The legislative and governing body of the City shall consist of a Mayor and six Council Members and shall be known as the “Council of the City of Azle.”
(a) 
The Mayor and the other members of the City Council shall be elected from the City at large.
(b) 
The Mayor shall be the presiding officer of the City Council and shall be recognized as the head of the City Government for all ceremonial purposes and by the governor for the purposes of military law, but shall have no regular administrative duties. The Mayor may also serve as magistrate.
(c) 
In each odd-numbered year three Council Members and a Mayor shall be elected, and in each even-numbered year three Council Members shall be elected.
(d) 
The Mayor and each Council Member shall hold office for a period of two years and until their successor is elected and qualified.
All elections shall be held in the manner provided in Article 5 of this charter.
(Amended by Ordinance 2016-04 at an election held on May 7, 2016, prop. 3)
Each member of the City Council shall be a resident citizen of the City of Azle, shall be a qualified voter of the State of Texas, shall have been such resident citizen of the City of Azle for a period of not less than one (1) year immediately preceding election day; provided, however, that any person with the above qualifications, except as to residence, who shall have been a resident of any of the territory not formerly within the corporate limits of said City, but which is annexed under the provisions of Section 1.03 of this charter shall be eligible for office. If the Mayor or any Council Member fails to maintain the foregoing qualifications, or shall be absent from three consecutive regularly scheduled meetings without valid excuse approved by majority vote of the remainder of this Council the City Council must at its next regular meeting declare a vacancy to exist and shall fill said vacancy as set forth in Section 3.06 of this charter.
(Amended by Ordinance 2016-04 at an election held on May 7, 2016, prop. 4)
The City Council shall fix the compensation to be received by its members for attendance at its meetings.
The City Council, at its first meeting after election of Council Member[s], shall elect one of its number a Mayor Pro-Tem, and [who] shall perform all the duties of the Mayor in the absence or disability of the Mayor.
When a vacancy occurs in the City Council, and there is more than six (6) months remaining in the term of office so vacated, then in that event the City Council shall call a special election. If there is less than six (6) months remaining in the office so vacated, then the remaining members of the Council shall, within ten days, appoint a qualified person to fill the unexpired term. However, the City Council shall not appoint more than one Council Member in any twelve months prior to the subsequent vacancy, or if more than one vacancy occurs at the same time or before a prior vacancy has been filled, the City Council shall call a special election to be held on the next election date authorized by law in accordance with state law.
(Amended by Ordinance 536, sec. 1, approved 5/5/90; Amended by Ordinance 2016-04 at an election held on May 7, 2016, prop. 4)
All powers of the City and the determination of all matters of policy shall be vested in the City Council. Without limitation of the foregoing and among the other powers that may be exercised by the City Council, the following are hereby enumerated for greater certainty:
(a) 
Remove from office any member of any board or commission, or appointed officer.
(b) 
Establish, consolidate or abolish administrative departments.
(c) 
Adopt the budget of the City.
(d) 
Authorize the issuance of bonds by a bond ordinance.
(e) 
Inquire into the conduct of any office, department or agency of the City and make investigations as to municipal affairs.
(f) 
Provide for such additional boards and commissions, not otherwise provided for in this charter, as may be deemed necessary, and appoint the members of all such boards and commissions. Such boards and commissions shall have all powers and duties now or hereafter conferred and created by this charter, by City ordinance or bylaw.
(g) 
Adopt and modify the zoning, plan and the building code of the City.
(h) 
Adopt and modify the official map of the City.
(i) 
Adopt, modify and carry out plans proposed by the Planning and Zoning Commission for the clearance of slum districts and rehabilitation of blighted areas.
(j) 
Adopt, modify and carry out plans proposed by the Planning and Zoning Commission for the replanning, improvement and redevelopment of any area which may have been destroyed in whole or in part by disaster.
(k) 
Regulate, license and fix the charges or fares made by any person, firm or corporation owning, operating or controlling any vehicle of any character used for the carrying of passengers for hire or the transportation of freight for hire on the public streets and alleys of the City.
(l) 
Provide for the establishment and designation of fire limits and prescribe the kind and character of buildings or structures or improvements to be erected therein, and provide for condemnation of dangerous buildings calculated to increase the fire hazard and prescribe the manner of their removal or destruction within said limits.
(m) 
Fix the salaries and compensation of the City officers and employees.
(n) 
Provide for a sanitary sewer and water system and set regulations, fees, and charges therefore and provide penalties for failure to pay such fees and charges.
(o) 
Provide for sanitary garbage disposal, and set fees and charges therefore and provide penalties for failure to pay such fees and charges.
(p) 
Provide for an electrical system and set fees and charges therefore and provide penalties for misuses of same.
(q) 
Exercise exclusive dominion, control and jurisdiction including the right to close and abandon streets and alleys in, upon, over and under the grounds of the City and provide for the improvement of same in accordance with state law.
