The City of Lubbock, made a body politic and corporate by the
legal adoption of this Charter, shall have perpetual succession, may
use a common seal, may sue and be sued, may contract and be contracted
with, plead and be impleaded in all courts and places and in all matters
whatever; may take, hold and purchase lands and any character of lands,
within or without the city limits as may be needed for the corporate
purposes of said city and may sell any real estate or personal property
owned by it; perform and render all public services and when deemed
expedient, may condemn property for corporate use, and hold, manage
and control the same, and shall be subject to all the duties and obligations
now pertaining to or incumbent upon said city as a corporation, not
in conflict with the provisions of this Charter, and shall enjoy all
the rights, immunities, powers, privileges and franchises now possessed
by said City and herein conferred and granted.
The City of Lubbock shall have the power to enact and enforce
all ordinances necessary to protect health, life and property, and
to prevent and summarily abate and remove all nuisances and to preserve
and enforce the good government, order and security of the city and
its inhabitants, and to enact and enforce ordinances on any and all
subjects; provided, that no ordinance shall be enacted inconsistent
with the provisions of this Charter, or the Constitution of the State
of Texas.
The style of all ordinances of the City of Lubbock shall be
“Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Lubbock”;
but the same may be omitted when published in books or pamphlet form
under authority or by direction of the governing authority of the
City of Lubbock.
(Amended 4/1/1930)
All real estate owned in fee simple title, or held by lease,
sufferance, easement, or otherwise, and all public buildings, fire
stations, parks, streets, avenues and alleys, and all property, whether
real or personal of whatever kind, character or description now owned
or controlled by the City of Lubbock, shall vest in, inure to, remain
and be the property of said City of Lubbock.
The City of Lubbock shall have the power and authority to acquire
and hold, by purchase, gift, devise, deed, condemnation or otherwise,
any character of property, including any charitable or trust fund.
No public property or any other character of property owned
or held by said city, shall be subject to any execution of any kind
or nature.
No funds of the City shall be subject to garnishment, and the
City shall never be required to answer in any garnishment proceedings.
The City shall not be liable on account of any claim for specific
performance, breach of contract or damages to the person or to any
property, or for any character of tort, unless the person asserting
such claim shall give the City written notice of such claim and of
the facts upon which it is based within six (6) months from the time
it is claimed such cause of action arose, and no such suit shall be
instituted or maintained on any such claim until the expiration of
ninety (90) days from the time such notice shall have been given.
Case law annotations–Minor was excused from
the notice requirement in section 8, above. Lubbock v. Onley, 498
S.W. 2d 429 (1973). Section 8 does not apply to damages for breach
of contract. Geo. L. Simpson & Co. v. Lubbock, 17 S.W. 2d 163
(1928).
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(Amended 4/1/1930; 5/7/1988)
Said City shall have the right of eminent domain and the power
to appropriate private property for public purposes whenever the governing
body deems it necessary; and to take any private property, within
or without the city limits for any of the following purposes to wit:
City halls, fire stations, police stations, jails, calaboose, fire
alarm systems, libraries, hospitals, sanitariums, auditoriums, market
houses, reformatories, abattoirs, streets, alleys, parks, highways,
boulevards, speedways, playgrounds, sewer systems, storm sewers, sewage
disposal plants, filtering beds and emptying grounds for sewage systems,
drainage[,] water supply systems, wells, water and electrical light
power systems, streetcar systems, telephone and telegraph systems,
gas plants, gas systems, cemeteries, crematories, prison farms, rest
houses, and to acquire lands within or without the city for any other
municipal purpose that may be deemed advisable. The power herein granted
for the purpose of acquiring private property shall include the right
of improvement and enlargement of waterworks, including water supply,
riparian rights, standpipes, watersheds and the construction of supply
reservoirs, parks and squares, and for the purpose of straightening,
widening or extension of any street, alley, avenue or boulevard. In
all cases wherein the City exercises its powers of eminent domain,
it shall be controlled by the laws applicable to Home Rule Cities.
The power of eminent domain hereby conferred shall include the right
of the governing authority, when so expressed, to take the fee in
the land so condemned, and such power and authority shall include
the right to condemn public property for such purposes.
