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.