All persons, the inhabitants of the City of Red Oak, in Ellis County, Texas, within the boundaries of said City now established or as hereinafter established in the manner provided by law shall continue to be a municipal body politic and corporate in perpetuity under the name “City of Red Oak” hereinafter referred to as the “City” with such powers, rights, authority, privileges, obligations and immunities as are herein provided.
The boundaries and limits of the City shall be those established and described on an official map duly adopted by the City Council by ordinance and amended from time to time to include annexations and disannexations from the corporate limits. The City Secretary shall at all times keep a correct and complete description and official map on file, with recent annexations and disannexations.
(a) 
The Council shall have the power, by ordinance, to fix boundaries of the City and to provide for the alteration or the extension of said boundaries, pursuant to any laws of the State of Texas now or hereinafter enacted with or without the consent of the territory and the inhabitants affected where the same is not inconsistent with State Law.
(b) 
Such ordinance shall describe the territory to be annexed. Notice shall be published and public hearings held as required by state law. Amendments not enlarging or extending the boundaries set forth in the proposed ordinance may be incorporated into the proposed ordinance without the necessity of republication of said notice. The additional territory annexed shall be a part of the City and the property situated therein shall bear its pro rata part of the taxes levied by the City as provided by state law. The inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges of other citizens and shall be bound by the acts, ordinances, resolutions and regulations of the City.
The Council may, by ordinance, disannex any territory within the corporate boundaries of the City, if the Council determines the territory is not necessary or suitable for City purposes, and may exchange territory with other municipalities. When the disannexation ordinance is passed, the disannexed territory shall cease to be a part of the City; but the disannexed territory shall remain liable for its pro rata share of any indebtedness incurred while the area was a part of the City and the City shall continue to levy, assess and collect taxes on the property in the disannexed territory until such indebtedness has been paid.
The municipal government provided by this Charter shall be known as “Council-Manager Government.” Pursuant to the provisions of, and subject only to the limitations imposed by the State Constitution, State Laws and this Charter, all powers of the City shall be vested in an elective council, hereinafter referred to as the “Council.”
(a) 
The City shall have all powers, functions, rights, privileges and immunities of every name and nature, that are now or hereafter may be granted to a Home Rule City by the Constitution and laws of this State, together with all implied powers necessary to carry into execution all such powers granted.
(b) 
Among such powers, the City shall have police powers, the power to adjust boundaries, to contract and to co-operate with the government of the State of Texas or any agency or subdivision thereof, or with the federal government or any agency thereof to accomplish any lawful purpose. The City may use a corporate seal; may acquire property within or without its corporate limits for any municipal purpose in fee simple, or in any lesser interest or estate by purchase, gift, devise, lease, exchange, condemnation, and subject to the provisions of this Charter, may sell, lease, mortgage, hold, manage, improve, exchange and control property as may now or hereafter be owned by it; may sue and be sued; may furnish municipal services, both within and without its corporate limits; may implead and be impleaded in all courts and places and in all matters whatsoever; may provide for the expenditure of public funds for a retirement system, group health, life and accident insurance coverage, and surety bonds for City employees or officers; may pass ordinances, resolutions, and enact such regulations as may be expedient for the maintenance of good government, order and peace of the City and the interest, welfare, health, morals, comfort, safety, security and convenience of the City for its inhabitants consistent with the provisions of this Charter.
The enumeration of the particular powers of this Charter shall not be held or deemed to be exclusive, but in addition to the powers enumerated herein or implied hereby or appropriate to the exercise of such powers, the City shall have and may exercise all powers of local self-government and all other powers which, under the Constitution and laws of the State of Texas, it would be competent for this Charter specifically to enumerate.
The City shall have the full right, power and authority to exercise the power of eminent domain when necessary or desirable to carry out any of the powers conferred upon it by this Charter or by the Constitution or laws of the State of Texas. The power of eminent domain hereby conferred shall include the right of the City to take fee title and easement interest in the lands so condemned, and such power and authority shall include the right to condemn public or private property for such purposes. The City shall have and possess this power of condemnation of property within or without the corporate limits for any municipal or public purposes, even though not specifically enumerated herein or in this Charter.
The City shall have the power to sell and to acquire by condemnation or purchase either private or public property located inside or outside of the corporate limits for public purposes. The procedure to be followed in any sale or condemnation proceeding hereunder and authorized herein shall be in accordance with the provisions of the State law with reference to eminent domain.
Should any property situated within the corporate limits of the City or within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City be hereafter platted into blocks and lots, the owner or owners of the property shall comply with the general plan of the City, all provisions of the ordinances, rules and regulations of the City and all provisions of the applicable State laws.
