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Ordinance Library

The City's ordinances, resolutions and addenda that we hold, posted as we hold them and searchable.

About This Library

These are the City of Hawk Cove ordinances, resolutions and addenda we hold, posted as we hold them. Search by number, title, date, or any word in the text.

The pages were photographed or scanned. Marks that are not the City's, such as handwriting, notes and stickers, were covered in grey; nothing else was changed. Some copies are partial or unsigned, and each is tagged that way in its row. Numbers we do not hold are listed under Missing Ordinances.

Council members, please note: the City’s own records are open to you only during office hours, in writing, one member at a time, for one supervised hour, after you surrender your phone, and the City keeps a copy of your notes. Read the eight rules the Council wrote for itself. Everyone else may read this library any time, unsupervised, with their phone in hand.

What Council Members Are Not Allowed to Do

Every rule below is quoted from an ordinance in this library, with its section and a link to the page. The Council is elected. These are the things the Council’s own ordinances say it may not do. For what the City Administrator may do, see How Much Power the City Administrator Has.

  1. May not try to defund or interfere with the police. The Council wrote that the ordinance is meant to provide for “preventing any attempt to disband, remove, defund or interfere with City’s police department providing City with these necessary protections” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.8, recitals), and “The above recitals are hereby found to be true and correct and are incorporated herein for all purposes” (§1). “Any Council or governing body member who attempts or causes any attempt to prevent, obstruct or interfere with, City’s emergency and police services resulting under this ordinance, or in any way violates this ordinance, shall be subject to criminal prosecution and/or all available and applicable civil remedies” (§9). Section 8 adds that each act “shall be punishable by criminal prosecution and/or civil action pursuant to the laws of the State of Texas, which may include, among others: property liens; fines; fees; or imprisonment” (§8). The ordinance does not use the words “police budget.” It uses the word “defund.” We have not found another ordinance on the subject.
  2. May not lower utility rates. Or taxes. The Council “shall increase the rate or rates of, but shall not decrease, City’s utilities and taxes” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.6, §6). Rates and taxes may go up. See Fee Schedule and Finances.
  3. May not get in the way of paying for the sewer system. “Council shall not unreasonably withhold approval for, or interfere in any way with: funding or payment for any costs, expenses or payable amounts connected to or related in any way with the System, City’s obligations and conditions under City’s debt contract with the U.S.D.A.; or Administrator’s supervision, maintenance, repair or replacement of the System” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.7, §10).
  4. May not pass anything that conflicts with the USDA debt contract. “Council shall enact no ordinance, resolution, regulation, policy, section, subsection, article, paragraph, sentence, clause, phrase, words or procedure in any way violating the mandatory laws of the State of Texas, or City’s debt contract with the U.S.D.A.” about the sewer system’s “mandatory operations, management and financial (e.g., debt, debt repayment or debt structure) requirements” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.7, §3). We have not been given the debt contract.
  5. May not decide what goes on its own agenda. The City Administrator has “the sole right, responsibility, duty and final authority of determining any and all items to be placed on Agendas for City Council Regular, Special and Executive meetings” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.2, §3). The Council may make “recommendations,” and “City and Council shall not require agenda items that are not in the best interest of City; are subjective in nature; serve officers’ personal agendas; or that lead to or cause legal liability for City” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.1, §7).
  6. May not hire, fire or give orders to City staff. “Neither the Council nor any of its committees or members shall dictate or attempt to dictate any person’s appointment to, employment of or removal from, office or employment by City’s Administrator or any of City’s Administrator’s subordinates,” and no Council member “shall give orders to any of the subordinates of City’s Administrator in those departments, either publicly or privately” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.1, §4; the same rule appears in Ord. No. 2023-05-31.3, §5).
  7. May not talk to City staff, except through the Administrator. “Except as is governed by City’s ordinances, the Council and its members shall communicate with City’s Administrative Personnel solely through City’s Administrator” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.3, §5).
  8. May not contact anyone the City does business with. “Contact with Contractors by any City officer, including any member of the City’s governing body, is prohibited,” except the Mayor, Administrator, Secretary, Attorney and Prosecutor (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.4, §4). “Contractors” includes “all past, present, or prospective entities, business vendors, business candidates and similar contacts — and particularly governmental entities” (recitals). Council members “shall not contact any Contractor in person, or by or through any other person,” by any means, including “message; note; voice; letter; e-mail; petition; post; telephone; text; social media,” “unless such contact is expressly permitted through a written request and joint written authorization by both the City Mayor and the City Administrator” (§5).
  9. May not contact anyone about the sewer system. “No member of the Council may, nor shall any member of the Council, contact any governmental entity, private or public contractor, or any person in connection with or relating to System, whether by or through any other person, any form or medium of communication or in any manner whatsoever” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.7, §7).
  10. May not act alone. “No Council member has any authority to conduct City’s business other than at a properly noticed meeting of the entire governing body. Attempts to work independently of the governing body obviate good governance” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.5, §7).
  11. May not share City records with anyone, ever. “Other than with the Council during the next Regular, Special or Executive meeting, a Council member shall not, at any time, use, disseminate, share, or in any way publish or distribute, any portions or subjects of notes or any of City’s records and information to or with any person or entity, by any means or method, including personally, on any social platform, by any medium or contact, including by telephone, e-mail, or any and all other means, methods or communications” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.5, §16).
  12. May not share them after leaving office, either. “When no longer a Council member, a former Council member shall not, at any time, use, disseminate, share, or otherwise publish or distribute” those notes, records or information “without limitation, for any reason, to any person or entity or, by any medium, platform or contact” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.5, §17). Records must be returned “not later than the tenth (10th) day after the date the Council, the City’s Administrator or the City’s Secretary requests” them (§17).
  13. May not use City information for anyone’s private interest. “A Council member may not use any City information acquired in the Council member’s course of official Council duties and/or official capacity, for any purpose advancing any person’s or entity’s private or individual interest, including in any form of social media or contact” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.5, §8).
  14. May not look like they have authority. Council members “shall not use any form of identification that represents, states, implies or suggests that the Council member has any authority as a Council member,” including “a signature block; business card; letterhead; stamp; return address; e-mail address; or social media account” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.5, §6).
  15. May not use the Council e-mail to request records. “No Council member may use this account for the Council member’s personal records requests: such requests are outside the scope of Council members’ official authorizations or duties” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.5, §5).
  16. May not see City records alone, after hours, or for more than an hour. “A Council member shall not have private or unsupervised access to any of City’s information and records. One Council member at a time may have supervised access to City’s information and records, for up to one hour at a time” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.5, §12). The other access rules (office hours only, three ways to ask, signed non-disclosure agreements, phones surrendered, notes photocopied) are quoted in full on Request Public Information.
  17. May not take a copy. “A Council member shall not, at any time, photocopy, photograph, reproduce or remove, in any manner or by any means, any of City’s original, or any unredacted copies of, information and/or records” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.5, §14).
  18. May not act as a Council member until the sitting Council is done checking. Before new members are sworn in, the sitting Council or its investigators “shall have not less than thirty (30) days from the date of any such election in which to begin investigation,” and the investigation “may continue for so long as the Investigator/s continue to collect information, materials and witnesses relating to Election Wrongdoing” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.9, §6). “No Candidate shall have any authority, ability, obligation or duty to” act for the Council until all qualifications are met (§8).
  19. May not change any of this without every vote. Changing or repealing these ordinances “shall require the unanimous vote of all five (5) voting members of the Council at a properly-noticed official Council meeting” (for example Ord. No. 2023-05-31.1, §2; 2023-05-31.8, §2). Ordinance 2023-05-31.5 requires “a unanimous vote of four (4) voting members, with all five (5) voting members of the Council in attendance” (§2). To vote on it, it must be on the agenda (item 5).
  20. The Mayor may not run the City day to day. “The Mayor shall not initiate, oversee, manage, or regulate the day-to-day operations of the City” (Ord. No. 04-102, §2).
Penalty: in Ordinances 2023-05-31.3 through 2023-05-31.9, a fine “not to exceed Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00)” per violation, and “Each separate violation hereof shall be deemed a separate offense” (for example Ord. No. 2023-05-31.5, §21). Our copies of the 2023-05-31 ordinances are unsigned and the adoption date is blank. Ordinance 04-102 is a partial copy.

