The ordinances embraced in this and the following chapters and sections shall constitute and be designated the "Code of Ordinances, City of Kyle, Texas," and may be also cited as the "Kyle Code."
The catchlines of the several sections of this Code printed in boldface type are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the section and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such sections, nor as any part of the section, nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so deemed when any of such sections, including the catchlines, are amended or reenacted.
In the construction of this Code, and of all ordinances and resolutions passed by the city council, the following rules shall be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the city council:
Generally.
Words shall be construed in their common and usual significance unless the contrary is clearly indicated.
City.
The term "city" means the City of Kyle in the County of Hays and State of Texas.
City boards, committees, commissions, officers, employees and departments.
Any reference to boards, committees, commissions, officers, employees or departments shall be construed to mean the boards, committees, commissions, officers, employees or departments, respectively, of the City of Kyle, Texas.
City council.
Whenever the term "city council" is used, the term means the city council of the City of Kyle, Texas.
Code.
The term "Code" means this Code of Ordinances, City of Kyle, Texas.
Computation of time.
Whenever a notice is required to be given or an act to be done a certain length of time before any proceeding shall be had, the day on which such notice is given or such act is done shall not be counted in computing the time, but the day on which such proceeding is to be had shall be counted unless it is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday.
County.
The term "county" means the County of Hays, Texas.
Delegation of authority.
Whenever a section or provision appears requiring the head of a department or some other city officer or employee to do some act or perform some duty, it shall be construed to authorize the head of the department or other officer or employee to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to perform the required act or perform the duty, unless the terms of the provision or section specify otherwise.
Gender.
A word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to females and to firms, partnerships, associations and corporations as well as to males.
Joint authority.
Words purporting to give authority to three or more officers or other persons shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such officers or other persons, unless it is otherwise declared.
Month.
The term "month" means a calendar month.
Number.
Any word importing the singular number shall include the plural and any word importing the plural number shall include the singular.
Oath.
The term "oath" shall be construed to include an affirmation in all cases in which, by law, an affirmation may be substituted for an oath, and in such cases the terms "swear" and "sworn" shall be equivalent to the terms "affirm" and "affirmed."
Official time standard.
Whenever certain hours are named herein they shall mean standard time or daylight-saving time as may be in current use in the city.
Owner.
The term "owner," applied to a building or land, includes any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership, joint tenant or tenant by the entirety of the whole or of a part of such building or land.
Person.
The term "person" extends and is applied to associations, corporations, firms, partnerships and bodies politic and corporate as well as to individuals.
Planning and zoning commission.
The term "planning and zoning commission" means the planning commission created in Charter, § 10.04.
Preceding, following.
The terms "preceding" and "following" mean next before and next after, respectively.
Property.
The term "property" includes real and personal property, and life insurance policies and the effects thereof.
Shall.
The term "shall" is always mandatory and not merely directory.
Sidewalk.
The term "sidewalk" means any portion of the street between the curb, or the lateral line of the roadway and the adjacent property line, intended for the use of pedestrians.
Signature or subscription.
The term "signature" or "subscription" includes a mark when a person cannot write.
State.
The term "state" shall be construed to mean the State of Texas.
Street.
The term "street" includes any highway, alley, street, avenue, public place or square, bridge, underpass and overpass in the city, dedicated or devoted to public use.
Tense.
Words used in the past or present tense include the future as well as the past and present.
Vernon's Ann. Civ. St.
The abbreviation "Vernon's Ann. Civ. St." means the latest edition or supplement to Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes.
V.T.C.A.
The abbreviation "V.T.C.A." means and refer to the latest edition or supplement of Vernon's Texas Code Annotated.
Written or in writing.
The term "written" or "in writing" shall be construed to include any representation of words, letters or figures, whether by printing or otherwise.
Year.
The term "year" means a calendar year.
All references in this Code to chapters, articles, divisions or sections are to the chapters, articles, divisions or sections of this Code, unless otherwise specified.
The history or source notes appearing in parentheses after sections in this Code are not intended to have any legal effect, but are merely intended to indicate the source of matter contained in the section.
References and editor's notes following certain sections of this Code are inserted as an aid and guide to the reader and not controlling or meant to have any legal effect.
The sections appearing in this Code, so far as they are the same as those of the ordinances of the city existing at the time of adoption of this Code, shall be considered as a continuation thereof and not new enactments.
(a) 
Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall affect any offense or act committed or done or any penalty or forfeiture incurred or any contract or right established or accruing before the effective date of this Code.
(b) 
The adoption of this Code shall not be interpreted as permitting any use or the continuance of any use of a structure or premises in violation of any city ordinance in effect on the date of adoption of this Code.
(a) 
Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall affect any ordinance:
(1) 
Promising or guaranteeing the payment of money for the city, or authorizing the issuance of any bonds of the city or any evidence of the city's indebtedness, or any contract or obligation assumed by the city.
(2) 
Granting any right or franchise.
(3) 
Dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, relocating, opening, paving, widening, vacating, etc., any street or public way in the city.
(4) 
Making any appropriation or adopting the budget.
(5) 
Levying or imposing taxes not contained in this Code.
(6) 
Establishing or prescribing grades of streets in the city.
(7) 
Providing for local improvements and assessing taxes for such improvements.
(8) 
Regarding subdivisions.