(Amended 1/24/1967)
Said City shall have the power to buy, own or construct, and
to maintain and operate within or without the city limits, complete
water system or systems, gas or electric lighting power plant or power
plants, telephone or telegraph systems, street railways, sewer systems,
sewage plants, fertilizing plants, abattoirs, municipal railway terminals,
or any other public service utility, and to demand and receive compensation
for services furnished by the City for private purposes or otherwise,
and to have the power to regulate, by ordinance, the collection of
compensation for such services. Said City shall have the power to
acquire by lease, purchase or condemnation, the property of any person,
firm or corporation now or hereafter conducting such business, for
the purpose of operating such public utility or utilities and for
the purpose of distributing such service within or without the City,
or any portion thereof.
Should the City determine to acquire any public utility by purchase,
condemnation or otherwise, as herein provided, said City shall have
the power to obtain funds for the purpose of acquiring said public
utility and paying the compensation therefor, by issuing bonds or
notes, or other evidence of indebtedness, and may secure the same
by fixing a lien upon the property constituting the public utility
so acquired, and said security shall apply alone to said property
so acquired.
Said City shall have the authority to manufacture its own electricity,
gas or anything else that may be needed or used by it or the public;
to make contracts with any person, firm or corporation for the purchase
of gas, water, electricity or any other commodity or articles used
by it or the public, and to sell same to the public as may be determined
by the governing authorities.
In the event said City shall acquire by purchase, gift, devise,
deed, condemnation or otherwise, any waterworks system, electric light
or power system, gas system, street railway system, telephone system
or other public service utility to operate and maintain for the purpose
of serving the inhabitants of said City, the right to operate and
maintain such public service utility, so acquired, shall be exclusive.
Said City shall have the power to determine, fix and regulate
the charges, fares and rates of any person, firm or corporation now
exercising, or that may hereafter exercise, any right of franchise
or public privilege in said City, and to prescribe the kind of service
to be furnished and the equipment to be used, and the manner in which
service shall be rendered, and to change such regulations from time
to time. In order to ascertain all of the facts necessary for a proper
understanding of what is or should be a reasonable rate or regulation,
the governing authority shall have full power to inspect the books
and other records of such person, firm or corporation and compel the
attendance of witness[es] for such purpose; provided, that in adopting
such regulations, and in fixing or changing such compensation, no
stock or bonds authorized or issued by any person, firm or corporation
exercising such franchise or privilege, shall be considered unless
proof be made that the same have been actually issued by such person,
firm or corporation for money or its equivalent, paid and used for
the purchase [and] development of the property under investigation.
Editor’s note–The Charter Comparative
Table, which was initially prepared with the publication of the 1983
Code of Ordinances, indicated section 14 was amended at an election
held on December 10, 1925.
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(a) The City of Lubbock shall have exclusive dominion, control and jurisdiction
in, over and under the public streets, avenues, alleys, highways and
boulevards and public places and grounds of said City, and shall have
power to provide for the improvements of any public streets, avenues,
alleys, highways, boulevards, public places and grounds by paving,
widening, raising, grading, filling, re-paving or re-surfacing, or
otherwise improving same, and by the construction of sewers and drains
and curbs, gutters and sidewalks, and by and all other matters incidental
to any of such improvements. The word “Highway,” as used
herein shall include all streets, alleys, avenues, boulevards, squares,
public places and grounds in said City. The Governing Body of the
City shall have the right and power to assess against property abutting
upon highways or sections thereof improved, and against the owners
thereof, the whole costs of constructing curbs and sidewalks, and
90% of the remaining costs of any such improvements, subject to the
terms hereof, the Governing Body of the City shall have the power
to apportion the cost payable by the respective parcels of abutting
property and owners thereof, and to fix a lien against such abutting
property therefor, which lien shall be superior to all other claims,
liens, or interests, except city, county and state taxes and to fix
a charge and personal liability against the owners of such property.
Terms of payment. The portion of cost
assessed against abutting property and owners thereof may be payable
in installments, and the Governing Body of the City shall have power
to fix time and terms of payment, and to provide that such assessments
shall bear interest at any rate permitted by the laws of the State
of Texas, and to provide that such assessments shall include reasonable
attorney’s fees and cost of collection, if incurred, and to
provide that default in the payment of any installment shall, at the
option of the owner of any assessment or certificate issued in evidence
thereof[,] mature the entire assessments upon which default is made.
