Chapter 1. General Provisions

The ordinances embraced in this and the following chapters and sections shall constitute and be designated the "Code of Ordinances, City of Baytown, Texas" and may be so cited.

(Code 1967, § 1-1)

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:

Charter. The term "Charter" shall mean the Charter of the City of Baytown, Texas, as printed in part I of this volume.

City. The term "city" shall mean the City of Baytown, in the Counties of Harris and Chambers and State of Texas.

City boards, committees, commissions, officers, employees, etc. Whenever reference is made to a board, committee, commission, officer, employee, etc., in this Code, it shall be construed to mean that of the City of Baytown, Texas.

Code. The term "Code" shall mean the Code of Ordinances, City of Baytown, Texas.

Computation of time. In computing any period of time prescribed or allowed by this Code, the day of the act, event or default after which the designated period of time begins to run shall not be included. The last day of the period so computed shall be included, unless it is a Sunday or legal holiday, in which event the period shall run until the end of the next day which is neither a Saturday, Sunday nor legal holiday.

Council; city council. Whenever the term "council" or "city council" is used, it shall mean the city council of the City of Baytown, Texas.

County. The term "county" or "this county" shall mean the Counties of Harris and/or Chambers, Texas.

Delegation of authority. Whenever a section of this Code requires or authorizes an officer or employee of the city to do some act or perform some duty, it shall be construed to authorize the officer or employee to designate, delegate and authorize another officer or employee of the city to perform the act or duty, unless the terms of the section specifically provide 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.

Highway. The term "highway" shall include any street, alley, highway, avenue, public place or square, bridge, viaduct, tunnel, underpass, overpass, intersection and causeway in the city, dedicated or devoted to public use.

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" shall mean 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."

Or, and. The term "and" may be read "or," and the term "or" may be read "and," if the sense requires it.

Owner. The term "owner," applied to a building or land, shall include 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" shall extend and be applied to associations, corporations, firms, partnerships and bodies politic and corporate, as well as to individuals.

Preceding, following. The terms "preceding" and "following" mean next before and next after, respectively.

Property. The term "property" includes real and personal property.

Shall, may. The term "shall" is mandatory in regard to any action to be taken; the term "may" is discretionary.

Sidewalk. The term "sidewalk" shall mean any portion of the street between the curblines, or the lateral line of the roadway and the adjacent property line that is improved and designed for or ordinarily used for pedestrian travel.

Signature or subscription. The term "signature" or "subscription" shall include a mark when a person cannot write.

State. The term "state" shall be construed to mean the State of Texas.

Street. The term "street," shall include any highway, alley, street, avenue, public place or square, bridge, intersection, viaduct, underpass, overpass, tunnel and causeway 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." shall mean the latest edition or supplement to Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes.

V.T.C.A. The abbreviation "V.T.C.A." shall mean and refer to the latest edition or supplement of Vernon's Texas Code Annotated.

Written; 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" shall mean a calendar year.

(Code 1967, § 1-3; Ord. No. 12,269, § 1, 6-13-13)

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.

(Code 1967, § 1-2)

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 notes appearing in parentheses after sections of 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 are 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 Code of Ordinances, City of Baytown, Texas, 1967, and of ordinances 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) Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed as abating any action pending under or by virtue of any general ordinance of the city repealed in this chapter, and all general ordinances contained in this Code shall be deemed to be continuing and not a new enactment of the same ordinance. This chapter shall not be deemed as discontinuing, abating, modifying or altering any penalty accrued or to accrue or as affecting the liability of any person or as waiving any right of the city under any ordinance or section thereof in force at the time of the adoption of this Code.

