There is hereby adopted the Code of Ordinances of the City of
Lamesa, Texas, as compiled, edited and published by Franklin Legal
Publishing, Inc.
(Ordinance adopting Code)
The ordinances embraced in this chapter and the following chapters,
articles and sections shall constitute and be designated the “Code
of Ordinances, City of Lamesa, Texas,” and may be so cited.
(Ordinance adopting Code)
The catchlines of the several articles, divisions and sections
of this code are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents
of the article, division or section and shall not be deemed or taken
to be titles of such articles, divisions and sections, nor as any
part of the articles, divisions and sections, nor, unless expressly
so provided, shall they be so deemed when any of such articles, divisions
and sections, including the catchlines, are amended or reenacted.
(Ordinance adopting Code)
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 Lamesa, Texas.
The term “city administrator,” “city manager,”
“city secretary,” “chief of police” or other
city officer or department shall be construed to mean the city administrator,
city manager, city secretary, chief of police or such other municipal
officer or department, respectively, of the City of Lamesa, Texas.
Whenever a notice is required to be given or an act to be
done a certain length of time before any proceeding shall be had,
the first day is excluded and the last day is included. If the last
day of any period is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the period
is extended to include the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday,
or legal holiday.
Whenever the term “council” or “city council”
or “the council” is used, it shall mean the city council
of the City of Lamesa, Texas.
The term “county” or “this county”
shall mean the County of Dawson, Texas.
Whenever a provision of this Code of Ordinances requires
or authorizes an officer or employee of the city to do some act or
perform some duty, it shall be construed to authorize such officer
or employee to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to perform
the act or duty unless the terms of the provision specifically designate
otherwise.
A word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and
be applied to females and to firms, partnerships, associations and
corporations, as well as to males.
Words purporting to give authority to three (3) or more officers
or other persons shall be construed as giving such authority to a
majority of such officers or other persons, unless it is otherwise
declared.
The word “may” is permissive.
The word “month” shall mean a calendar month.
Each is 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 in this code, they shall
mean standard time or daylight saving time, as may be in current use
in the city.
The word “or” may be read “and,”
and the word “and” may be read “or,” as the
sense requires it.
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 of the whole
or of a part of such building or land.
The word “person” shall extend and be applied
to associations, corporations, firms, partnerships, organizations,
business trusts, estates, trusts, and bodies politic and corporate,
as well as to individuals.
The terms “preceding” and “following”
mean next before and next after, respectively.
The word “property” shall mean and include real
and personal property.
The term “real property” shall mean and include
lands, tenements and hereditaments.
The word “sidewalk” shall mean that portion of
a street between the curbline and the adjacent property line intended
for the use of pedestrians.
A signature or subscription shall include a mark when a person
cannot write.
The term “the state” or “this state”
shall be construed to mean the State of Texas.
The word “street” 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.
Such abbreviations 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.
The word “year” shall mean a calendar year.
(Ordinance adopting Code)
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 adopting Code)
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 adopting Code)
All ordinances of a general and permanent nature, and amendments
to such ordinances, hereafter 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 to
do so shall in no way affect the validity or enforceability of such
ordinances.
(Ordinance adopting Code)
(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 that 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 material 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 adopting Code)
(a)
Whenever
in this code or in any ordinance of the city an act is prohibited
or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense or a misdemeanor
or whenever in this code or such ordinance the doing of any act is
required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful,
and no specific penalty is provided therefor, the violation of any
such provision of this code or any such ordinance shall be punished
by a fine of not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00).
(b)
A
fine or penalty for the violation of a rule, ordinance or police regulation
that governs fire safety, zoning or public health and sanitation,
including the dumping of refuse, may not exceed two thousand dollars
($2,000.00).
(c)
Unless
otherwise specifically stated in this code, any violation of this
code or of any ordinance that is punishable by a fine that does not
exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00) does not require a culpable
mental state, and a culpable mental state is hereby not required to
prove any such offense. Unless otherwise specifically stated in this
code, any violation of this code or of any ordinance that is punishable
by a fine that exceeds five hundred dollars ($500.00) shall require
a culpable mental state.
(d)
No
penalty shall be greater or less than the penalty provided for the
same or a similar offense under the laws of the state.
(e)
Unless
otherwise stated in this code or in any ordinance, each day any violation
of this code or of any ordinance shall continue shall constitute a
separate offense.
(f)
In
the event that any such violation is designated as a nuisance under
the provisions of this code, such nuisance may be summarily abated
by the city. In addition to the penalty prescribed above, the city
may pursue other remedies such as abatement of nuisances, injunctive
relief and revocation of licenses or permits.
(Ordinance adopting Code)
In enacting this code, it is presumed that:
(1)
Compliance
with the city charter and the constitutions of the state and the United
States is intended;
(2)
The
entire code is intended to be effective;
(3)
A
just and reasonable result is intended;
(4)
A
result feasible of execution is intended;
(5)
The
public interest is favored over any private interest; and
(6)
The
protection of the public safety and welfare is intended.
(1998 Code, sec. 1.011)
In interpreting this code, a court shall diligently attempt
to ascertain legislative intent and shall consider at all times the
evil and the remedy.
(1998 Code, sec. 1.012)
