The City shall have the power:
(1) 
To prohibit the driving of herds of livestock and all herds of domestic animals along or upon the streets, avenues or alleys of the City.
(2) 
To establish and regulate public animal shelters, to regulate, restrain and prohibit the running at large and keeping of livestock and all other domesticated animals and fowl, and to authorize the restraining, impounding and sale of them for the cost of the proceedings and the penalty incurred, and to order their destruction when they cannot be sold, and to impose penalties upon the owner for the violation of any ordinances regulating or prohibiting these activities and to tax, regulate, restrain and prohibit the running at large of dogs and to authorize their destruction and impose penalties on the owner or keeper.
(3) 
To prohibit the inhumane treatment of animals and provide punishment of that behavior.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City Commission may annually appropriate monies from the general fund of the City to the aggregate amount of not more than two (2) mills on each one dollar valuation of the taxable property within the City in any one year, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining the following enumerated services or any one or more of the following, including:
(1) 
Chamber of commerce.
(2) 
City library.
(3) 
Public hospital.
(4) 
General welfare.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to provide for the issuance of permits for erecting all buildings; for the inspection of the construction of all buildings in respect to proper wiring for electric lights and other electric appliances; piping for gas, flues, chimneys, plumbing and sewer connections and to enforce proper regulations in regard to these issues.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power:
(1) 
To enact and enforce all ordinances and resolutions necessary to regulate the safety of all residential structures, office buildings, hotels, apartment houses, roominghouses, hospitals, theaters, store buildings and all public buildings.
(2) 
To require the construction of fire escapes in connection with public buildings, and to determine the sufficiency and regulate the safety of all exits and fire escapes provided on public buildings of every kind and character.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
[1]
Editor's note — Former Sec. 5, which pertained to fines and collection, was repealed 11/11/1975 by Ordinance 75-44, proposed amendment number 12. Said amendment was approved by a referendum of the electorate 12/9/1975.
The City shall have the power to provide for establishing and maintaining the fire department of the city.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to provide for the establishment and designation of fire district limits; to prescribe the kind and character of structures to be erected in it; to provide for the erection of fireproof buildings within those limits and for the condemnation of dangerous or dilapidated structures which are calculated to increase fire hazards.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to provide for the inspection of dairies, cows and dairy herds, butcher shops and meatpacking facilities, inside or outside the City limits from which meat, milk, butter or eggs are furnished to the citizens of the City, and to provide for the inspection of meat markets, grocery stores, drug stores, confectioneries, fruit stands, ice cream factories, laundries, bottling plants, hotels, restaurants and bakeries; the source, storage and distribution of water, and all other places where food and drink for human consumption are manufactured, handled, sold or exposed for sale, and to regulate and inspect the character and standards of such articles of food and drink so sold or offered to the general public.
(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)
No funds of the City shall be subject to garnishment, and that the City shall never be required to answer in any garnishment proceedings.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to provide for a health department and the establishment of rules and regulations protecting the health of the city; the establishment of quarantine stations, pest houses and hospitals and to provide for the adoption of necessary quarantine laws to protect the citizens against contagious and infectious diseases.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to provide for establishing and maintaining a public library.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to license any lawful business, any occupation, or any calling that is susceptible to the control of the police power, and to license, regulate, control or prohibit the erection of signs or billboards.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The liability of the City on any claim for damages to any person or property shall be that as determined and established by the common law and applicable state and federal statutes, as amended; and the City may establish procedural rules and regulations governing the City's liability in such cases, as may be deemed advisable, and as authorized by state or federal law.
(Ordinance 75-44, adopted 11/11/1975; Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
It shall not be necessary in any action, suit or proceedings in which the City shall be a party, for any bond, undertaking or security to be executed in behalf of the city.
[1]
Editor's note — Former Sec. 15, which pertained to market places, abattoirs and slaughter pens, was repealed 11/11/1975 by Ordinance 75-44, proposed amendment number 13. Said amendment was approved by a referendum of the electorate 12/9/1975.
