Chapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS

Computation of time. Except as otherwise provided in this Code, or in applicable statutes of the state, whenever a notice is required to be given or an act to be done a certain length of time before any proceedings 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 proceedings are to be had shall be counted, unless it is a Sunday or a legal holiday, in which event the period runs until the end of the next day which is neither a Sunday nor a legal holiday.

County. The words "the county" or "this county" shall mean and refer to Bexar County, Texas.

Gender. A word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to females and to firms, partnerships and corporations as well as to males.

Interpretation. In the interpretation and application of any provisions of this Code, it shall be the minimum requirements adopted for the promotion of the public health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare. Where any provision of the Code imposes greater restrictions upon the subject matter than the general provisions imposed by the Code, the provision imposing the greater restriction or regulation shall be deemed to be controlling.

Judge. The word "judge" or any like term, shall be construed to mean a judge (or acting judge) of the municipal court of the City of San Antonio.

Number. A word importing the singular number only may extend and be applied to several persons and things as well as to one (1) person and thing.

Oath. The word "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 words "swear" and "sworn" shall be equivalent to the words "affirm" and "affirmed."

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

Owner. The word "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 word "person" shall extend and be applied to associations, clubs, societies, firms, partnerships and bodies politic and corporate as well as to individuals or groups of individuals.

Personal. property includes every species of property except real property.

Signing. The words "signature" or "subscription" shall include the mark of a person unable to write, witnessed by two (2) witnesses unless otherwise expressly provided.

State. The words "the state" or "this state" shall refer to the State of Texas.

Street. The word "street" shall be construed to embrace streets, avenues, boulevards, drives, roads, alleys, lanes, viaducts and all other public highways in the city.

Tense. Words used in the present or past tense include the future as well as the present or past.

Titles of officials, names of departments. Titles of officials or employees, such as "city manager" or "mayor," and names of departments, such as "police department" or "department of finance" shall be read as if the words "of San Antonio" followed them.

Writing. The words "write" and "written" shall include printing.

(Code 1959, § 1-2)

State law reference— Similar definitions, Vernon's Ann. Civ. St. arts. 10, 23, 5429b-2.

Sec. 1-3. - Certain ordinances not affected by 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 obligations 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;

(5)

Levying or imposing taxes not contained in this Code;

(6)

Establishing or prescribing grades in the city;

(7)

Providing for local improvements and assessing taxes therefor;

(8)

Dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision in the city;

(9)

Extending or contracting the boundaries of the city;

(10)

Prescribing the number, classification, benefits or compensation of any city officers or employees, not inconsistent herewith;

(11)

Dealing with zoning;

(12)

Approving or prescribing rates for garbage collection service or for public utilities;

(13)

Which is temporary although general in effect;

(14)

Which is special although permanent in effect;

(15)

The purpose of which has been accomplished;

(16)

All ordinances in effect upon the effective date of this Code not inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Code which are omitted from this Code.

(b)

All such ordinances enumerated in subsection (a) are hereby 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.

Sec. 1-4. - Catchlines of sections.

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 1959, § 1-4)

Sec. 1-5. - General penalty; continuing violations.

Except for Chapters 5, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19 and Articles III and IV of Chapter 34 and the Unified Development Code [Chapter 35], wherever 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, where no specific penalty is provided therefor, the violation of any such provision of this Code or any such ordinance shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00); however, violations of traffic laws codified in Chapter 19 of the City Code of San Antonio, Texas, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00). Unless otherwise specified therein, violations established by ordinance and made part of the City Code under Chapters 5, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17 and Articles III and IV of Chapter 34 shall be punished by a fine not to exceed two thousand dollars ($2,000.00). Each day's violation of any ordinance or any provision of this City Code shall constitute a separate offense.

(Code 1959, § 1-5; Ord. No. 57452, § 2, 8-18-83; Ord. No. 66109, § 1, 11-19-87; Ord. No. 69740, §§ 1, 2, 6-29-89; Ord. No. 2009-09-17-0731I, § 2, 9-17-09)

Sec. 1-6. - Nonpayment of fine.

In all cases where a fine is imposed by or in the municipal court, in default of immediate payment thereof, the defendant shall be imprisoned in jail, or required to work in the streets or other public works in the city, under the direction of the police, until the fine is paid, allowing fifteen dollars ($15.00) per day until the sum amounts to that of the fine; provided, the defendant may pay the pecuniary fine assessed against him at any time while he is serving at work or while he is serving his jail sentence, and in such instances he shall be entitled to a credit of fifteen dollars ($15.00) for each day or fraction of a day that he has served and shall only be required to pay the balance of the pecuniary fine assessed against him.

(Code 1950, § 1-6; Code 1959, § 1-6)

State law reference— Similar provisions, Vernon's Ann. C.C.P. art. 43.09.

Sec. 1-7. - Excusing prisoner from labor upon certificate of director of public health.

Any prisoner wishing to be excused from labor under section 1-6 shall apply to the director of public health for an examination. The director of public health shall certify as to the fact and if he officially certifies that the prisoner is unable to work, then he shall be excused; provided, the certificate of the director of public health shall not release the prisoner from confinement for the time required to make the sum of the fine, unless the director of public health shall further certify that the imprisonment would cause great bodily injury to, or endanger the life of, the prisoner.

