The legislative and governing body of the city shall consist
of a mayor and four councilmembers and shall be known as the “Council
of the City of Gonzales.”
(a) The mayor
shall be elected from the city at large.
(b) The City
Council shall be elected by council districts.
(c) The mayor and each councilmember shall hold office for a period of three years, or until a successor is duly elected and qualified. The mayoral election shall be held in 2016, the election for councilmembers districts three (3) and four (4) shall be held the following year and the election for councilmembers one (1) and two (2) shall be held the following year. No person elected to the council, including the mayor in 2016 or thereafter shall serve more than three consecutive regular terms of office as a councilmember or mayor. All elections shall be held in the manner provided in Article
V of this charter.
(d) 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 purposes of military law, but shall have no regular
administrative duties. The mayor shall be entitled to vote on all
matters under consideration by the city council.
Each member of the city council shall be a resident citizen of the City of Gonzales, shall be a qualified voter of the State of Texas, shall have been a resident within his/her district for a period of not less than six (6) months immediately preceding his/her election; provided, however, that any person with the above qualifications, except as to residence, who shall have been a resident, for a period of not less than six (6) months immediately preceding his/her election, 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 said office. If the mayor or any councilmember fails to maintain the foregoing qualifications, or shall be absent from three consecutive regularly scheduled meetings, special meetings or council workshop meetings without valid excuse, 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.
The city council shall be the judge of the election and qualification
of its own members and other elected officials of the city.
The city council shall fix the compensation to be received by
its members for attendance at its meetings. Any change to the mayor
or councilmembers compensation shall require public notice as prescribed
by law and a public hearing.
The city council, at its first meeting after election of councilmembers,
shall elect one of its members, mayor pro tem, who shall perform all
the duties of the mayor in the absence or disability of the mayor.
A. Vacancies.
The office of a Councilmember or office of the Mayor shall become vacant upon death, resignation, removal from office by recall, a declaration of vacancy by City Council as provided for in Section
3.02, or as otherwise provided by law.
B. Filling
Vacancies.
In the event of a vacancy in the City Council,
if there are 365 days or more remaining on the term of the vacated
City Council office, the City Council shall call a special election
to fill such vacancy. If there are 90 days or less remaining in the
term of the vacant City Council office, the City Council may, by majority
vote of the remaining Members of City Council, at its discretion,
leave the office vacant or appoint a new Mayor or Councilmember to
fill such vacancy. If there are between 90 and 365 days remaining
in the term of the vacant City Council office than City Council shall,
within 30 days of the vacancy occurring, by majority vote of the remaining
Members of City Council, appoint an individual to the vacancy for
the remaining term of the vacant office.
(May 4, 2019, measure 2; May 1, 2021, measure B)
All powers of the city and the determination of all matters
of policy shall be vested in the city council.
(May 4, 2019, measure 1)
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 his/her 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 public, shall
be held in accordance with state laws, and shall be held at the city
hall, except that the city council may designate another place for
such meetings after publishing due notice as required by state law.
The mayor or any two members of the city council may call special
meetings of the city council at any time.
The city council shall determine its own rules of procedure.
The affirmative vote of a majority of those present shall be necessary
to adopt any ordinance or resolution. Minutes of the proceedings of
all meetings of the city council shall be kept. The vote upon passage
of all ordinances and resolutions shall be taken by “ayes”
and “nays” and entered upon the minutes, and every ordinance
or resolution, upon its final passage, shall become permanent records
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. Three qualified members of the city
council, including the Mayor shall constitute a quorum to do business.
In the absence of the mayor any three councilmembers shall constitute
a quorum.
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
VII of this charter. The city secretary 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 as required by state law at least twice within ten days after the passage of said ordinance. The city secretary 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 ordinances of the city for publication in book or pamphlet form. Except as otherwise provided by Article
VII 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 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, finance director, city secretary and all employees
with fiduciary responsibilities 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
Gonzales and conditioned upon the faithful discharge of the duties
of such persons and upon the faithful accounting for all movies [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 Gonzales, 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 investigations as to municipal affairs, and for that purpose
may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths and compel the production
of books, papers, and 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 two hundred dollars ($200.00).
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 a complete audit shall be made by a certified
public accountant. The council shall not select the same auditor for
more than six (6) consecutive years and the auditor selected shall
not be, or have been within the immediate preceding three (3) years,
a business associate of the certified public accountant or firm that
performed the audit prior to such selection. Such audit shall include
a recapitulation of all audits made during the course of each 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.
No member of the city council, including the mayor shall be
eligible for employment with the city during the time they are in
office and for one year thereafter.
Neither the Mayor nor a Councilmember may serve on a City appointed
committee, commission, board or other City entity unless no other
qualified citizen is available for appointment as determined by a
majority vote of the City Council.
(May 1, 2021, measure A)