The inhabitants of the City of Garland, Texas, within the corporate
limits as now established or as hereafter established in the manner
provided herein, shall be and continue to be a municipal corporation
and a body politic incorporated under the name of “City of Garland,”
Texas, possessed of all the property and interest of which it was
possessed immediately prior to the time this Charter takes effect
or may hereafter acquire with the powers, duties, obligations and
liabilities now pertaining to said City, as a municipal corporation.
The municipal government provided by this Charter shall be known
as the “Council-Manager Government.” Pursuant to its provisions
and subject only to the limitations imposed by the State Constitution
and by this Charter, all powers of the City shall be vested in an
elective Council hereinafter referred to as the “Council”
which shall enact local legislation, adopt budgets, determine policies,
and appoint the other officials listed herein, as well as the City
Manager who shall execute the laws and administer the government of
the City. All powers of the City shall be exercised in the manner
prescribed in this Charter, or if the manner be not prescribed, then
in such manner as may be prescribed by ordinance.
The bounds and limits of the City of Garland shall be those
as established and described in ordinances duly passed by the City
Council of the City of Garland in accordance with state law. The City
Secretary shall, at all times, keep a correct and complete description
with recent annexations and disannexations and a map on which those
boundaries are delineated. This shall be the official boundary map
for the limits of the City of Garland.
Whenever a majority of the qualified resident voters in a territory
and the owners of fifty (50) percent or more of the land in the territory,
a majority of the voters residing in such territory, or the owner
or owners of the land in such territory desire the annexation of such
territory to the City of Garland, they may present a written petition
to that effect to the Council and shall attach to the petition an
affidavit signed by a majority of such qualified voters or owners
of the land; thereupon, the Council, at a regular session or a special
session called in the manner required by this Charter, may by ordinance
annex such territory to the City of Garland and, henceforth, the territory
shall be a part of the City of Garland and the inhabitants thereof
shall be bound by the acts, ordinances, resolutions, and regulations
of the City.
As an alternative method of enlarging or extending the corporate
limits, the City Council shall have power by ordinance to provide
for the alteration and extension of said boundary limits and the annexation
of additional territory lying adjacent to the City, with or without
the consent of the territory and the inhabitants annexed. Upon the
introduction of such ordinance in Council, it shall be published one
time in a newspaper circulated in the City of Garland, however, amendments
may be incorporated into the proposed ordinance without the necessity
of publishing said amendments and without the necessity of republication
of said ordinance as amended. The proposed ordinance shall not be
thereafter finally acted upon until at least thirty (30) days have
elapsed after the publication thereof; and upon the final passage
of any such ordinance, the boundary limits of the City shall thereafter
be as fixed in such ordinance, and when any additional territory has
been so annexed same shall be a part of the City of Garland and the
property situated therein shall bear its pro rata part of the taxes
levied by the City and the inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to
all of the rights and liberties of the citizens and shall be bound
by the acts, ordinances and resolutions of the City.
The Council may, in its exclusive discretion by ordinance, exclude
from the City any territory within the corporate limits of the City
when and if at least sixty (60) percent of the inhabitants thereof
qualified to vote for members of the Council shall present a verified
petition requesting that such territory be discontinued as a part
of the City and tender to the City Secretary with such petition a
sum of money equivalent to that percentage of the then outstanding
indebtedness of the City for bonds and warrants and a fair proportion
of the then existing budget which the assessed value of all property
within such territory on the tax rolls of the City next preceding
the presentation of such petition bears to the total assessed value
of all property on the said rolls. The Council shall never, regardless
of the facts and circumstances, be required to discontinue any territory
as a part of the City except at its exclusive discretion expressed
by ordinance.