Subject to the provisions of Texas Government Code Chapter 552 and any successors, all accounts and records of every office and department of the city must be open to the public at all reasonable times, except records and documents from which Texas Government Code Chapter 552 and any successor may allow to be withheld.
(Ordinance 34-2020, sec. 4(Meas. 2), adopted 6/16/20, ref. 11/3/20)
Should any member of the City Council have a conflict of interest pursuant to any State laws or municipal ordinances regulating conflict of interest of municipal officers, with an agenda item then before the City Council, he will openly declare same before discussion proceeds, and he will be prohibited from discussing the item or voting on the question if such is required by State law. Said member of the City Council will also file the appropriate conflict of interest paperwork prior to said meeting with the City Clerk as required by State law.
No member of the City Council shall enter into a written contract with the city where the city council member will receive a financial benefit, nor will the city enter into a written contract with a company owned wholly, or in part, by a member of the city council or that employs a member of the city council.
Any willful violation of this section shall constitute malfeasance in office, and any member of the city council, officer, or employee found guilty thereof shall thereby forfeit his office or position. Any violation of this section with the knowledge, expressed or implied, of the person or corporation contracting with the city, shall render the contract involved voidable by the city manager or city council.
(Ordinance 34-2020, sec. 4(Meas. 7), adopted 6/16/20, ref. 11/3/20)
No person in the administrative services of the city shall directly or indirectly solicit or receive, or be in any manner concerned in soliciting or receiving any assessment, subscription or contribution for any political party or purpose whatever. No person shall orally or by letter solicit or be in any manner concerned in soliciting any assessment, subscription or contribution for any political party or purpose from any person holding a position in administrative service of the city.
No person shall use or promise to use his influence or official authority to secure any appointment, or prospective appointment, to any city position as a reward or return for personal or partisan political service. No person shall take a part in preparing any political assessment, subscription or contribution with the intent that it shall be sent or presented to or collect from any person in the service of the city and no person shall knowingly send or present, direct or indirectly, in person or otherwise, any political assessment, subscription or contribution to, or request its payment by any person in such service.
No person about to be appointed to any position in the service of the city shall sign or execute a resignation, dated or undated, in advance of such appointment. No person in the service of the city shall discharge, suspend, lay off, reduce in grade or in any manner change the official rank or compensation of any person in such service, or promise or threaten to do so, for withholding or neglecting to make any contribution of money or service, or any other valuable thing, for any political purpose.
No person in the service of the city shall use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body, or to interfere with any nomination or election to public office.
(Amended by Ordinance 63-2024 at an election held on November 5, 2024, prop. 4)
Any person who shall willfully or through culpable negligence violate any of the provisions of sections 133 and 134 of this Charter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall on conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars ($200.00). No such person shall be appointed to any position in the service of the city and if he be an officer or employee of the city he shall immediately forfeit his office or employment.
No member of the city council shall, during the term for which he is elected, be appointed to any city, county, or state office or employment for which he would be paid compensation or which would create the possibility and/or appearance of conflicts of interest, which would be determined by the city council.
Any appointive officer or employee of the city (except policemen and firemen), shall forfeit his office or employment if he shall be elected to any public office, if his holding of the elective office could create the possibility and/or appearance of conflicts of interest, or if it might materially interfere with his loyalty, efficiency and effectiveness as an officer or employee of the city, which would be determined by the city manager.
Whenever the city shall seek to exercise the power of eminent domain it shall be controlled, as nearly as practicable, by the law governing the condemnation of property of railroad corporations in this State, the city taking the position of the railroad corporations in any such case.
The property, real and personal, belonging to the city shall not be liable to be sold or appropriated under any writ of execution or cost bill.
The funds belonging to the city in the hands of any person, firm or corporation, shall not be liable to garnishment; nor shall the city be liable to garnishment on account of any debt it may owe or funds or property it may have on hand or owing to any person. Neither the city nor any of its officers or agents shall be required to answer any such writ of garnishment on any account whatever.
Except as provided by state law now or hereafter enacted, before the City of Wichita Falls shall become potentially liable for damages for personal injury of any kind, or damage to or destruction of property of any kind, the person injured or the owner of the property damaged or destroyed or someone in his behalf, shall give the city notice as prescribed in the Code of Ordinances.