The Governing Body shall have full authority to issue assignable certificates
in evidence of any and all such assessments.
Case law annotation–City may collect fees
for parking vehicles on streets. Ex parte Harrison, 122 S.W. 2d 314
(Ct. Crim. App. 1938).
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(b) Assessment lien.
The Governing Body of the City shall
have power to assess and shall assess against the owners of street
railways, steam railways and other railways occupying or crossing
any highway or portion thereof improved, the entire cost of making
such improvements in the area between and under the rails, tracks,
switches, double-tracks or turnouts of any such railways and for two
feet on each side thereof, which sums when assessed shall be paid
by the owners of such railways and shall be a lien upon the roadbed,
rails, ties, tracks, franchises, and other property, real, personal
or mixed, used in the operation of such railways, and which lien shall
be superior to all other liens, claims or interests except city, state
and county taxes and the Governing Body shall have full power to make
and levy any and all such assessments and to provide therein for reasonable
attorney’s fees and costs of collection if incurred, and to
prescribe the time and terms of payment, and for interest not to exceed
the rate of 8% per annum upon any deferred payments, and for accelerated
maturity at the option of the holder of any such assessment or certificate
issued in evidence thereof in case default be made in the payment
of any installment.
(c) Notice and hearing.
No assessment shall be made against
any abutting property or owner thereof, or against any railroad or
street railway or owner thereof, until after opportunity for hearing
to such owners and to all others interested or to be affected before
the Governing Body of the City preceded by notice of the time and
place of such hearing addressed generally to such owners and others
affected, without the necessity of specifically describing the property
to be assessed or naming the owners thereof, which notice shall be
published in some newspaper published in and of general circulation
in the City of Lubbock, Texas, at least three times before the date
fixed for such hearing, the first of which publication shall be at
least ten days before the date of such hearing, and it shall not be
necessary to the validity of such notice that it do more than state
generally the time, place and purpose of such hearing, with a general
designation of the highways or portion or portions thereof, to be
improved, and with reference to which the hearing is to be held.
Additional notice. The Governing Body
shall have power to provide for additional notice in its discretion,
but said published notice shall be sufficient and binding upon all
owners and others interested or to be affected notwithstanding that
other and additional notice may be provided for and not given, or
if given should be faulty, erroneous or defective for any reason.
Hearing; right to contest. At such hearing
the owners of abutting property and of said street railways, steam
railways and other railways and all other parties interested or to
be affected, shall have the right to contest such assessments either
as to the benefits to abutting property or as to the amounts of assessments,
or as to any error herein [therein], or any error or invalidity in
any proceeding with reference thereto or with reference to the appointment
[apportionment] of the cost of any improvement, or with reference
to the regularity, sufficiency, validity or accuracy of any step or
proceeding in connection with such improvements or assessments therefor
and shall have the right to produce testimony and summon witnesses
in support of any contest, protest or objection made, and the Governing
Body shall, at or after such hearing, determine the amounts, if any,
to be assessed, and shall make such assessments by ordinance. At such
hearing, any errors, invalidities, irregularities, inaccuracies or
deficiencies in connection with any proceeding or step may be corrected
or supplied.
Assessment; special benefits. No assessment
shall be made against any abutting property or the owner thereof in
excess of the special benefits to such property in the enhanced value
thereof by means of the improvements for which assessments are levied
as determined at such hearing. Such assessments when levied may be
enforced either by suit in any Court having jurisdiction brought by
the City for the benefits of the owner and holder of any such assessments
or of certificate issued in evidence thereof, or brought by such owner
and holder, or by the sale of the property assessed in the same manner,
as near as possible, as is provided for the sale of real estate for
municipal ad valorem taxes. The lien of all such assessments when
levied, as well as any re-assessments which may be made, shall relate
back and take effect as of the date of the ordinance, resolution or
other proceeding ordering the improvement for which such assessment
or re-assessment is levied.
(d) Personal liability of owners.
