The governing and lawmaking body of the City of Slaton shall consist of four (4) commissioners and one (1) mayor, and said body shall be known as the “Commission of the City of Slaton.”
The members of the commission and mayor of the City of Slaton as provided for in this charter shall be the only elective officers of the city, and they shall be elected and hold office, and be compensated as herein provided. The mayor shall be elected from the city at large. The commissioners shall be elected one from each of four (4) wards of the city, as herein designated.
The City of Slaton is hereby divided into four (4) wards, as follows: The territory in said city lying south of Lubbock Street and west of Ninth Street shall be known as Ward No. 1; the territory in said city lying north of Lubbock Street and west of Ninth Street shall be known as Ward No. 2; the territory in said city lying north of Lubbock Street and east of Ninth Street shall be known as Ward No. 3; and the territory in said city lying south of Lubbock Street and east of Ninth Street shall be known as Ward No. 4; provided that the governing body shall have power, by ordinance, to change the boundaries of said wards from time to time. All elections, including ward elections, shall be held in the city hall, or in designated places which the governing body may hereafter provide by ordinance.
The mayor and each member of the commission shall be a resident citizen of the City of Slaton and a property taxpayer therein and shall have the qualifications of an elector therein and shall have been such resident citizen of the City of Slaton for a period of not less than two (2) years immediately preceding his election and shall not be indebted to the City of Slaton; provided, however that any qualified elector, who shall have been a resident for a period of not less than two (2) years immediately preceding his election of any of the territory not formerly in the incorporated limits of said city, but which is annexed under the provisions of this charter, shall be eligible to said office. Any commissioner who, during his continuance in office, establishes his domicile outside of the limits of the City of Slaton from which he was elected, shall thereupon ipso facto forfeit his office and the vacancy shall be filled as provided in section 7 hereof.
(Ordinance 180, sec. 1, 3/28/60)
Candidates for mayor shall be nominated by petition of at least fifty (50) qualified voters to be filed with the city secretary, at least three (3) days before an election, the signers to which petition shall be verified by one of its signers, and the mayor shall be elected from the city at large.
The regular term of office for city commissioner as herein provided for shall be two (2) years. But they shall be divided into two (2) classes whose terms of office shall end at different times. Immediately after election of the four (4) commissioners herein provided, they shall draw for terms. Two (2) of them shall serve until the first Tuesday in April, 1930, and until their successors shall have qualified; and two (2) of them shall serve until the first Tuesday in April, 1931, and until their successors shall have qualified. And thereafter, two (2) commissioners shall be regularly elected, according to the several expirations of terms of office, on the first Tuesday in April of each year, for full terms of two (2) years. But the mayor first selected under the terms of this charter shall hold office until the election of 1931, and thereafter he shall be elected every two (2) years.
Vacancies in the commission or mayor shall be filled by special election for the remainder of the unexpired term, as provided by ordinance.
The mayor pro tem shall be selected from among the members of the commission, and shall perform all the duties of the mayor in his absence or disability.
Repealed by Ordinance 180, sec. 1, 3/28/60.
The mayor and commissioners shall each receive the sum of five dollars ($5.00) for each meeting of the commission attended by him, provided, that no such officer shall receive for his services a greater compensation than one hundred eighty dollars ($180.00) in any one year, nor more than fifteen dollars ($15.00) for any calendar month. Provided further that when the mayor performs the duties of city recorder in addition to his duties as mayor he shall be entitled to receive such additional compensation, as salary, as the governing body shall allow and fix by ordinance, not to exceed one thousand two hundred dollars ($1,200.00) per year, payable in equal monthly installments.
No member of the commission, or mayor, shall, during his continuance in office, hold any other public office or employment, compensation for which is paid out of public funds, except that any commissioner may serve as a member of the board of equalization. Nor shall any member of said commission, appointive officer or employee of the city be pecuniarily interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract to which the city is a party, or in any matter wherein its rights or liabilities are involved. Nor shall any member of said commission, or any appointive officer or employee of the city be interested in any public work or contract let, or which shall be paid for, in whole or in part, by the city. Nor shall any member of said commission, or any appointive officer or employee of the city be interested, directly or indirectly, in the sale to the city of any supplies, equipment, materials, or articles of whatsoever nature purchased by the city, and any member of the commission or appointive officer who shall cease to possess any of the qualifications herein required shall forthwith forfeit his office, and any employee ceasing to possess said qualifications shall be forthwith discharged, and any such contract which any member of said board, or appointive officer or employee of the city is or may become interested in shall be declared null and void by the commission.
