The City of Harlingen shall have the power and authority to acquire, by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation or otherwise, any character of property, including any charitable or trust fund.
All real estate owned in fee simple title or held by lease, sufferance, easement or otherwise, all public buildings, fire stations, parks, public squares, streets, alleys and all property of whatever kind, character or description, whether real or personal, which has been granted, donated, purchased or otherwise acquired by the City of Harlingen, through any means or agency, and all causes of action, rights and privileges of every kind and character, and all property of whatsoever character and description which may have been held or is now held, controlled or used by the City of Harlingen for public ways or in trust for the public shall vest in and remain in and inure to the corporation of the City of Harlingen by the legal adoption of this Charter.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
No public property or any other character of property owned or held by the City shall be subject to any execution of any kind or nature.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the right of eminent domain and the power to appropriate private property for public purposes whenever the governing authority shall deem it necessary; and to take any private property, within or without the City limits, for any of the following purposes: City halls, police stations, jails, calabooses, fire stations and fire alarm systems, libraries, hospitals, sanitariums, auditoriums, market houses, butcher shops or meatpacking facilities, reformatories, abattoirs, streets, alleys, parks, highways, playgrounds, sewer systems, storm sewers, sewage disposal plants, filtering beds and emptying grounds for sewer systems, drainages, drainage water, water supply sources, wells, water and electric light and power systems, street car systems, telephone and telegraph systems, gas plants or gas systems, cemeteries, crematories, prison farms, pest houses, and to acquire lands, within or without the City, for any other municipal purpose that may be deemed advisable. That the power herein granted for the purpose of acquiring private property shall include the power of improvements and enlargements of waterworks, including water supply, riparian rights, standpipes, filtration plants, watersheds, and the construction of supply reservoirs. That in all cases wherein the City exercises the power of eminent domain, it shall be controlled, as nearly as practicable, by the laws governing the condemnation of property by railroad corporations in this State; the City taking the position of the railroad corporation in any such case.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006; Resolution 2024-57 adopted 11/14/2024)
All contracts for public printing, public improvements, public work and the purchase of supplies or other personal property, for use in any department of the City, exceeding the maximum expenditure allowed by state law shall be let on sealed competitive bids after advertisement by publication thereof at least once in some newspaper published in the city, the first publication of such advertisement to be at least ten (10) days before such contract be let. The City Commission may permit or require proposals to be filed for doing such work, or furnishing alternative materials, plans, specifications or methods as adopted by the City or submitted by bidders with their bids. The City Commission may reject all bids or select and adopt a bid and let the work to, or purchase the supplies in question from, the lowest bidder whose bid, in the opinion of the City Commission, is most advantageous to the city. All purchases or contracts for public printing, public improvements, public work or supplies or other personal property for the use in any department of the City of less than the amount allowed by state law shall be competitive and shall be purchased or let at the discretion of the City Manager.
No member of the City Commission, or any other officer or employee of the corporation, shall be directly or indirectly interested in any work, business or contract, the expense, price or consideration of which is paid, in whole or in part, from City funds, or by an assessment levied by an ordinance or resolution of the City Commission, nor be the surety of any person having a contract, work or business with the City, for the performing of which security may be required. Any contract which violates the foregoing provision shall be void, and no legal right or advantage shall ever be acquired by any person by reason of any act or thing done in violation of this Charter. Any member of the City Commission or other office of the corporation, who knowingly shall be or become interested in any work, business or contract in violation of this section, shall immediately forfeit the office.
(Ordinance 73-30, adopted 11/7/1973; Resolution 79-R-7, adopted 2/24/1979; Ordinance 82-97, Amend. No. 4, adopted 1/15/1983; Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)