Nothing herein contained
shall empower the city to fix an assessment lien against any property
exempt by law from the lien or special assessment for street improvements,
but the owners of such property shall nevertheless be personally liable
for the portion of the cost of such improvements which would be a
lien on such property where it is not exempt, and such sums shall
be assessed against such owners and not become a personal liability
and charge and be enforced, all in the same manner as hereinbefore
provided for other assessments. The fact that any improvement is omitted
in front of any property so exempt shall not invalidate or impair
assessments against other property or the owners thereof.
(e) Certificates of assessments.
The Governing Body shall
have the power to cause to be issued in the name of the City assignable
certificates in writing declaring the liability of abutting property
and the owners thereof, and of any steam railway, street railways
or other railways, for the payment of assessments levied reciting
the time and terms of payment, the rate of interest, and other matters
appropriate thereto.
Certificates as evidence. If any such
certificate shall recite substantially that all proceedings with reference
to the improvement therein referred to an assessment evidenced thereby
have been regularly had in compliance with law and charter, and that
all prerequisites to the fixing of the assessment lien against the
property therein referred to and the personal liability of its owners
have been performed, such recitals shall be prima facie evidence of
such matters and all other pertinent facts recited, and no further
proof thereof shall be required in any court.
(f) Apportionment of costs.
Subject to the terms hereof,
the Governing Body of the City shall apportion the costs of improvements
among the parcels of property abutting the highways, or sections thereof
improved, and the owners thereof, in accordance with the Front Rule
or Plan, but if in particular cases the application of this rule would
in the opinion of the Governing Body, result in injustice or inequality,
then such Body shall adopt such rule as shall effect substantial justice
and equality having in view the benefits received and burdens imposed,
and the proportion of costs to be assessed against the abutting property
and owners thereof, shall be all the costs of constructing sidewalks
and curbs, and 90% of the remaining costs of such improvement, exclusive
of the cost of the improvements in the area between rails, tracks,
double tracks, turnouts, and switches and two feet on each side thereof,
of any steam railways, street railway or other railway unless it shall
appear that the special benefits to such abutting property in the
enhanced value thereof by means of such improvements will not aggregate
such proportion of costs, in which event the amount to be assessed
against such abutting property and owners thereof shall be the amount
of such benefits.
(g) Validity of assessments.
No error or mistake in the
ordinance levying assessments or in any proceeding prerequisite thereto
shall invalidate any assessment levied, and no error in describing
any parcel of abutting property, or in giving the name of the owner
thereof, shall invalidate any such assessment, but same shall have
full force and be in effect against the premises and against the real
and true owners thereof and the Governing Body may at any time by
ordinance make corrections of any error or mistake in the description
of any property or in the name of any owner in any preceding ordinance,
and the fact that more than one parcel of property may be included
in one assessment, or that property assessed may be jointly owned
and assessed jointly, shall not effect [affect] or impair the validity
of any assessment. No assessment shall be made nor certificate issued
which shall cover more than one vacant or unimproved tract and no
vacant property shall be included in an assessment or certificate
with other property.
Power to correct errors; re-assessment. Whenever, in the opinion of the Governing Body, an error, mistake
or invalidity exists in any proceeding with reference to any such
improvement or assessment, it may correct the same, and shall have
power to make re-assessments against any such property and the owners
thereof, and it shall be its duty to do so when requested by anyone
entitled to compensation for making such improvements or by the holder
of any assignable certificates issued in evidence thereof. Such re-assessment
shall be made after notice and hearing in the manner and for the length
of time herein provided for original assessment and not in excess
of the benefits in enhanced value to the property assessed, and otherwise
as near as possible in accordance with the provisions hereof with
reference to original assessments, and the Governing Body shall have
full power by ordinance to make any and all rules and regulations
necessary to carry into effect the provisions hereof relative to assessments
and re-assessments.
Certificates after re-assessment. After
such re-assessments, the City shall have the power to issue assignable
certificates evidencing the same as hereinbefore provided, and the
conditions of said certificates and the recitals shall as near as
possible, comply with the provisions hereof relating to, and have
the same force and effect as certificates in evidence of original
assessments.