The commission shall constitute the legislative and governing body of the city, and shall have and exercise all the powers and authority herein granted. It shall pass and adopt all needful ordinances and resolutions, and adopt all necessary regulations governing the different departments of the city and not inconsistent with the provisions of this charter and the constitution and general laws of this state.
The mayor of the City of Slaton, who shall have been elected from the city at large, shall preside over the meeting of said commission, and perform such other duties consistent with the office as may be imposed upon him by this charter and ordinances and resolutions passed in pursuance hereof. He may participate in the discussion of all matters coming before the commission and shall be entitled to a vote as a member thereof on all legislative and other matters, but shall have no veto power. He shall sign all contracts and conveyances made or entered into by the city and all bonds issued under the provisions of this charter, and shall be the chief executive officer of the city. He shall be recognized as the official head of the city by the courts for the purpose of serving civil process, by the governor for the purpose of enforcing military law, and for all ceremonial purposes. In times of danger or emergency, the mayor may, with the consent of the commission, take command of the police and govern the city by proclamation and maintain order and enforce all laws.
The city commission shall hold at least one regular meeting in each month at a time to be fixed by it for such regular meetings; and may hold as many additional meetings during the month as may be necessary for the transaction of the business of the city and its citizens.
The mayor, or two (2) members of the commission, may call special meetings of the commission at any time upon at least twelve (12) hours’ written notice to each member, served personally or left at the usual place of business or residence of such member, or such meetings may be held at any time without written notice, provided all members of the board are present.
The commission shall be the judge of the election and qualifications of its own members and of the mayor.
The commission shall determine its own rules of procedure, and shall compel the attendance of its members.
Three (3) members of the commission shall constitute a quorum to do business, and the affirmative vote of a majority shall be necessary to adopt any ordinance or resolution. All meetings of the commission shall be public, except when otherwise directed by the commission, and minutes of all proceedings shall be kept, to which any citizen may have access at all reasonable times and which shall constitute one of the archives of the city. The vote upon the passage of all ordinances and resolutions shall be taken by the “ayes” and “nays” and entered upon the minutes, and every ordinance or resolution, upon its final passage, shall be recorded in a book kept for that purpose, and shall be authenticated by the signature of the presiding officer, and the person performing the duties of city clerk or secretary, and the original thereof shall bear the impress of the official seal of the city.
Each proposed ordinance or resolution shall be introduced in written or printed form, and shall not contain more than one (1) subject, which shall be clearly expressed in the title, except ordinances or resolutions making appropriations or authorizing the contracting of indebtedness or issuance of bonds or other evidence of indebtedness. No ordinance, unless it be declared an emergency measure, shall be passed finally on the date it is introduced, but must be passed, read and voted upon at two (2) regular meetings of the board.
An emergency measure is an ordinance or resolution for the immediate preservation of the public business, property, health or safety, or providing for the usual daily operation of a municipal department in which the emergency is set forth in such ordinance or resolution. Ordinances or resolution[s] appropriating money to defray current or other expenses of the city may be passed as emergency measures but no ordinance or resolution making a grant, renewal or extension of a franchise or other special privilege, or regulating the rate or rates to be charged for service furnished the public generally by any public utility shall ever be passed as an emergency measure.
Every ordinance imposing any penalty, fine, imprisonment or forfeiture shall, after passage thereof, be published in one (1) issue of the official paper; and proof of such publication shall be made by the printer or publisher of such paper, making affidavit before some officer authorized by law to administer oaths, and filed with the person performing the duties of city clerk or secretary and shall be prima facie evidence of such publication and promulgation of such ordinance in all courts of the state; and such ordinance so published shall take effect and be in force, from and after five (5) days after publication thereof, unless otherwise expressly provided. Ordinances not required to be published shall take effect and be in force, from and after the passage, unless otherwise provided.
