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Editor’s note(s)–Ordinance O-15-007, adopted at a general election held May 9, 2015, amended Art. III in its entirety to read as herein set out. Former Art. III, secs. 1–24, pertained to similar subject matter, and derived from the original Charter; an amendment adopted Feb. 23, 1970, sec. 1; an amendment adopted April 6, 1985, sec. 1; an amendment adopted May 6, 1989, secs. 2–5, 9, 11; an amendment adopted May 4, 1991, sec. 1; an amendment adopted May 1, 1993, sec. 1; an amendment adopted May 6, 1995, sec. 1.
All officers and employees of the City except City Council shall
be appointive, be employed at- will, and subject to employment contract
or personnel policies as Council may provide for each office or position.
The City Council shall appoint the City Manager, City Secretary, Deputy
City Secretary(ies), Municipal Court Judge, Associate Municipal Court
Judge(s), City Attorney, Municipal Court Prosecutor, and any other
officer or employee whose appoint must be made by the City Council
in accordance with this Charter, City ordinance, or other applicable
law.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
All legislative powers of the City shall be vested, subject
to the terms of this Charter and the Constitution of the State of
Texas, in the City Council; and no Councilmember shall exercise any
administrative powers or be the head of any department.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The City Council shall appoint a chief administrative officer
to be known as the “City Manager,” with duties and powers
hereinafter provided.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The Mayor and each Councilmember shall serve for a term of four
(4) years, beginning with the first meeting of the City Council following
their election until the later of the first meeting of the City Council
following the regular election four (4) years later or their successor
has been elected and duly qualified.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
Vacancies in the City Council arising from resignation, forfeiture,
removal, recall, death, or any cause shall be filled by majority vote
of the qualified voters at a special election called for such purpose
within one hundred and twenty (120) days after such vacancy or vacancies
occur. If any such vacancy shall occur within one hundred twenty (120)
days preceding a regular election, then the special election to fill
the vacancy for the unexpired term shall be held on the same date
as the next regular election. Additionally, if the remaining unexpired
term of the vacant Council position is twelve (12) months or less,
then no special election to fill the vacancy shall be held and the
vacant Council position shall be filled by appointment by the remaining
Councilmembers, and the appointed Councilmember shall serve until
the next regular City election for the vacant Council position. Appointed
Councilmembers shall have the same qualifications as an elected Councilmember.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The Mayor and each Councilmember shall be resident citizens
of the City of Brenham, have the qualifications of electors therein,
be of a minimum age of twenty-one (21) when elected, and shall have
been resident citizens of the City of Brenham and any ward they may
represent for a period of twelve (12) months immediately preceding
such election. The Mayor, Councilmembers and other officers and employees
shall not be interested in the profits or emoluments of any contract,
job, work or service for the municipality, or interested in the sale
to the City of any supplies, equipment, material, or articles purchased.
Any officer or employee of the City who shall cease to possess any
of the qualifications herein required shall forthwith and ipso facto
forfeit his office, and any such contract in which any officer or
employee is or may become interested may be declared void by the City
Council.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The elective officers of the City shall consist of the seven
(7) Councilmembers as follows: The Mayor and the two (2) other Councilmembers
elected from the City at large (these two (2) other Councilmembers’
positions being designated as Councilmember, Place Five-at-Large,
and Councilmember, Place Six-at-Large); and a Councilmember elected
from each of the four (4) wards of the City as hereinafter established
(these Councilmembers to be designated as Councilmember, Place One-Ward
One, Councilmember, Place Two-Ward Two, Councilmember, Place Three-Ward
Three, and Councilmember, Place Four-Ward Four) each of whom shall
be elected to the office for which he is a candidate by the qualified
voters of that particular ward.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The returns of every municipal election shall be delivered forthwith
by the Election Judges to the City Secretary. The Council shall canvass
the returns; investigate the qualifications of the candidates, and
declare the official results of the election in accordance with applicable
state and federal laws. The returns of every municipal election shall
be recorded in the minutes of the Council by Ward totals, when applicable.
At each election the qualified person receiving a majority of all
votes cast for the office that person seeks shall thereon be declared
elected by said Council.
The City Council shall be judges of the election and the Council’s
qualification of its members shall be conclusive and final for all
purposes.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The regular municipal elections of the City of Brenham shall
be held on the second Saturday in May in odd-numbered years or any
other date as authorized by law.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
In the event any candidate for the Council (including the Mayor)
fails to receive, at any regular or special election, a majority of
all votes cast for his particular office, the Mayor or, if he fails
to do so, the Council shall no later than the fifth day following
the official canvas of the election order a runoff election to be
held within thirty (30) days of said canvass.
At said runoff election the two (2) candidates that received
the highest number of votes cast for such particular office in the
first election, at which no one was elected to such office by receiving
a majority of all votes cast for all candidates for such particular
office, shall be voted on again.
The candidate who receives the majority of the votes cast for
the particular office in the runoff election shall be elected to such
office and shall take office as soon thereafter as he is qualified.