(r) 
Compromise and settle any and all claims and lawsuits of every kind and character in favor of or against the City of Azle.
Neither the City Council nor any of its members shall direct the appointment of any person to office by the City Manager or by any of its subordinates. Except for the purpose of inquiry, the City Council and its members shall deal with the administrative services solely through the City Manager and neither the City Council nor any member thereof shall give orders to any subordinate of the City Manager, either publicly or privately.
The City Council shall hold at least one regular meeting in each month at a time to be fixed by it for such regular meetings, and may hold as many additional meetings during the month as may be necessary for the transaction of the business of the City and its citizens. All meetings of the City Council shall be open and public except for those executive meetings held in accordance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Law, including its amendments from time to time passed by the Legislature of the State of Texas and shall be held at the City Hall, except that the City Council may designate another place for such meetings after publishing due notice thereof in one issue of a newspaper in general circulation in the City of Azle or posting notice at City Hall. The Mayor or any two members of the City Council may call special meetings of the City Council at any time.
(Amended by Ordinance 2016-04 at an election held on May 7, 2016, prop. 5)
The City Council shall determine its own rules of procedure and may compel the attendance of its members. The Mayor shall participate in the discussion of all matters coming before the Council and shall have a vote on all matters before the Council. A majority of the qualified members of the City Council, including the Mayor, shall constitute a quorum to do business and the affirmative vote of a majority of those present shall be necessary to adopt any ordinance or resolution. Minutes of the proceedings of the City Council shall be kept, to which any citizen may have access at all reasonable times and which shall constitute one of the archives of the City. The vote upon the passage of all ordinances and resolutions shall be taken by a show of hands and entered upon the minutes, and every ordinance or resolution, upon its final passage, shall be recorded in a book kept for that purpose under full caption, and shall be authenticated by the signature of the presiding officer and the person performing the duties of the City Secretary.
(Amended by Ordinance 2016-04 at an election held on May 7, 2016, prop. 3)
Every ordinance shall be introduced in written or printed form and, upon passage, shall take effect at the time indicated therein; provided that any ordinance imposing a penalty, fine or forfeiture for a violation of its provisions shall become effective not less than ten days from the date of its passage; subject to the provisions of Article 7 of this charter. The clerk shall give notice of the passage of every ordinance imposing a penalty, fine or forfeiture for a violation of the provisions thereof, by causing the caption or title, including the penalty, of any such ordinance to be published in the official newspaper of the City of Azle at least once within ten days after the passage of said ordinance. The Clerk shall note on every ordinance, the caption of which is hereby required to be published, and on the record thereof, the fact that same has been published as required by the charter, and the date of such publication, which shall be prima facie evidence of the legal publication and promulgation of such ordinance; provided that the provisions of this section shall not apply to the correction, amendment, revision and codification of the ordinance of the city for publication in book or pamphlet form. Except as otherwise provided in Article 7 of this charter, it shall not be necessary to the validity of any ordinance that it shall be read more than one time or considered at more than one session of the City Council. Every ordinance shall be authenticated by the signature of the Mayor and City Secretary and shall be systematically recorded and indexed in an ordinance book in a manner approved by the Council. It shall only be necessary to record the caption or title of ordinances in the minutes or journal of Council meetings. The City Council shall have the power to cause the ordinances of the City to be corrected, amended, revised, codified and printed in code form as often as the Council deems advisable, and such printed code, when adopted by the Council, shall be in full force and effect without the necessity of publishing the same or any part thereof in a newspaper. Such printed code shall be admitted in evidence in all courts and places without further proof.
The City Manager and the City Secretary and such other City officers and employees as the City Council may require, shall, before entering upon the duties of their offices, enter into a good and sufficient fidelity bond in a sum to be determined by the City Council, payable to the City of Azle and conditioned upon the faithful discharge of such persons and upon the faithful accounting for all monies, credits, and things of value coming into the hands of such persons, and such bonds shall be signed as surety by some company authorized to do business under the laws of the State of Texas, and the premium on such bonds shall be paid by the City of Azle, and such bonds must be acceptable to the City Council.
The City Council shall have power to inquire into the conduct of any office, department, agency, officer or employee of the City and to make investigation as to municipal affairs, and for that purpose may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths and compel the production of books, papers or other evidence. Failure to obey such subpoena or to produce books, papers or other evidence as ordered under the provisions of this section shall constitute a misdemeanor and shall be punishable by fine not to exceed five hundred ($500.00) dollars.
(Amended by Ordinance 2016-04 at an election held on May 7, 2016, prop. 6)
The City Council shall cause an annual audit to be made of the books and accounts of each and every department of the City. At the close of each fiscal year an audit shall be made by a licensed Public Accountant, who shall be selected by the City Council, and such audit shall include a recapitulation of all audits made during the course of the fiscal year, and all audit reports shall be filed with the City Council, shall be available for public inspection and shall be made a part of the archives of the City. Such accountant so selected shall not maintain or keep any of the City’s accounts or records.