The city council, in fixing the salary of any officer or employee, shall determine whether such officer or employee shall give a bond, and the amount thereof, which bond shall be given with surety approved by the city council. Premiums on such bonds may be paid by the city.
Every officer of the city shall, before entering upon the duties of office, take and subscribe to an oath of affirmation to be filed and kept in the office of the city clerk, that he will in all respects faithfully discharge the duties of his office.
The city may enforce its ordinances by fines not exceeding those authorized by the laws of the State of Texas, and may also provide by ordinance for the commutation of such fines by labor on any public work or place of the city; but no ordinance shall provide a lesser penalty than is prescribed for a like offense by the laws of the State. Provision may also be made by ordinance for the collection of fines imposed and executions issued in civil cases.
All persons holding administrative office at the time this Charter takes effect shall continue in office and in the performance of their duties until provisions shall have been made, in accordance with the provisions thereof, for the performance of such duties or the discontinuance of such office.
The powers conferred and the duties imposed by law upon any office, commission, board or department of the city abolished by this Charter shall, upon the taking effect thereof, be exercised and discharged by the office or department designated by the city council unless otherwise provided herein.
For the purpose of nominating and electing members of the city council this Charter shall be in effect from and after its adoption, and in all other respects it shall be in effect from and after the twelfth day of April, 1920. Upon taking effect of any part of this Charter, the provisions of any ordinance or of the city charter previously adopted in conflict with such part be deemed repealed; and from and after the twelfth day of April, 1920, all provisions of the present city charter shall be deemed repealed.
The city council shall have power by ordinance to prescribe rules and regulations for the dedication of additions and subdivisions of tracts of land within the City of Wichita Falls, and no such subdivisions or additions shall be dedicated except in accordance with such rules and regulations.
The city council may further prescribe such rules and regulations relative to additions and subdivisions without the City of Wichita Falls before and as a condition precedent to the bringing into the city of any such addition or subdivision. Said city council shall have power to establish a city plan relative to additions, streets, alleys, parks and the like, and require all such additions and subdivisions, either within or without the city, to be in accordance with such city plan before such dedication of any such subdivision shall ever be valid as to the tracts of land within the city, or before such additions and subdivisions without the city shall ever be admitted into the city, and said city council shall have the right to enforce said ordinances by injunction, mandamus or any other legal process appropriate thereto.
The city council shall have the right by ordinance to prescribe rules and regulations for the extermination of bag worms on trees or other injurious insects or pests injuring or likely to injure the trees or shrubs of said city, and shall have the right to require owners to spray their trees and shrubs or take other necessary precaution to exterminate bag worms and the like, or to prevent the extension of spreading of such pests, and to prescribe a penalty for failure by the owner so to do after due notice has been given of such requirements, and shall further have the right to prescribe rules and regulations for causing said work to be done by the city where the owner fails so to do, and to make the same a personal obligation of the owner, and prescribing methods for the collection of the same.
The city council shall also have the right to require all weeds to be cut on vacant or improved property, and to provide penalties for the failure or refusal of the owners to so cut said weeds and keep the same cut, and providing that the city may cause same to be cut where the owners fail so to do after reasonable notice, and making the same a personal obligation of the owners of any such lot or tract of land, and prescribing methods for the collection of same.
Said city council shall also have the right by any and all of the methods hereinabove provided to prescribe by ordinance, rules and regulations, penalties and the like for trimming of trees, shrubs, or the prevention of other nuisances of a similar nature.
The city council shall further have the right by ordinance to adopt and prescribe rules and regulations for the handling and disposition of all garbage, trash, and rubbish within the City of Wichita Falls, and shall further have the right to prescribe that the city alone shall remove all such garbage, trash, and rubbish, and shall have the right to fix charges and compensation to be charged by the city for the removal of the same, providing rules and regulations for the collection thereof, making the same a personal obligation of the person for whom the same is hauled and disposed of, and providing penalties against all other persons hauling such garbage, trash or rubbish, and providing for a full and adequate system of covering the City of Wichita Falls or such portions thereof as the city council may determine for the removal and disposition of all such garbage, trash and rubbish.