(a) This Chapter may be cited as "The Local Government Finance Act."
(b) The words and phrases defined in this section have the meanings indicated when used in this Chapter, unless the context clearly requires another meaning, or unless the word or phrase is given a more restrictive meaning by definition in another Article herein.
(1) "Chairman" means the chairman of the Local Government Commission.
(2) "City" includes towns and incorporated villages.
(3) "Clerk" means an officer or employee of a local government or public authority charged by law or direction of the governing board with the duty of keeping the minutes of board meetings and conserving records evidencing official actions of the board.
(4) "Commission" means the Local Government Commission.
(5) "Publish," "publication," and other forms of the word "publish" mean insertion in a newspaper qualified under G.S. 1-597 to publish legal advertisements.
(6) "Secretary" means the secretary of the Local Government Commission.
(c) Words in the singular number include the plural, and in the plural include the singular. Words of the masculine gender include the feminine and the neuter, and when the sense so indicates, words of the neuter gender may refer to any gender.