(a) Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall be construed to repeal or otherwise affect the validity of any of the following when not inconsistent with this Code:

(1) Any offense or act committed or done or any penalty or forfeiture incurred before the effective date of this Code;

(2) Any ordinance or resolution promising or guaranteeing the payment of money for the city or authorizing the issue of any bonds of the city or any evidence of the city's indebtedness or any contract, right, agreement, lease, deed or other instrument or obligation assumed by the city;

(3) Any administrative ordinance or resolution of the city not in conflict or inconsistent with this Code;

(4) Any right or franchise granted by any ordinance;

(5) Any ordinance or resolution dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, relocating, opening, paving, widening, repairing, vacating, etc., any street or public way;

(6) Any ordinance adopting the budget or any appropriation ordinance;

(7) Any ordinance levying or imposing taxes;

(8) Any ordinance prescribing through streets, parking and traffic regulations, speed limits, one-way traffic, limitations on load of vehicles or loading zones;

(9) Any rezoning ordinance or amendment to the zoning map or ordinance granting conditional use permits;

(10) Any ordinance establishing and prescribing the street grades of any street;

(11) Any ordinance providing for local improvements and assessing taxes therefor;

(12) Any ordinance dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision;

(13) Any ordinance annexing territory or excluding territory or any ordinance extending the boundaries of the city;

(14) Any ordinance establishing positions, classifying positions, establishing pension or employee benefits, setting salaries of city officers and employees or any personnel regulations;

(15) Any temporary or special ordinance;

(16) Any ordinance calling an election;

(17) Any ordinance authorizing street maintenance agreements;

(18) Any ordinance levying a fee, rate, deposit or charge;

(19) Any ordinance regarding cable television franchises and regulations; and/or

(20) Any ordinance or provision regarding the city council rules of order.

(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. All ordinances are on file in the city clerk'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 any 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 the 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 Baytown, Texas, is hereby amended to read as follows:…." The new provisions shall then be set out in full as desired.

(c) If a new section not existing in the Code is to be added, the following language shall be used: "That the Code of Ordinances, City of Baytown, 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, 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.

(Code 1967, § 1-4)

(a) By contract or by city personnel, supplements to this Code shall be prepared and printed whenever authorized or directed by the city manager. A supplement to the Code shall include all substantive permanent and general parts of ordinances passed by the city council or adopted by initiative and referendum during the period covered by the supplement and all changes made thereby in the Code and shall also include all amendments to the Charter during the period. The pages of a supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into the Code and will, where necessary, replace pages that 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; however, such changes are subject to the approval of the city attorney. 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 section or other subdivision numbers;

(4) Change the term "this ordinance" or terms of the same meaning to "this chapter," "this article," "this division," etc., as the case may be, or to "sections _____ through _____." The inserted section numbers will 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 such would have been enacted by the city council without the incorporation in this Code of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.

(Code 1967, § 1-6)

Whenever in this Code or in any ordinance of the city or in any rule, regulation or order promulgated by any officer or agency of the city under authority duly vested in such officer or agency any act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense or a misdemeanor, where no specific penalty is provided, the following controls unless specifically stated otherwise in the Code:

The fine or penalty for the violation of a rule, ordinance, or police regulation may not exceed $500.00 except that:

(1) A fine or penalty for the violation of a rule, ordinance, or police regulation that governs fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation, other than the dumping of refuse, may not exceed $2,000.00; and

(2) A fine or penalty for the violation of a rule, ordinance, or police regulation that governs the dumping of refuse may not exceed $4,000.00.

If the maximum penalty provided by this Code for any offense is greater than the maximum penalty provided for the same or a similar offense under the laws of the state, the maximum penalty for such violation provided by the state statute shall be the maximum penalty under this Code. Except where otherwise provided in this Code, each day an offense shall continue shall constitute a separate offense.

(Code 1967, § 1-5(a), (b); Ord. No. 4806, § 1, 9-24-87; Ord. No. 4835, § 1, 10-5-87; Ord. No. 5684, § 1, 10-23-90; Ord. No. 13,315, § 1, 10-13-16)

(a) A culpable mental state is not required for the commission of an offense under this Code, unless:

(1) The provisions defining the offense expressly require a culpable mental state; or

(2) The offense is punishable by a fine exceeding the amount authorized by V.T.C.A., Penal Code § 12.23.