The commission may investigate the financial transaction of any office or department of the city government, and the acts and conduct of any officer or employee. In conducting such investigation, the commission may compel the attendance of witnesses, the production of books, and papers, and other evidence, and for that purpose may issue subpoenas or attachments which shall be signed by the mayor; which may be served and executed by an officer authorized by law to serve subpoenas or other process, or any peace officer of the city. If any witness shall refuse to appear or to testify to any facts within his knowledge, or to produce any papers or books in his possession, or under his control, relating to the matter under investigation before the commission, the commission shall have the power to cause the witness to be punished as for contempt, not exceeding a fine of one hundred dollars ($100.00) and three (3) days in the city prison. No witness shall be excused from testifying, touching his knowledge of the matter under investigation in any such inquiry, but such testimony shall not be used against him in any criminal prosecution except for perjury committed upon such inquiry.
After the city has attained a population of twelve thousand (12,000) as determined by the federal census, the commission may appoint a city manager, who shall be the administrative head of the municipal government, and shall be responsible for the efficient administration of all departments; he may or may not be a resident of the City of Slaton when appointed, and shall hold his office at the will of the commission.
The city manager when appointed shall:
[1] 
See that the laws and ordinances of the city are enforced;
[2] 
Appoint all appointive officers or employees of the city, with the advice and consent of the commission (such appointments to be made upon merit and fitness alone), and remove all officers and employees appointed by him;
[3] 
Exercise control and supervision over all departments and officers that may be created by the commission, and all officers and employees appointed by him;
[4] 
Attend all meetings of the commission with a right to take part in the discussion, but having no vote;
[5] 
Recommend, in writing, to the commission such measures as he may deem necessary or expedient;
[6] 
Keep the commission fully advised as to the financial condition and needs of the city; and
[7] 
Perform such other duties as may be prescribed by this charter, or be required of him by ordinance or resolution of the commission.
No contract shall ever be made which binds the city to pay for personal services to be rendered for any stated period of time, but all appointive officers and employees shall be subject to preemptory discharge as herein provided.
The commission shall create and consolidate such offices and may divide the administration of the city’s affairs into such departments as it may deem advisable, and may discontinue any such office or department at its discretion.
The city commission shall appoint what shall be known and designated as the board of city development, which shall be composed of not exceeding fifteen (15) members, who shall serve without compensation; and the city commission shall appropriate annually from the general fund of said city two (2) mills on each one dollar ($1.00) of the assessed value of all taxable property in the City of Slaton, said fund to be used for the support of the work of said board and to be handled and expended as such board may see fit. The board appointed by the city commission shall draw lots for the terms of their office, five (5) of whom shall serve for a period of one year, five (5) for a period of two (2) years, and five (5) for a period of three (3) years. Upon the expiration of the terms of office of the various groups of members of said board, the remaining ten (10) members shall select persons to fill such vacancies.
The mayor shall appoint what shall be known and designated as the cemetery association, which shall be composed of three (3) members, who shall serve without compensation, and may prescribe the qualifications and duties of the members of such association and their terms of office; the city commission shall appropriate annually from the general fund of said city one-half of one (1/2 of 1) mill of each one dollar ($1.00) of the assessed value of all taxable property in the City of Slaton, to support the work of such association; also, said association shall receive the proceeds from the sale of cemetery lots to help support the work of such association, same to be used and expended at the will and discretion of such association.
(Ordinance 135, sec. 1, 2/25/52)
The commission shall fix and determine the salaries and wages of all appointive officers and employees of the city, and provide for the payment thereof.
No warrant for the payment of any claims shall be issued by the city, unless such claim shall be evidenced by an itemized account approved by the city commission at a regular meeting, and all warrants shall be signed by the mayor and countersigned by the party acting as city clerk or secretary.
Accounting procedure shall be devised and maintained for the city, adequate to record in detail, all transactions affecting the acquisition, custodianship and disposition of values, including cash receipts, credit transactions and disbursements; and the recorded facts shall be presented periodically to the city commission and to the public in such summaries and analytical schedules in detailed support thereof as shall be necessary to show fully such transactions for each fiscal year, upon the finances of the city and in relation to each department of the city government, including distinct summaries and schedules for each public utility owned and operated.