The City shall have the power to prohibit and restrain the flying of kites, firing of firearms, fire-crackers, rolling of hoops and the use of velocipedes, bicycles, skates, skateboards and other nonmotorized and unlicensed motorized methods of conveyance or the use and practice of any amusement on the streets or sidewalks to the annoyance of pedestrians or persons using such streets or sidewalks, and to restrain, regulate and prohibit the ringing of bells, or blowing of horns, bugles and whistling, crying of goods, loudspeakers and other noises, practices and performances tending to collect persons in the streets or tending, unnecessarily, to interfere with the peace and quietude of the citizens of the City; and to suppress and regulate all unnecessary noises.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to define all nuisances, prohibit them within the City and outside the City limits for a distance of five thousand (5,000) feet; to police all parks, grounds, speedways, streets, avenues, and alleys owned by the City, inside or outside the City limits; to prohibit the pollution of all sources or water supply of the City, and to provide for the protection of watersheds.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to license, tax and regulate or suppress and prevent hawkers, peddlers, pawnbrokers, solicitors and beggars.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to provide for the enforcement of all ordinances enacted by it, by a fine not to exceed the maximum allowable under state law.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to adopt by ordinance local subdivision regulations, to promote the public health of the city's residents, provide for orderly safe and healthful development within and surrounding the City. These regulations may be amended by the City Commission from time to time. Local subdivision regulations shall not conflict with provisions of Texas Local Government Code ch. 212, as amended.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
[1]
Editor's note — Former Sec. 21, which pertained to plumbers, was repealed 11/11/1975 by Ordinance 75-44, proposed amendment number 14. Said amendment was approved by a referendum of the electorate 12/9/1975.
The City shall have the power to establish and maintain the City police department, prescribe the qualifications and duties of policemen and regulate their conduct.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to establish, and/or maintain, and/or regulate, the City jail, and such hospitals, public shelters and other charitable institutions as may be deemed expedient by the governing authority.
(Ordinance 75-44, adopted 11/11/1975; Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
[1]
Editor's note — Former Sec. 24, which pertained to prostitutes and bawdy houses, was repealed 11/11/1975 by Ordinance 75-44, proposed amendment number 15. Said amendment was approved by a referendum of the electorate 12/9/1975.
The City shall have the power to provide for the inspection and regulation of the sanitary conditions of all premises and vacant lots within the City limits; for the removal of garbage, sewage, refuse and unsanitary vegetation; to provide for establishing a lien against the property for any expense incurred by the City enforcing this provision and further to provide for the making and enforcing of all proper and reasonable regulations, for the health and sanitation of said the City and its citizens.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power:
To license, tax and regulate all charges or fares made by any person, firm or corporation owning, operating or controlling any vehicle operated for the carriage of passengers or freight for hire, on the public streets of the City.
To regulate the operation of railway trains and street cars operated on, along or across the streets, avenues or alleys of the City; to license and control the operation of automobiles, motorcycles, taxicabs, buses, cabs and carriages and all character of vehicles using the public streets and regulate the use and occupancy of the streets by any vehicles.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
[1]
Editor's note — Former Sec. 27, which pertained to vagrants and beggars, was repealed 11/11/1975 by Ordinance 75-44, proposed amendment number 16. Said amendment was approved by a referendum of the electorate 12/9/1975.
The City shall have the power to provide for the inspection of weights, measures and meters, and fix a standard of such weights, measures and meters, and require conformity of such standards and provide penalties for failure to use or conform to those, and to provide for inspection fees.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to divide the City into zones for the regulation of land use in each zone to establish building lines and to regulate the location, height, dimensions and material of all buildings to be erected, with full power to make different regulations and building lines in different zones and to alter those in the future.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The enumeration of powers made in this Charter shall never be construed to preclude, by implication or otherwise, the City from exercising the powers incident to the enjoyment of local self-government, nor to do any and all things not inhibited by the constitution and laws of the State of Texas except as herein expressly changed or limited in this Charter, the City of Harlingen, and its governing body, shall retain, possess and exercise all powers and privileges heretofore possessed by the City, and its governing body.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
If any part of this Charter shall, for any reason, be declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such judgment shall not affect nor impair the validity of the remaining provisions of the Charter, and those shall continue in full force and effect.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)