At the next regular or special meeting following the regular municipal election, the city council shall meet at the usual place for holding such meetings at which time the first order of business shall be the canvassing of votes and swearing in of new members.
Thereafter the city council shall meet at such time and place as may be prescribed by ordinance, but not less frequently than once each month. Special meetings may be called by the mayor and shall be called by the city clerk upon the written request of three (3) councilors or the city manager.
All meetings of the city council, and of committees thereof except as hereinafter provided, shall be open to the public and the city council shall provide by its rules that citizens shall have an opportunity to be heard at any such meeting in regard to any matter considered, or to be considered, thereat.
Executive session of the city council may be held in accordance with state law.
The city council shall be the judge of the election and qualifications of its members, subject to review by the courts, but any councilor convicted of a felony while in office shall thereby immediately forfeit his office. The city council may determine its own rules of procedure, punish its members for disorderly behavior and, with the consent of five-sevenths (5/7) of all the members, may expel a council member.
A majority of all the members elected to the city council shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from time to time.
(Ordinance 14-2006, sec. 2, adopted 2/21/06, ref. 5/13/06)
The mayor shall have all the powers and shall be subject to all the duties conferred on or required of other members of the city council by this Charter. He shall preside at meetings of the city council and perform such other duties consistent with his office as may be imposed thereby.
He shall be recognized as the official head of the city for all ceremonial purposes, by the courts for the purposes of serving civil processes, and by the Governor for military purposes.
In time of public danger or emergency, he may, with the consent of the city council, take command of the police, maintain order and enforce laws.
During the absence or disability of the mayor, the mayor’s duties shall be performed by the Mayor Pro-Tem, who shall be a councilor as prescribed in Chapter 2, Administration, of the Code of Ordinances.
(Ordinance 34-2020, sec. 4(Meas. 8), adopted 6/16/20, ref. 11/3/20)
The city council shall choose a city clerk who shall also be clerk of the city council. The city clerk shall perform the duties imposed upon him by this Charter and such other duties as may be imposed by the city council.
(Ordinance 34-2020, sec. 4(Meas. 1), adopted 6/16/20, ref. 11/3/20)
Each proposed ordinance or resolution shall be introduced in written or printed form and except ordinances or resolutions making appropriations shall not contain more than one subject which shall be clearly expressed in the title.
The vote upon the passage of all ordinances and resolutions shall be taken by “yeas” and “nays” and entered upon the minutes of the city council and every such ordinance or resolution shall require for passage the affirmative vote of a majority of all the members of the city council. No council member shall be excused from voting except on matters involving the consideration of his own official conduct, or where his financial interests are involved.
As soon as practical after the close of each fiscal year all ordinances passed during the previous year shall be compiled by the city clerk and printed in such form as may be directed by the city council.
(Ordinance 34-2020, sec. 4(Meas. 2), adopted 6/16/20, ref. 11/3/20)
The city council may, by ordinance, provide for the compensation of its members to be paid in equal monthly installments. The salary of the mayor shall in no event exceed the sum of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) per month, and the salary of each council member shall in no event exceed six hundred dollars ($600.00) per month.
The mayor or any council member absent from a regular or regularly called meeting of the city council, except on account of his own illness, or illness in his immediate family, or absence from the city where excused by the city council prior to such absence, shall forfeit two percent (2%) of his entire annual compensation for each such absence.
(Ordinance 14-2006, sec. 2, adopted 2/21/06, ref. 5/13/06; Ordinance 36-2020, sec. 1(Meas. 10), adopted 6/16/20, ref. 11/3/20)
The electors shall have power at their option to propose ordinances and resolutions, including ordinances granting franchises and privileges, and to adopt the same at the polls, such power being known as the initiative.
A petition meeting the requirements hereinafter provided and requesting the city council to pass an ordinance or resolution therein set forth shall be termed an initiative petition and shall be acted upon as hereinafter provided.
The term “measure” as used in this Charter shall include the terms “ordinance” and “resolution.”
Signatures to initiative petitions need not all be on one paper, but the circulator of each such paper shall make an affidavit that the signatures appended thereto were made in his/her presence and are the genuine signatures of the persons whose names they purport to be.
For a petition signature to be valid, a petition must contain, in addition to the signature, the signer’s printed name as it appears on his/her voter registration card, the signer’s voter registration number, his/her residence address by street and number, and if there is no street number, such other description sufficient to identify the place and the date of the signing. The signature is the only information that is required to appear on the petition in the signer’s own handwriting.