(b) If an offense defined by this Code is punishable by a fine exceeding the amount authorized by V.T.C.A., Penal Code § 12.23, then the culpable mental state shall be that of criminal negligence, unless a higher culpable mental state is specified in this Code in the definition of the offense.

(c) The term "offense" as used in this section means an act, which is prohibited by this Code or which is made or declared to be unlawful, an offense or a misdemeanor by this Code.

(Ord. No. 8796, § 1, 1-13-00; Ord. No. 10,129, § 1, 8-11-05)

(a) Fee imposed. A collection fee in the amount of 30 percent shall be imposed on each of the following items if an item is more than 60 days past due and has been referred to a private attorney or a private vendor for collection services:

(1) Debts and accounts receivable such as unpaid fines, fees, court costs, forfeited bonds, and restitution ordered paid by the municipal court;

(2) Amounts in cases in which the accused has failed to appear:

a. As promised under Subchapter A, Chapter 543, Transportation Code, or other law;

b. In compliance with a lawful written notice to appear issued under Article 14.06(b) or other law;

c. In compliance with a lawful summons issued under Article 15.03(b) or other law;

d. In compliance with a lawful order of the municipal court; or

(3) False alarm penalties or fees imposed by the city pursuant to chapter 30, article II of this Code.

(b) Application of fee. The collection fee may be applied to any balance remaining after a partial credit for time served or community service if the balance is more than 60 days past due. With respect to cases described by subsection (a)(2), the amount to which the 30 percent collection fee applies is:

(1) The amount to be paid that is communicated to the accused as acceptable to the court under its standard policy for resolution of the case, if the accused voluntarily agrees to pay that amount; or

(2) The amount ordered paid by the court after plea or trial.

(c) Exceptions. The collection fee does not apply to:

(1) A case that has been dismissed by the municipal court or to any amount that has been satisfied through time-served credit or community service;

(2) A defendant that the municipal court has determined is indigent, or has insufficient resources or income, or is otherwise unable to pay all or part of the underlying fine or costs; or

(3) Criminal or civil offense that was committed on or before June 18, 2003.

(d) Past due. An item subject to the additional collection fee authorized by subsection (a) is considered more than 60 days past due if it remains unpaid on the 61st day after the following appropriate date:

(1) With respect to an item described by subsection (a)(1), the date on which the debt, fine, fee, forfeited bond, or court cost must be paid in full as determined by the municipal court;

(2) With respect to an item described by subsection (a)(2), the date by which the accused promised to appear or was notified, summoned, or ordered to appear; or

(3) With respect to an item described by subsection (a)(3), the date on which the service fee is due, which is 30 days after receipt of false alarm notification.

(Ord. No. 10,098, § 1, 7-14-05)

(a) The city attorney shall represent the city in all legal proceedings; and the city attorney and outside legal counsel, if directed by the city attorney, have authority to institute or defend any actions, legal proceedings, civil actions, criminal actions, and suits, including but not limited to appeals, actions to collect civil penalties, counterclaims, cross-claims, declaratory actions, injunctive actions, and third-party claims and writs on behalf of the city:

(1) To enforce any provision of the City Charter;

(2) To enforce any provision of this Code pursuant to all applicable laws, including V.T.C.A., Local Government Code §§ 54.012 and § 214.0015;

(3) To enforce any provision of any state or federal statute;

(4) For collections and damages to city property or personnel, either directly or through subrogation rights;

(5) For enforcement of any contract into which the city has entered, including the collection of any payments; and

(6) For collection of any account receivable, charge, fee or service provided by or owed to the city.

(b) The city attorney and outside legal counsel if directed by the city attorney has authority to execute any and all documents necessary to effectuate an authorized lawsuit authorized in subsection (a) of this section.

(c) The city attorney may settle any action, proceeding or suit as the city attorney deems advisable, after consultation with the city manager or the city manager's designee, if appropriate, except for settlements requiring payment by the city in excess of $50,000.00.

(Ord. No. 13,238, § 1, 7-28-16)