(Code 1950, § 1-8; Code 1959, § 1-8)

Sec. 1-8. - Effect of repeal of ordinances.

The repeal of any prior ordinance of the city by any subsequent ordinance shall not operate to revive the provisions of any ordinance which may have been repealed by such prior ordinance, unless such revival shall be expressly provided for. Ordinances repealed remain in force for the trial and punishment of all past violations of them, and for the recovery of penalties and forfeitures already incurred, and for the preservation of all rights and remedies existing by them and so far as they apply, to any office, trust, proceeding, right, contract or event, already affected by them.

(Code 1959, § 1-10)

Sec. 1-9. - Manner of repeal of ordinances.

No ordinance shall be repealed by any general terms, such as "coming in conflict with any subsequent ordinance," but in all cases the ordinance or section of an ordinance intended to be repealed shall be specifically mentioned and distinguished by the title and date of the same, when practicable, and the number of the section.

(Code 1950, § 1-11; Code 1959, § 1-11)

Sec. 1-10. - Altering Code.

It shall be unlawful for any person in the city to change or amend by additions or deletions, any part or portion of this Code or to insert or delete pages, or portions thereof, or to alter or tamper with such Code in any manner whatsoever except pursuant to ordinance or other official act of the city council, which will cause the law of the city to be misrepresented thereby. Any person violating this section shall be punished as provided in section 1-5.

(Code 1959, § 1-12)

Sec. 1-11. - Amendments to Code; effect of new ordinances; amendatory language.

(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 in this Code. In the case of repealed chapters, sections and subsections or any part thereof, by subsequent ordinances, such repealed portions may be excluded from the Code by omission from reprinted pages affected thereby. 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 re-adopted as a new code of ordinances by the city council.

(b)

Amendments to any of the provisions of this Code may be made by amending such provisions by specific reference to the section number of this Code in the following language:. "Section ;#rule; (subsection ;#rule; or paragraph ;#rule;) of the City Code of San Antonio, Texas, is hereby amended to read as follows: ____________." The new provisions may then be set out in full as desired.

(c)

If a new section not heretofore existing in the Code, is to be added, the following language may be used: "That the City Code of San Antonio, Texas, is hereby amended by adding a section, to be numbered ;#rule;, which such section reads as follows: ____________." The new section may then be set out in full as desired.

(Code 1959, § 1-13)

Charter reference— Enactment of ordinances, § 14 et seq.

Sec. 1-12. - Supplementation of Code—Generally.

(a)

By contract or by city personnel, supplements to this Code shall be prepared and printed whenever authorized or directed by the city council. A supplement to the Code shall include all 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 which 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 section 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 ;#rule; to ;#rule;" (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.

Sec. 1-13. - Same—Exclusion of special or temporary ordinances.

Ordinances hereafter adopted which are not of a general or permanent nature shall be numbered consecutively, authenticated, published and recorded in the book of ordinances, but shall not be prepared for insertion in this Code, nor be deemed a part hereof.

Sec. 1-14. - Violation; aiding or abetting.

It shall be unlawful for any person to cause, secure, aid or abet another person to commit an act prohibited by this Code or by any rule or regulations adopted hereunder. Further, it is unlawful for any person, having parental authority or control over a minor under the age of seventeen (17), to intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence fail to make reasonable effort to prevent the minor from committing an act prohibited by this Code or by any rule or regulation adopted hereunder.

(Code 1959, § 1-14; Ord. No. 81589, § 1, 2-2-95)

Sec. 1-15. - Effective date of ordinances; no emergency clause necessary.

(a)

All ordinances shall become effective upon the date stated in the ordinance; if no date is stated, then the ordinance shall become effective ten (10) days after its passage.

(b)

No emergency clause shall be necessary to make an ordinance effective on the date it is passed and approved, if such ordinance is approved by the council by a vote of eight (8) members of the entire council; provided, any measure making or amending a grant, renewal or extension of a franchise or other special privilege shall not become effective until at least ten (10) day from its passage and approval.

(Ord. No. 17210, § 1, 2-21-52; Code 1959, § 1-15)

Sec. 1-16. - Posting of bonds, type of security required.

(a)

Every person required by ordinance or by this Code to post bond with the city clerk shall post such bond either in cash or by filing with the city clerk a bond executed by a surety company authorized to do business in the state.

(b)

A certificate of deposit issued by a state or national bank located in Bexar County may be accepted in lieu of cash deposit or surety bond to guarantee performance by lessees and contractors under city leases and contracts, provided that such certificates shall not be accepted, where a different type of guarantee is required by statute, the city charter or by federal or state regulations. The certificate of deposit agreement between the city and the lessee or contractor, and accepted by the depository, shall be in form approved by the city attorney, substantially as shown in the form marked Exhibit A which is on file with the city clerk as a permanent record.

(Ord. No. 24227, § 1, 1-10-57; Code 1959, § 1-16; Ord. No. 37874, 9-11-69)

Sec. 1-17. - Severability of parts of Code.

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.

(Code 1959, § 1-3)