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.