There is hereby adopted the Code of Ordinances of the City of
Gonzales as compiled, edited and published by Franklin Legal Publishing,
Inc.
(Ordinance 2006-01 adopted 1/3/06)
The ordinances embraced in this and the following chapters,
articles and sections shall constitute and be designated the “Code
of Ordinances, City of Gonzales, Texas,” and may be so cited.
(Ordinance 2006-01 adopted 1/3/06)
The catchlines of the several articles and sections of this
code are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the
article or section and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of
such articles and sections, nor as any part of the articles and sections,
nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so deemed when any
of such articles and sections, including the catchlines, are amended
or reenacted.
(Ordinance 2006-01 adopted 1/3/06)
In the construction of this code, and of all ordinances and
resolutions passed by the city council, the following rules shall
be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the
manifest intent of the city council:
Words shall be construed in their common and usual significance
unless the contrary is clearly indicated.
Each means the City of Gonzales, Texas.
Whenever the words “council” or “this council”
or “the council” are used, they shall mean the city council
of the City of Gonzales, Texas.
The words “city manager,” “city secretary,”
“chief of police” or other city officers or departments
shall be construed to mean the city manager, city secretary, chief
of police or such other municipal officers or departments, respectively,
of the City of Gonzales, Texas.
The term “county” or “this county”
shall mean the County of Gonzales, Texas.
Is permissive.
The word “month” shall mean a calendar month.
Are each mandatory.
Any word importing the singular number shall include the
plural and any word importing the plural number shall include the
singular.
The word “oath” shall be construed to include
an affirmation in all cases in which, by law, an affirmation may be
substituted for an oath, and in such cases the words “swear”
and “sworn” shall be equivalent to the words “affirm”
and “affirmed.”
Whenever certain hours are named herein they shall mean standard
time or daylight-saving time as may be in current use in the city.
The word “owner,” applied to a building or land,
shall include any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant
in partnership, joint tenant or tenant by the entirety, or the whole
or of a part of such building or land.
The word “person” shall extend and be applied
to associations, corporations, firms, partnerships and bodies politic
and corporate as well as to individuals.
Means and includes real and personal property.
Means and includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.
Means that portion of a street between the curbline and the
adjacent property line intended for the use of pedestrians.
Shall include a mark when a person cannot write.
The words “the state” or “this state”
shall be construed to mean the State of Texas.
Shall have its commonly accepted meaning and shall include
highways, sidewalks, alleys, avenues, recessed parking areas and other
public rights-of-way including the entire right-of-way.
Words used in the past or present tense include the future
as well as the past and present.
Refer to the divisions of Vernon’s Texas Statutes Annotated.
The term “written” or “in writing”
shall be construed to include any representation of words, letters,
or figures, whether by printing or otherwise.
Shall mean a calendar year.
(Ordinance 2006-01 adopted 1/3/06)
It is hereby declared to be the intention of the city council
that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this
code are severable and, if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph
or section of this code shall be declared unconstitutional by the
valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such
unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases,
clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this code, since the
same would have been enacted by the city council without the incorporation
in the code of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence,
paragraph or section.
(Ordinance 2006-01 adopted 1/3/06)
The repeal of an ordinance or any portion thereof shall not
repeal the repealing clause of an ordinance or revive any ordinance
which has been previously repealed.
(Ordinance 2006-01 adopted 1/3/06)
All ordinances of a general and permanent nature, and amendments
to such ordinances, hereinafter enacted or presented to the city council
for enactment, shall be drafted, so far as possible, as specific amendments
of, or additions to, the code of ordinances. Amendments to this code
shall be made by reference to the chapter and section of the code
which is to be amended, and additions shall bear an appropriate designation
of chapter, article and section; provided, however, the failure so
to do shall in no way affect the validity or enforceability of such
ordinances.
(Ordinance 2006-01 adopted 1/3/06)
(a)
By contract
or by city personnel, supplements to this code shall be prepared and
printed whenever authorized or directed by the city council. A supplement
to the code shall include all substantive permanent and general parts
of ordinances passed by the city council or adopted by initiative
and referendum during the period covered by the supplement and all
changes made thereby in the code. The pages of a supplement shall
be so numbered that they will fit properly into the code and will,
where necessary, replace pages which have become obsolete or partially
obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared that, when they have
been inserted, the code will be current through the date of the adoption
of the latest ordinance included in the supplement.
(b)
In preparing
a supplement to this code, all portions of the code which have been
repealed shall be excluded from the code by omission thereof from
reprinted pages.
(c)
When preparing
a supplement to this code, the codifier (meaning the person, agency
or organization authorized to prepare the supplement) may make formal,
nonsubstantive changes in ordinances and parts of ordinances included
in the supplement, insofar as it is necessary to do so to embody them
into a unified code. For example, the codifier may:
(1)
Organize
the ordinance material into appropriate subdivisions;
(2)
Provide
appropriate catchlines, headings and titles for articles, sections
and other subdivisions of the code printed in the supplement and make
changes in such catchlines, headings and titles;
(3)
Assign
appropriate numbers to articles, sections and other subdivisions to
be inserted in the code and, where necessary to accommodate new material,
change existing article or section or other subdivision numbers;
(4)
Change
the words “this ordinance” or words of the same meaning
to “this chapter,” “this article,” “this
section,” “this subsection,” etc., as the case may
be; and
(5)
Make
other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning
of ordinance articles or sections inserted into the code; but, in
no case, shall the codifier make any change in the meaning or effect
of ordinance material included in the supplement or already embodied
in the code.
(Ordinance 2006-01 adopted 1/3/06)
(a)
Unless
otherwise specifically stated within the provisions of this code,
any violation of this code or of any ordinance set forth herein that
is punishable by a fine that does not exceed the amount authorized
by Section 12.23 of the Texas Penal Code does not require a culpable
mental state, and a culpable mental state is hereby not required to
prove any such offense.
(b)
Unless
otherwise specifically stated within the provisions of this code,
any violation of this code or of any ordinance set forth herein that
is punishable by a fine that exceeds the amount authorized by Section
12.23 of the Texas Penal Code shall require a culpable mental state
of “criminal negligence.”
(Ordinance 2006-01 adopted 1/3/06)