All such petition papers pertaining to any one measure shall have written or printed thereon the names and addresses of at least five (5) electors who shall be officially regarded as filing the petition, and who shall constitute a committee of the petitioners for the purposes hereinafter named. All petition papers relating to the same measure shall be assembled and filed in the office of the city clerk as one instrument.
If this section is in conflict with any state law, such state law shall prevail.
An initiative petition to be sufficient shall be signed by registered voters of the city in a number equal to or greater than ten (10) percent of those who voted in the last preceding regular municipal election, and in no case by less than three thousand (3,000) voters.
Within forty-five (45) days after the filing of a petition, the clerk shall ascertain whether it is signed as provided in this section, and shall attach thereto a certificate showing the result of his examination.
If, by the clerk’s certificate, of which notice in writing shall be given to the committee of the petitioners, the petition is shown to be insufficient, it may be amended within fifteen (15) days of the date of such certificate by filing supplementary petition papers with additional signatures. Within thirty (30) days after such an amendment, the clerk shall make an examination of the amended petition, and if his certificate shall show the same still to be insufficient, he shall file the petition in his office and notify each member of the committee of that fact.
The final finding of the insufficiency of a petition shall not prejudice the filing of a new petition for the same purpose.
If this section is in conflict with any state law, such state law shall prevail.
(Ordinance 14-2006, sec. 2, adopted 2/21/06, ref. 5/13/06)
If an initiative petition be found sufficient, the clerk shall so certify and shall submit the measure to the city council at its next meeting, and the city council shall at once read and refer it to an appropriate committee, which may be a committee of the whole. Provisions shall be made for public hearings upon the proposed measure before the committee to which it is referred.
Thereafter the committee shall report the measure to the city council, with its recommendation thereon, not later than sixty (60) days after the date upon which such measure was submitted to the board by the city clerk. Upon receiving the measure from the committee the city council shall at once proceed to consider it and shall take final action thereon within thirty (30) days from the date of such committee report.
If the city council shall fail to pass a proposed measure, or shall pass it in a form different from that set forth in the petition therefor, the committee of the petitioners may require that it be submitted to a vote of the electors either in its original form or with any change or addition presented in writing at a public hearing before the committee to which it was referred, or during its consideration by the city council.
If the committee of the petitioners require the submission of the measure to a vote of the electors they shall certify that fact to the clerk and file in his office a certified copy of the measure, in the form in which it is to be submitted, within ten (10) days after final action on such measure by the city council.
Upon receiving the certificate and certified copy of the proposed measure, as provided in the foregoing section, the city clerk shall certify the fact to the city council at its next regular meeting.
The city council shall call an election on the measure at the earliest date authorized by the Texas election laws.
Any such measure approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon shall be considered adopted and shall take effect at the time indicated therein.
(Ordinance 34-2020, sec. 4(Meas. 1), adopted 6/16/20, ref. 11/3/20)
When a measure proposed by initiative petition is passed by the city council, but not in its original form, and is required by the committee of the petitioners to be submitted to a vote of the electors, the measure as passed by the city council shall not take effect until after such vote, and, if the measure so submitted be approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon, the measure as passed by the city council shall be deemed repealed.
The electors shall have power at their option to approve or reject at the polls any ordinance or resolution passed by the city council or submitted by such city council to a vote of the electors, such power being known as the referendum; provided, however, that such right of referendum shall not apply to ordinances or resolutions passed by the city council authorizing the issuance of bonds voted by the resident qualified voters of the city.
Measures submitted to the city council by initiative petition and passed by the city council without change or passed in an amended form and not required by the committee of petitioners to be submitted to a vote of the electors shall be subject to the referendum in the same manner as other measures.
(Ordinance 34-2020, sec. 4(Meas. 1), adopted 6/16/20, ref. 11/3/20)
No ordinance shall go into effect until thirty (30) days after its passage by the city council except ordinances authorizing the issuance of bonds theretofore voted by the resident qualified property taxpaying voters of the city, unless it be declared an emergency measure on the ground of urgent public need for the preservation of the peace, health and safety of property of the city, the facts showing such emergency and need being stated specifically in the ordinance itself, and the ordinance being passed by a vote of a majority of all members of the city council.
No ordinance granting or amending any public utility franchise or amending or repealing any measure adopted by the electors at the polls or adopted by the city council in compliance with an initiative petition shall be regarded as an emergency measure.