In runoffs for the office of Mayor or Councilmembers elected
at large, the registered voters of the City as a whole shall vote.
In runoffs of Councilmembers for single wards, being any of the Councilmembers
from Ward One, Ward Two, Ward Three or Ward Four, only those registered
voters in the particular ward shall vote in the runoff election for
that particular position.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
All elections provided for in this Charter, except the regular
election of Councilmembers held on the second Saturday in May of odd-numbered
years or on any other date as authorized by law, shall be called special
elections, and all elections shall be conducted and results canvassed
and announced by the election authorities as prescribed by the general
election laws of the State of Texas relating to cities and towns,
and said general election laws shall control in all municipal elections,
except as otherwise herein provided.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The Mayor of the City shall be the presiding officer of the
City Council. He shall vote as a member of the City Council on all
matters coming before the body; sign all bonds, warrants and other
official documents; be the official head of the City, and exercise
all powers and perform all duties imposed upon him by this Charter
and by the ordinances of the City, and resolutions of the City Council.
The City Council shall elect one of their number as Mayor pro
tempore, as soon as practicable after each regular election of Councilmembers,
who in the absence or inability of the Mayor to act, may exercise
all the powers and authority appertaining to the office of Mayor.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
Within fourteen (14) days after the election of the Councilmembers,
the City Council shall meet in the Council Chamber of the City Hall,
at which time the Councilmembers-elect shall qualify and assume the
duties of their offices. Thereafter the City Council shall meet at
such time as prescribed by ordinance or resolution, but they shall
meet at least once each month.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The Mayor shall receive a salary of two hundred seventy-five
dollars ($275.00) per month and each Councilmember shall receive a
salary of two hundred twenty-five dollars ($225.00) per month.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The Mayor or any three (3) Councilmembers may call special meetings
of the City Council at any time deemed advisable. The City Council
shall determine its own rules and order of business, and shall keep
a journal of the proceedings in a permanently bound book and any citizen
shall have access to the minutes and record thereof at all reasonable
times. Any four (4) members of the City Council shall constitute a
quorum for the transaction of any business, and the affirmative vote
of the four (4) members of the City Council shall be sufficient and
necessary to adopt or repeal any ordinance or resolution. The vote
upon the passage or repeal of any ordinance or resolution shall be
taken by “yea” or “nay” vote, and entered
upon the journal. Except when required by law to abstain from voting
on a matter before the City Council, each member of the City Council
present at the meeting shall vote upon every question, ordinance or
resolution which shall be entered upon the journal. Any Councilmember
refusing to vote except when required by law to abstain shall be entered
on the journal as voting in the affirmative.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
Every ordinance or resolution passed by the City Council shall
be signed by the Mayor, and attested by the person acting as City
Secretary and the seal of the City impressed thereon within ten (10)
days after its passage.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
Each proposed ordinance or resolution shall be introduced in
written or printed form, shall not contain more than one subject,
which shall be clearly stated in the title; but general appropriation
ordinances may contain the various subjects and accounts for which
moneys are to be appropriated. No ordinance, unless it shall be declared
to be an emergency measure, and passed by a unanimous vote to the
City Council, shall be passed on the day on which it shall be introduced.
All ordinances, save and except emergency ordinances, shall be finally
passed on the second reading. Ordinances not required to be published
shall take effect and be in force from and after the passage thereof,
unless otherwise provided.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
An emergency measure is an ordinance or resolution for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, property, health or safety, or providing
for the usual daily operation of a municipal department, in which
the emergency is set forth and defined in a preamble thereto. Ordinances
appropriating money and ordinances for the payment of salaries and
wages may be passed as emergency measures, but no measure making a
grant, renewal or extension of a franchise, or other special privilege
or regulating the rate to be charged for its services by any utility,
shall ever be passed as an emergency measure.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The City Secretary shall publish, in a newspaper of general
circulation within the City, any ordinances required by state or federal
law to be published. The City Secretary may abbreviate the text of
any ordinance for publication purposes. Such ordinances shall take
effect upon the date of publication unless otherwise required by law
or stated in the ordinance, provided that emergency measures shall
take effect according to their terms.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The style of all ordinances of the City of Brenham shall be:
“BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BRENHAM,”
but the same may be omitted when published in book or pamphlet form.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
The City Council shall appoint a City Secretary who shall be
responsible for the original documentation of all laws, notices, minutes,
resolutions, ordinances, and related official records of the governing
body; all deeds, easements, leases, titles and related documents of
ownership of City property, and the municipal charter and seal. Every
ordinance or resolution, upon its becoming effective, shall be kept
in the permanent files of the City and shall be authenticated by the
signature of the Mayor and the City Secretary, or in their absence,
the person exercising their duties as appointed by the City Council.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
Any Councilmember who is convicted of a felony shall forfeit
his office. Any Councilmember who is absent from three (3) consecutive
regularly scheduled Council meetings may be removed from office upon
the affirmative vote of five (5) councilmembers.
(Ordinance O-15-007 adopted 5/9/15)