The commission shall cause a continuous audit of the books of account; all records and transactions of the administration of the affairs of the city; such audit shall be made annually during each fiscal year and shall be made by a certified public accountant. The duty of the certified public accountant shall include the certification of all statements required in section 31 of this charter; such statements shall include a general balance sheet showing summaries of income and expenditures and also comparisons, in proper classification, with the last previous audit; such summaries shall be published in some newspaper published in Slaton, one (1) time within ten (10) days after the completion of such audit.
All contracts for public printing, public improvements and public works of every kind and character, and the purchase of supplies for use in any department of the city, exceeding an expenditure of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), shall be awarded only after sealed competitive bids have been received by the city commission. No contract, obligation or undertaking made for and on behalf of the city, having for its purpose or meaning the creation of any debt or the payment of any moneys for any purpose, shall ever be binding upon or enforceable against the city, unless the governing body shall, at the time of making said contract, or of incurring such debt or obligation, make provision, by ordinance, for the levying and collection of a tax sufficient to pay the same at maturity, unless it shall be in the contemplation of said governing body to pay such debt or obligation out of the current revenues of the city or out of some fund then on hand and within the immediate control of the governing body, in which case such intention shall be clearly expressed in the minutes and in such contract or writing; and unless so expressed it shall conclusively be presumed that payment of such debt or obligation is intended to be a charge upon the future revenues of the city and shall be wholly void and invalid unless the provisions of this section be strictly complied with. Provided further, that no such contract, debt, obligation or undertaking shall ever be binding upon the city unless made and entered into by the city’s governing body in a formal and stated meeting of the commission at which there is present and acting a quorum, which facts shall be made a matter of record in the minutes of such meeting. No judgment shall ever be rendered against the city and no recovery shall be had based upon any plea of quantum meruit or quantum valebat or implied contract founded upon or growing out of any transaction where any provision of this section has been ignored or violated. All contracts, agreements and undertakings to which the city is a party or upon which the city is sought to be bound, that seek to impose a debt, charge or burden upon any future revenue of the city, and not contemplated to be paid out of current revenues or out of some fund then on hand and within the immediate control of the governing body, shall be in writing and signed on behalf of the city by the mayor or mayor pro tem, attested by the city secretary and the impress of the city’s official seal placed thereon. All such contracts shall be made and entered into by all parties thereto with the provisions of this section in mind, and each and every provision of this section shall be and become a part of every such contract and be read into the same as a material and controlling part thereof, whether or not same is copied in such contract, agreement or undertaking.
No person related within the second degree by affinity, or within the third degree by consanguinity, to the mayor, to either of the commissioners or the city manager, shall be appointed to any office, position, clerkship or service of the city.
Eight (8) hours shall constitute a day’s work for all laborers, workmen, or mechanics who may be employed by or on behalf of the city, in any one calendar day, where such employment, contract or work is for the purpose of constructing, repairing or improving buildings, bridges, streets, avenues, alleys, highways or other public improvements of a similar character, requiring the services of laborers, workmen or mechanics.
The city manager shall give an official bond in the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), and the person or persons exercising the duties of the city treasurer and city tax collector shall give official bonds in such sums as may be prescribed by the commission from time to time. Such bonds shall be payable to the City of Slaton and shall in each instance, be conditioned for the faithful discharge of the duties of such respective officers, and for the faithful accounting for all moneys, credits and things of value coming into the hands of such respective officers. Such bonds shall be procured from some regularly accredited surety company, authorized to do business under the laws of the State of Texas and the premiums to such surety companies shall be paid by the City of Slaton.
The city commission or manager shall have the right to require official bonds from other appointive officers of the city in such amounts and conditions as [it or] he may deem best for the efficiency of the public service.
All official bonds shall be approved by the commission and filed and recorded with the person exercising the duties of the city secretary.
Every officer of the city shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, take and subscribe to the oath prescribed by the constitution of the State of Texas for county officials.