Limitation on re-assessment. No such
re-assessment shall be made unless proceedings therefor are begun
within three years from the date of completion of the improvements
and acceptance thereof by the City for which original assessments
has [have] been or should have been levied, but if the validity of
any assessment shall be involved in litigation, then the period of
litigation shall not be considered in computing said three years.
(h) Assessment ordinance required.
The Governing Body shall
have power to take any step or proceeding in connection with or prerequisite
to any such improvement or assessment or re-assessment either by order,
motion, resolution or ordinance, except that the actual final levy
of assessment or re-assessment either by order, motion, resolution
or ordinance, except that the actual final levy of assessment or re-assessment
shall be by ordinance [sic].
(i) Contest by owner.
Any property owner, or railway or
street railway, or anyone else interested or affected and against
whom or whose property an assessment or re-assessment has been made,
shall have the right within the period of time provided by law of
the State of Texas to bring suit in any court having jurisdiction,
to set aside or correct the same either in whole or in part for or
on account of any error, irregularity or invalidity in the amount
thereof or in any proceeding with reference thereto, but thereafter
such owner and all others in anywise interested or affected shall
be barred and stopped from any such action and from in anywise contesting
the validity or enforcement of any such assessment or re-assessment
in any action in which the same may be brought in question. If such
suit be brought, the construction of the improvements may be suspended
until the final determination thereof.
(j) Governing Body to determine improvements.
The Governing
Body shall have the right to determine the nature and extent of the
improvements to be made, and the materials, methods, plans and specifications
under which the same shall be constructed, and shall have the right
to let the work of making same by contract, and shall have the right
to specify different or alternative materials, methods or plans.
(k) Power not exclusive.
The power hereby granted shall
exist as alternative to any powers elsewhere or otherwise derived.
(Amended 12/10/1925; 11/7/1961; 5/7/1988)
Said City shall have the power to provide for the construction
and building of sidewalks and curbs and to charge the entire cost
of the construction of said sidewalks, including the curbs, against
the owner of the abutting property and to make a special charge against
the owner for such cost, and to provide, by special assessments, a
lien against such property for such cost.
Said City shall have the power to provide for the construction,
improvement or repair of any sidewalk or curb by penal ordinance and
to declare defective sidewalks or curbs public nuisances.
Said City shall have the power and authority to grant franchises
for the use and occupancy of streets, avenues, alleys, and any and
all public grounds belonging to or under the control of the City.
No telephone, telegraph, electric light or power, street railway,
interurban railway, steam railway, gas company, waterworks, water
systems, or any other character of public utility shall be granted
any franchise or be permitted the use of any street, avenue, alley,
highway or grounds of the City without first making application to,
and obtaining the consent of the governing authority thereto, expressed
by ordinance, and upon paying such compensation as may be prescribed
and upon such condition as may be provided for by such ordinance and
before such ordinance proposing to make any grant or franchise or
privilege to any applicant to use or occupy any street, avenue, alley
or any other public grounds, belonging to or under control of the
City, shall become effective, publication of said ordinance, as finally
proposed to be passed, shall be made in a newspaper published in the
City of Lubbock, once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks; which
publication shall be made at the expense of the applicant desiring
said grant and said proposed ordinance shall not be thereafter changed
unless republished as in the first instance, nor shall any such ordinance
take effect or become a law or contract or vest any rights in the
applicant therefor, until after the expiration of thirty days from
the last publication of said ordinance, as aforesaid.
Election may be required. Pending the
time such ordinance may become effective, it is hereby made the duty
of the governing authority of the City to order an election if requested
to do so by written petition, signed by at least ten (10) percent
of the legally qualified voters, as determined by the number of votes
cast in the last regular municipal election, at which election the
qualified voters of said City shall vote for or against the proposed
grant, as set forth in detail by the ordinance conferring the right
and privilege upon the applicant therefor. Such election shall be
ordered not less than thirty (30) days nor more than ninety (90) days
from the date of filing said petition, and if at said election the
majority of the votes cast shall be for granting such franchise or
privilege, said ordinance and the making of said proposed grant shall
thereupon become effective, but if a majority of the votes cast at
said election shall be against the granting of such franchise or privilege,
such ordinance shall be ineffective and the making of such proposed
grant be null and void.