(9) 
Extending or contracting the boundaries of the city.
(10) 
Prescribing the number, classification, benefits or compensation of any city officers or employees or any personnel policies and procedures or retirement programs.
(11) 
Prescribing through streets, parking and traffic regulations, speed limits, one-way traffic, limitations on loads of vehicles or loading zones.
(12) 
Calling an election.
(13) 
Authorizing street maintenance agreements.
(14) 
Which is temporary although general in effect.
(15) 
Which is special although permanent in effect.
(16) 
The purpose of which has been accomplished.
(b) 
All such ordinances are recognized as continuing in full force and effect to the same extent as if set out at length in this Code. Such ordinances are on file in the city secretary's office.
(a) 
The repeal of an ordinance shall not revive any ordinances in force before or at the time the ordinance repealed took effect.
(b) 
The repeal of an ordinance shall not affect any punishment or penalty incurred before the repeal took effect or any suit, prosecution or proceeding pending at the time of the repeal for an offense committed under the ordinance repealed.
(a) 
All ordinances passed subsequent to this Code which amend, repeal or in any way affect this Code may be numbered in accordance with the numbering system of this Code and printed for inclusion therein. When subsequent ordinances repeal any chapter, section or subsection or any portion thereof, such repealed portions may be excluded from the Code by omission from reprinted pages. The subsequent ordinances as numbered and printed, or omitted in the case of repeal, shall be prima facie evidence of such subsequent ordinances until such time that this Code and subsequent ordinances numbered or omitted are readopted as a new code by the city council.
(b) 
Amendments to any of the provisions of this Code shall be made by amending such provisions by specific reference to the section number of this Code in the following language: "That section ___ of the Code of Ordinances, City of Kyle, Texas, is hereby amended to read as follows..." The new provisions shall then be set out in full as desired.
(c) 
In the event a new section not heretofore existing in the Code is to be added, the following language shall be used: "That the Code of Ordinances, City of Kyle, Texas, is hereby amended by adding a section, to be numbered ___, which said section reads as follows..." The new section shall then be set out in full as desired.
(d) 
All sections, divisions, articles, chapters or provisions of this Code desired to be repealed should be specifically repealed by section, division, article or chapter number, as the case may be.
(a) 
By contract or by city personnel, supplements to this Code shall be prepared and printed whenever authorized or directed by the city. A supplement to the Code shall include substantive permanent and general parts of ordinances adopted during the period covered by the supplement and all changes made thereby in the Code. The pages of a supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into the Code and will, where necessary, replace pages which have become obsolete or partially obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared that, when they have been inserted, the Code will be current through the date of the adoption of the latest ordinance included in the supplement.
(b) 
In preparing a supplement to this Code, all portions of the Code that have been repealed shall be excluded from the Code by the omission thereof from reprinted pages.
(c) 
When preparing a supplement to this Code, the codifier (meaning the person, agency or organization authorized to prepare the supplement) may make formal, nonsubstantive changes in ordinances and parts of ordinances included in the supplement, insofar as it is necessary to do so to embody them into a unified code. For example, the codifier may:
(1) 
Organize the ordinance material into appropriate subdivisions;
(2) 
Provide appropriate catchlines, headings and titles for sections and other subdivisions of the Code printed in the supplement, and make changes in such catchlines, headings and titles;
(3) 
Assign appropriate numbers to sections and other subdivisions to be inserted in the Code and, where necessary to accommodate new material, change existing sections or other subdivision numbers;
(4) 
Change the words "this ordinance" or words of the same meaning to "this chapter," "this article," "this division," etc., as the case may be, or to "sections ___ to ___" (inserting section numbers to indicate the sections of the Code which embody the substantive sections of the ordinance incorporated into the Code); and
(5) 
Make other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning of ordinance sections inserted into the Code, but in no case shall the codifier make any change in the meaning or effect of ordinance material included in the supplement or already embodied in the Code.
It is hereby declared to be the intention of the city council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Code are severable and, if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this Code shall be declared unconstitutional by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this Code, since the same would have been enacted by the city council without the incorporation in this Code of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.
(a) 
Whenever in this Code or in any ordinance of the city an act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense or a misdemeanor, or wherever in such Code or ordinance the doing of any act is required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful, and no specific penalty is provided therefor, the violation of any such provision of this Code or any such ordinance shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $500.00. However, a fine or penalty for the violation of a rule, ordinance or police regulation that governs fire safety, zoning or public health and sanitation, including dumping of refuse, shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $2,000.00. Provided, however, that no penalty shall be greater or less than the penalty provided for the same or similar offense under the laws of the state.
(b) 
Whenever in this Code or in any ordinance of the city an act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense or a misdemeanor, or wherever in such Code or ordinance the doing of any act is required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful, and the specific penalty provided therefor is punishment by fine exceeding the jurisdictional limit authorized for a class C misdemeanor by the Texas Penal Code as defined by V.T.C.A., Penal Code § 12.23 and no specific mental culpability is otherwise required by the provisions of this Code or any such ordinance, it shall be required that the offense have been committed intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or with criminal negligence as defined by the Texas Penal Code.
(c) 
Each day or fractional part thereof any violation of this Code or of any ordinance shall continue shall constitute a separate offense.
(Ordinance 301, §§ 1, 2, adopted 4/15/1997)