All Ordinances

No.TitleDateStatusPDF

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Missing Ordinances

These numbers are not in the library. The City is welcome to send us a copy of any of them, in whole or in part.

Cited in documents we hold, but not held
  • Ordinance 1028-003 — Replaced in its entirety by 2023-05-31.1
  • Ordinance 02-104 — Repealed by 04-108 (office of Marshal)
  • Ordinance 03-101 — The fencing ordinance that the 2013 addenda amend
  • Ordinance 05-100 — The set-backs ordinance that five addenda amend
  • Ordinance 05-103 — Cited by 2023-05-31.6 as the City's debt contract ordinance
  • Ordinance 2015-004 — Cited in handwriting on the copies of 100-12 and 04-102 we hold; not held
  • Ordinance 2015-006 — Commercial signs. Only a receipt is held
  • Ordinance 2017-001 — Cited elsewhere; not held
  • Ordinance 2020-004 — Code of conduct for elected officials; cited by 2023-05-31.4
  • Ordinance 2020-005 — Cited by 2023-05-31.4 and 2023-05-31.5
  • Ordinance 2023-05-18.1 — Established the office of City Administrator; cited by 2023-05-31.2
Gaps in the numbering
  • 100-1 through 100-4 — Not held
  • 100-6 through 100-10 — Not held
  • 100-14 through 100-18 — Not held
  • 02-100, 02-102 — Not held
  • 03-102 — Not held; one election order has an unclear handwritten number that may read 03-100
  • 04-101, 04-103 through 04-107 — Not held
  • 05-104 — Not held
  • 2012 through 2014 — No numbered ordinance held; the 2013 fencing addenda are held
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