The City shall have exclusive domain, control and jurisdiction in, upon, over and under all alleys, streets, gutters and sidewalks, situated in the City, and the power to lay out, establish, open, alter, widen, lower, extend, grade, drain, abandon and improve streets, alleys, sidewalks, squares, parks, public places and bridges and regulate the use thereof, and require the removal from streets, sidewalks, alleys and other public property or places of all obstructions, telegraph, telephone or other poles, carrying electric wires or signs, encroachments of every nature or character upon any said streets and sidewalks, and to vacate and close private ways; and when a street or alley has been vacated or abandoned, the City shall have the right to sell the same in any manner in accordance with state law. The City shall have the power to assess property owners for improvements in accordance with state law. Such exclusive dominion, control and jurisdiction in, upon, over, under the public streets, avenues, sidewalks, parkways, alleys and highways of the City shall also include, but not be limited to, the right to regulate, locate, relocate, remove or prohibit the location of all utility pipes, lines, wires or other property.
The City shall have the power to provide for and/or own a solid waste collection and disposal system as well as regulation of all sanitary landfills. The Council shall have the right, by ordinance, to adopt and prescribe rules and regulations for the handling of all garbage, trash and rubbish in the City, and shall further have the right to fix charges and compensation to be charged by the City for the removal of garbage, trash and rubbish, and to provide rules and regulations for the collection thereof.
The City shall have the power to provide for and/or own a sanitary sewer system and to require property owners to connect their premises with such sewer systems; and to provide penalties for failure to make sanitary sewer connections; and shall further have the right to fix charges and compensation to be charged by the City for sewage service, to provide rules and regulations for the collection thereof and to provide for fixing a lien against the property, the owners of which fail or refuse to pay such charges and compensation.
The City shall have the power to provide for and/or own a water system and to prescribe charges, rules, regulations, rates and restrictions with reference to use, consumption, waste, payment, cutoff, turn on, connections and management of such system, and to prescribe penalties for violation of such rules and regulations.
The City shall have exclusive control of all City parks and playgrounds and shall have the power to control, regulate and remove all obstructions and prevent all encroachments thereupon and to provide for raising, grading, filling, terracing, landscape gardening, erecting buildings, swimming pools and wading pools, tennis courts, organized sports facilities and other structures including, but not limited to, museums, libraries and art galleries.
The Council shall have the power, by ordinance or otherwise, to provide means for protection against conflagrations and for the establishment, maintenance, support and regulation of a Fire Department and for guarding against fires. It may also, by ordinance, regulate or forbid the storage of lumber, building materials of any kind, flammable or explosive goods or hazardous materials, wares and merchandise of any kind.
(a) 
The Council shall, by ordinance or otherwise, provide means to preserve order within the City, and to secure residents of said City from violence, and property therein from injury or loss and for the establishment, maintenance, support and regulation of a Police Department.
(b) 
No person, except as authorized by general law, by this Charter, or by ordinances passed pursuant hereto, shall act as special police or special detective.
The Council shall have the power to provide for a Health Department and to establish all necessary rules and regulations protecting the health of the City and for the establishment of quarantine stations, pest houses, emergency hospitals, and to provide for the adoption of necessary quarantine laws to protect the inhabitants against contagious or infectious diseases. Such general laws shall include the following powers, but not to the exclusion of other powers.
(a) 
The Council shall have the power, by ordinance or otherwise, to regulate, license and inspect persons, firms, corporations, common carriers, or associations operating, managing, or conducting any hotel or any other public sleeping or eating place, or any place or vehicle where food or drink or containers thereof, of any kind is manufactured, prepared, stored, packed, served, sold or otherwise handled within the City limits; and shall have the power to prescribe health regulations with reference to any and all workers or employees hired or used in any of said places or vehicles, or about said places and vehicles; or who deliver products to and from said places and vehicles; and shall have the power to inspect, license and regulate the sanitary condition of said places and vehicles and to condemn all articles not wholesome or fit for human consumption.
(b) 
The Council shall have the power to license, require occupation fees or taxes and to prescribe health regulations with respect to places of business, their persons and their workers and employees, and shall have the power to prescribe all necessary health regulations.
(c) 
The Council shall have the power to define all nuisances and prohibit the same within the City and outside the City limits for a distance of 5,000 feet; to have power to police all parks or grounds, speedways, or boulevards owned by the City and lying both outside and inside the City; to prohibit the pollution of any stream, draw, drain or tributaries thereof, water deposit and reservoir, whether above or below the ground, which may constitute the source of storage of water supply, and to provide for policing the same, as well as to provide for the protection of any watersheds and the policing of same, to inspect license and regulate dairies, slaughter pens and slaughter houses inside or outside the limits of the City from which meat or milk is furnished to the inhabitants of the City.
(d) 
The Council shall have the power to provide for fixing of penalties for failure of any person, firm, corporation or association to comply with any such rules and regulations so prescribed by the Council under the provisions of this section; it being the intention to vest in the Council not only powers expressly enumerated in this section, but all other powers reasonably necessary for the protection of the health of the City and its inhabitants.