Franchise limitations. No franchise shall
ever be granted by the Council other than an indeterminate franchise
or a franchise for a period of years not exceeding twenty, except
in cases where an election is held, as above provided, to determine
whether or not a franchise shall be granted, and no franchise granted
as the result of any election shall ever be for a period of time exceeding
forty years.
(Amended 5/7/1988)
Said City shall have the power to open, extend, straighten,
or widen any public street, avenue, or alley and for such purpose
to acquire the necessary land, by purchase or condemnation, and to
provide that the cost of improving any such street, avenue or alley
by opening, extending, straightening or widening the same shall be
paid by the owner of property lying in the territory of such improvement
and which is specially benefited thereby, and to be provided that
the cost shall be charged by special assessment against such owner
and made a lien against his said property for the amount due by him,
and three (3) Special Commissioners shall be appointed by the County
Judge of the County of Lubbock, Texas, for the purpose of condemning
said land and apportioning said cost, and said apportionment shall
be specially assessed by the governing authority of said City against
the owners and their property lying in the territory so found by said
Special Commissioners to be specially benefited in enhanced value,
and said City may issue assignable certificates for the payment of
any such cost against such property owner and his property and may
provide for the payment thereof in deferred payments, which deferred
payments shall bear interest at any rate permitted by the laws of
the State of Texas. Said City shall pay such portion of such cost
as may be determined by said Special Commissioners to be due it; provided
the cost paid by the City shall never exceed one-third (1/3) of the
cost of such improvement.
(Amended 5/7/1988)
Said City shall have the power to control, regulate and remove
all obstructions, encroachments and incumbrances on any public street,
avenue or alley, and to narrow, alter, widen, straighten, vacate,
abandon and close same; to provide for sprinkling and cleaning same,
and to regulate and control the moving of buildings and structures
of every kind and character upon and along the same.
Said City shall have the exclusive control over all City Parks
and municipal playgrounds and the right to control, regulate and remove
all obstructions and prevent all encroachments thereupon; and to provide
for raising, grading, filling, terracing, landscape gardening, erecting
buildings, providing amusements therein, for establishing walks and
paving driveways around, in and through said parks, playgrounds and
other public grounds.
The City Council shall by Ordinance create and establish a Park
and Recreation Board, and may from time to time delegate all or any
part of the general control and supervision of the parks within the
City of Lubbock, now or hereafter to be acquired, to said Park and
Recreation Board, but the exercise of any such delegated authority
shall be subject to the final approval of the City Council.
(Amended 6/28/1932; 11/7/1961)
Said City shall have the power to define all nuisances, prohibit
the same within the City and outside the City limits for a distance
of 5,000 feet, to police all parks, grounds, speedways, streets, avenues
and alleys owned by said City within or without the City limits; to
prohibit the pollution of all sources of water supply of said City
and to provide for the protection of watersheds.
Inspection of foods. To provide for the
inspection of dairies, cows and dairy herds, slaughter pens and slaughterhouses
and abattoirs, within or without the City limits, from which meat,
milk, butter or eggs are furnished to the inhabitants of said City,
and to provide for the inspection of meat markets, grocery stores,
drugstores, confectioneries, fruit stands, ice cream factories, laundries,
bottling plants, hotels, restaurants, creameries and bakeries; the
source, storage and distribution of water, and all other places where
food or drinks for human consumption are manufactured, handled, sold
or exposed for sale, and to regulate and inspect the quality, and
sanitary condition of such articles of food and drinks so sold or
offered for sale.
Sanitation; garbage; liens for costs. To provide for the inspection and regulation of the sanitary condition
of all premises and vacant lots within the City limits; for the removal
of garbage, night soil, refuse, weeds, trash, unsightly objects and
unsanitary vegetation; to provide for the establishing of a lien against
the property for any expenses incurred by the City in enforcing this
provision, and further, to provide for the making and enforcing of
all proper and reasonable regulations for the health and sanitation
of said City and its inhabitants.
Health department; powers. To provide
for a health department and the establishment of rules and regulations
protecting the health of the City; the establishment of quarantine
stations, pest houses and hospitals and to provide for the adoption
of necessary quarantine laws to protect the inhabitants against contagious
and infectious diseases.