If within thirty (30) days after the passage of a measure by the city council a petition signed by the registered, qualified voters of the city in a number equal to or greater than ten percent (10%) of those who voted in the last preceding regular election and in no case by less than three thousand (3,000) voters be filed with the city clerk requesting that such measure or any part thereof be either repealed or submitted to a vote of the electors, it shall not, unless it be an emergency measure, become operative until the steps indicated herein have been taken. Provided that this section shall not apply to ordinances passed by the city council authorizing the issuance of bonds therefore voted by the qualified voters of the city.
If this section is in conflict with any state law, such state law shall prevail.
The signatures to a referendum petition need not all be on one (1) paper, but the circulator of each separate paper shall make affidavit that the signatures appended thereto were made in his/her presence and are the genuine signatures of the person whose name they purport to be.
For a petition signature to be valid, a petition must contain, in addition to the signature, the signer’s printed name as it appears on his/her voter registration card, the signer’s voter registration number, his/her residence address by street and number, and if there is no street number, such other description sufficient to identify the place and the date of the signing. The signature is the only information that is required to appear on the petition in the signer’s own handwriting.
All such petition papers pertaining to any one measure shall have written or printed thereon the names and addresses of at least five (5) electors who shall be officially regarded as filing the petition, and who shall constitute a committee of the petitioners for the purposes hereinafter named. All petition papers relating to the same measure shall be assembled and filed in the office of the city clerk as one instrument.
If this section is in conflict with any state law, such state law shall prevail.
Within forty-five (45) days after the filing of a referendum petition, the city clerk shall ascertain whether it is signed as provided in section 48 of this Charter and shall attach to the petition a certificate showing the result of such examination, and shall give notice thereof to the committee of the petitioners.
If by the city clerk’s certificate the petition is shown to be insufficient, it may be amended within fifteen (15) days from the date of such certificate by filing supplementary petition papers with additional signatures. The city clerk shall, within thirty (30) days after such an amendment, make a like examination of the amended petition and certify the result thereof.
(Ordinance 14-2006, sec. 2, adopted 2/21/06, ref. 5/13/06)
If a referendum petition, or amended petition, be found sufficient that city clerk shall certify that fact to the city council at its next regular meeting, and unless the measure or part thereof specified in the petition be an emergency measure it shall not go into effect unless approved by the electors as hereinafter provided.
Upon receipt of the city clerk’s certificate of sufficiency the city council shall proceed to reconsider the measure and its final vote upon such reconsideration shall be upon the question “shall the measure, (or part of the measure) as specified in the referendum petition, be repealed?” If upon such reconsideration the measure, or part thereof, be not repealed it shall be submitted to the electors at the next municipal election held not less than thirty (30) days after such final vote by the board.
The city council by a four-fifths (4/5) vote of its members may submit the measure to the electors at a special election to be held not sooner than the time aforesaid. If when submitted to the electors any such measure, or part thereof, be not approved by a majority of those voting thereon it shall be deemed repealed.
Measures proposed by initiative petition, or required by referendum petition or by the city council to be submitted to the electors, shall be submitted by ballot title.
There shall appear upon the official ballot a ballot title, which may be distinct from the legal title of any such proposed or referred measure, and which shall be a clear, concise statement, without argument or prejudice, descriptive of the substance of such measure.
The ballot title shall be prepared by the committee of the petitioners if for an initiative or referred measure, and by a committee of the city council when submitted by such city council. The ballots used when voting upon any such measure shall have below the ballot title thereof the two (2) propositions in order herein indicated: “For the Measure” and “Against the Measure.”
Any number of measures may be voted on at the same election and may be submitted on the same ballot, but the ballot used for voting on measures shall be for that purpose only.
Measures passed as emergency measures other than ordinances authorizing the issuance of bonds shall be subject to referendum but they shall not be suspended from going into operation while referendum proceedings are pending.
If when submitted to a vote of the electors, such emergency measure be not approved by a majority of those voting thereon, it shall be considered repealed and any further action thereunder and all rights and privileges conferred by it shall thereafter be null and void; but any such measure so repealed shall be deemed sufficient authority for any payments made or any indebtedness incurred in accordance therewith prior to the vote thereon.
If two or more measures adopted or approved at the same election conflict in respect to any of their provisions they shall go into effect in respect of such of their provisions as are not in conflict, and the one receiving the highest affirmative vote shall prevail insofar as their provisions conflict.
Except as otherwise provided in this Charter, measures adopted or approved by the electors shall be subject to amendment or repeal by the city council as in the case of measures.