takes office on July 1 next following his election. Members of council are eligible to be appointed to fill the mayor's vacancy. Where a vacancy shall occur six months or less prior to the regular town election for mayor, no appointment shall be made and the vice mayor shall possess the powers and discharge the duties of the mayor for the unexpired term in accordance with general law.