Sanitary sewers; connection by property owners and
costs thereof. To provide for the purchase, extension,
construction and maintenance of a sanitary sewer system; to require
owners of property to connect such property to said sewer, and to
provide for charging the cost of such connection to property owners,
and the fixing of a lien against the property to cover the cost of
such connection. The Council also may, by ordinance, fix penalties
for failure to make such connections.
Driving animals on streets. To prohibit
or regulate the driving of herds of horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep,
goats and all herds of domestic animals along or upon the streets,
avenues, alleys, parks or public grounds of said City.
Animals running at large. To establish
and regulate public pounds and to regulate, restrain and prohibit
the running at large of horses, mules, cattle, sheep, swine, goats,
geese, chickens, pigeons, ducks and all other domesticated animals
and fowls and to authorize the restraining, impounding and sale of
the same for the cost of the proceedings and the penalty incurred,
and to order their disposal or destruction when they cannot be sold,
and to impose penalties upon the owner thereof for the violation of
any ordinance regulating or prohibiting the same, and to tax, regulate,
restrain and prohibit the running at large of dogs and to authorize
their disposal or destruction, and impose penalties on the owners
or keepers thereof.
Mistreatment of animals. To prohibit
the inhumane treatment of animals and provide punishment therefor.
Regulation of use of streets and sidewalks. To prohibit and restrain the flying of kites, firing firearms, firecrackers,
or exploding of explosives, rolling of hoops, and the use of velocipedes,
bicycles, and skates, or the use and practice of any amusement on
the streets, or sidewalks, to the annoyance of pedestrians or persons
using such streets or sidewalks, and to restrain, regulate and prohibit
the ringing of bells, or blowing of horns, bugles and whistles, crying
of goods, and all other noises, practices and performances tending
to the collection of persons in the streets or tending, unnecessarily,
to interfere with the peace and quietude of the inhabitants of said
City; and to suppress and regulate all unnecessary noises.
License of occupations; prohibition of signs. To license any lawful business, occupation or calling susceptible
to the control of the police power, and to license and regulate, control
or prohibit the erections of awnings, signs or billboards on either
public or private property within the City limits.
Peddlers; regulation; license. To license,
tax and regulate hawkers, peddlers and pawnbrokers.
Regulation of vehicles for hire. To license,
tax and regulate the operation of all vehicles operated within the
City limits for the carriage of passengers or freight for hire on
the public streets of said City, and to regulate and prescribe the
charges of fares made by any person, firm or corporation, owning,
operating or controlling any such vehicle.
Regulation of operation of trains, streetcars, etc. To regulate the operation of railway trains, streetcars and jitney
cars operated on, along, or across the streets, avenues or alleys
of said City; to license and control the operation of automobiles,
motorcycles, taxicabs, buses, cabs and carriages and all character
of vehicles using the public streets, and to prescribe the qualifications
of drivers thereof, and to regulate the use and occupancy of the streets
by any such vehicles.
Plumbing regulation. To provide for the
regulation and control of plumbers and plumbing works and to secure
efficiency in the same.
Weights, measures; standards. To provide
for the inspection of weights, measures and meters and fix a standard
of such weights, measures and meters and require conformity to such
standards, and to provide penalties for failure to use or conform
to the same, and to provide for inspection fees.
Buildings; electricity; sewer; gas; plumbing. To provide for the issuance of permits for the erection of all buildings;
for the inspection of the construction of all buildings in respect
to proper wiring for electric lights and other electric appliances
as well as piping for gas, flues, chimneys, plumbing and sewer connections,
and to make and enforce proper regulations in regard thereto.
Keeping of statistics. To provide for
the gathering within the City, the filing, the recording and keeping
of any character of public statistics; to prescribe the forms of blank
reports and books that shall be used in connection therewith; to determine
who shall make and file any such report, and to provide a penalty
for failure to do so.
Buildings; fire limits; condemnation of, etc. To provide for the establishment and designation of fire limits;
to prescribe the kind and character of structures to be erected therein;
to provide for the erection of fireproof buildings within said limits
and for the condemnation of dangerous or dilapidated structures which
are calculated to increase the fire hazard, and to prohibit the repair
of wooden or ironclad buildings in the fire limits which have been
damaged by fire to within fifty percent of the sound value thereof
and may prescribe the manner of ascertaining such damages and direct
the removal and abatement thereof.
Fire escapes; exits; buildings. To require
the construction and determine the sufficiency and regulate the safety
of all exists [exits] and fire escapes on and in all public buildings,
office buildings, hotels, apartment houses, rooming houses, hospitals,
theatres and store buildings within said City, and to enact and enforce
all ordinances and resolutions necessary to regulate the safety thereof.
Public amusements; sale of liquor. To
provide for the establishment of districts and limits within said
City, wherein saloons for the sale of spirituous, vinous and malt
liquors may be located and maintained, and to prohibit the sale of
such liquors, or the location of such saloons within such defined
districts or limits, to regulate the location and control the conduct
of theatres, moving picture shows, vaudeville shows, dance halls,
ten-pin alleys, pool halls, and all other public amusements.
Vagrants; drugs, etc. To restrain and
punish vagrants, mendicants, beggars and prostitutes, and to regulate,
control or prohibit the sale, gift, barter or exchange, of cocaine,
opium, morphine and the salts thereof.
Disorderly houses; vagrancy. To prohibit
and punish keepers and inmates of bawdy, assignation and disorderly
houses, and to prevent and suppress such bawdy, assignation and disorderly
houses, and to punish such keepers, inmates and owners, or agents
of such owners of such houses knowingly permitting such houses to
be occupied as such bawdy, assignation or disorderly houses, and to
determine such inmates and keepers to be vagrants.
Police department. To establish and maintain
the City Police Department, prescribe the qualifications and duties
of policemen and regulate their conduct.
Fire department. To provide for the establishment
of and maintaining the Fire Department of the City.
Public utility extensions. To require
waterworks corporations, gas companies, streetcar companies, telephone
and telegraph companies, or other companies, or individuals exercising
franchises now or hereafter from the City, to make and furnish extension
of their service to such territory as may be required by ordinance.
Plats of streets occupied by public utilities. To require that the holder of any right or franchise, heretofore
or hereafter granted, by this City for the use or occupancy of any
of its streets, avenues, alleys or public grounds, shall, at their
own expense, make and furnish to said City correct and complete maps
or plats, showing the location, extent and such other general information
as may be desired of all their respective improvements and uses of
whatsoever nature or character located on the streets, avenues, alleys
or public grounds of said City.
Penal ordinances; penalty. To provide
for the enforcement of all ordinances enacted by it, by a fine not
to exceed the maximum fine permitted by applicable State law, provided
that no ordinance shall prescribe a greater or less penalty than is
indicated for a like offense by the laws of the State.
Punishment; remission; collection of fines. To provide for the suspension and remission of punishment and the
commutation of fines imposed by labor in a workhouse or on the public
streets and grounds of the City, and for the collection of any fine
imposed execution may be enforced as execution in civil cases, provided
that the punishment imposed for a violation of any offense denounced
by the State law or which the municipal court of record has jurisdiction
may not be suspended or remitted, unless provision therefor is made
by the general laws of the State.
(Amended 11/7/1961; 5/7/1988)
Sale of Electric Light System and Water System and Plant and
also 81 acres of land, to be voted on by people. The City of Lubbock
shall not sell the municipal electric light system, or water system
and plant, or the 81 acre tract of land purchased by the City from
J. A. Wilson out of Survey Eighteen (18), Block A, Lubbock County,
Texas, unless such sale is authorized by a two-thirds vote of the
qualified tax-paying voters at a general or special election held
in accordance with law.
(Amended 4/1/1930)
The City of Lubbock shall not permanently abandon the land,
or buildings used and known as the Lubbock Municipal Auditorium-Coliseum,
unless such abandonment is authorized by a majority vote of the qualified
tax-paying voters at a general or special election held in accordance
with law; provided, however, that no election shall be required prior
to the sale or other disposition of fixtures, equipment, furnishings
or appurtenant structures which have become obsolete or which are
no longer necessary or desirable to the continued operation of such
Lubbock Municipal Auditorium-Coliseum.
(Amended 11/7/1961)