§ 14-45. General prohibitions.
(a)
Violation; penalty. It shall be unlawful for a person to intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly do or perform any act prohibited hereby, and it is an offense for a person to fail to do or perform any act required hereby. Each day's violation hereof shall constitute a separate offense. Upon conviction, any violation hereof shall be punished as provided in section 1-5 of this Code, except that any person, firm, corporation or agent or employee thereof who violates any of the provisions of section 14-46 and 14-47 shall be fined an amount not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) and not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000.00). However, in the event a defendant has once previously been convicted under this article, the defendant shall be fined an amount no less than two hundred dollars ($200.00) and shall be fined no less than three hundred dollars ($300.00) for a third conviction and for each conviction thereafter. Should the court impose a fine in excess of five hundred dollars ($500.00), the finder of fact must find that the offense was committed knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly.
(b)
Unfranchised residential collection prohibited. Except for private, residential garbage collection service which may be provided to dwellings which are exempted under subsection 14-30(d), it shall be unlawful for a person to provide or attempt to provide garbage collections service within the city to dwellings of the type enumerated in subsection 14-30(a) without first obtaining from the city a franchise to conduct such business on public streets.
(c)
Tampering with and defacing containers.
(1)
It shall be unlawful for any person, other than one legally authorized by the director, to remove, displace, injure, deface, destroy, uncover, or in any manner remove, withdraw, or disturb any part or portion of the contents.
(2)
It shall be unlawful for any person to tamper with, injure, or deface any collection system or collection container for solid waste in the city.
(d)
Placement of public refuse containers. It shall be unlawful for a person to place public trash containers upon the streets, plazas, parks and other public property of the city for the reception of such trash without the consent of the city given by the director.
(e)
Scavenge or salvage. It shall be unlawful for any person to scavenge or salvage refuse, recyclables, or organics without written consent of the director or without written consent of the generator of the solid waste or recyclables.
(f)
Placement. It shall be unlawful for the owner of a vehicle to park a vehicle within three (3) feet of a collection container on collection day.
(g)
Cul-de-sacs. It shall be illegal for vehicles to be parked head-in in a cul-de-sac so as to impede collection on collection day. Because head-in cul-de-sac parking blocks collection containers, limiting access or preventing collection, collection will not be provided when such is the case. Vehicles parked in a cul-de-sac shall be parked parallel with the flow of traffic with both front and back wheels on the passenger side within eighteen (18) inches of the curb.
(h)
Non-compliant loads. The city shall not provide solid waste collection services if one (1) or more of these conditions occur:
(1)
Loads placed for collection which do not meet requirements as set out by this chapter will not be serviced by the city and will be the responsibility of the owner, manager, tenant or occupant of any dwelling, building or premises to correct the situation immediately.
(2)
It shall be unlawful for any person to place for collection by the city any earth, rock, gravel, construction and demolition materials, or other prohibited waste. Debris generated as a result of land-clearing is prohibited.
(3)
It shall be unlawful for any person to place broken glass, ashes, or manure in any container without first wrapping materials securely in paper or some other type of non-combustible material. These materials must be placed in the refuse container and not the recycling container.
(4)
No large metal machinery or automotive parts will be collected.
(5)
It shall be unlawful for any person to place for collection by the city any liquids in containers.
(6)
It shall be unlawful for any person to place syringes from home health care in any refuse container without first securely enclosing them in a sealed canister or bottle. Syringes shall not be placed in recycling or organics containers.
(7)
It shall be unlawful for any person to place in a recycling or organics container for collection by the city any item other than those items listed as acceptable materials for the respective program.
(8)
After having provided notice to offending resident, enforcement options available for chronic violators of recycling and organics collection program requirements include, but are not limited to:
a.
Non-collection with no reduction in fees.
b.
Removal of recycling or organics collection container, with no reduction in fees.
c.
Provision of additional refuse container(s) and assessment of additional monthly fee(s).
d.
Assessment of a fee in the form of a recycling or organics non-compliance contamination fee, or a non-compliance diaper contamination fee, depending on the type of contamination in the recycling or organics container, in the amount as provided in section 14-30, per occurrence.
(9)
It shall be unlawful for any person living outside the city limits to bring garbage in to the city for collection by city crews.
(10)
It shall be unlawful for any person to place at or near curbside or to allow to remain at curbside any waste, regardless of character, for collection, intended collection, or to place or allow any such waste to rest or remain at or near curbside for purposes of temporary storage, regardless of disposal intent, which material rests or remains at or near curbside in excess of any 48-hour period, inclusive of weekends and holidays. It shall be an affirmative defense to a violation of this prohibition that the responsible person placed the material at or near curbside or allowed the material to rest or remain there in response to official written notice from the city that instructed such waste placement in comportment with a designated or specially scheduled city collection event (e.g., the city's brush and bulky waste collection program).
(11)
It shall be unlawful for anyone other than the person who has control of the premises who has been issued city containers to place materials in said person's containers.
(12)
It shall be unlawful for anyone other than the city to remove automated containers from the address they were issued.
(i)
The director of the solid waste management department or his designee, director of public works, director of code enforcement services, and the director of the Metropolitan Health District have authority and discretion to direct collection and disposal of otherwise impermissible waste left at or near curbside in violation of this chapter when in the respective judgment of any one of them, the public health, safety or welfare requires removal and legal disposal of such waste, and in such case the responsible party, deemed to be the owner of the property benefitted or person in control of the premises, shall pay the city its reasonable costs for loading, transport, and due disposal of the material plus an administrative fee of ten (10) percent which administrative fee is here deemed reasonable and necessary due to the small and irregular volumes of individual waste to be addressed by this provision for benefit of the health, safety, and welfare, and for which volumes economies of scale and schedule will not be possible. (This fee is separate and independent of any other fees recited in this chapter.) Any such costs may include testing and/or analysis of material necessary to its safe and legal disposal. Even if such tests show a benign character capable of disposal as municipal solid waste or household hazardous waste, the benefitted property owner or responsible person shall be responsible for such charges when in the opinion of any of the directors referenced above, such testing was necessary to verify worker safety or legal options for disposal or any other health or safety concern of the city official. Costs for such extraordinary city services may and shall attach as a lien to the benefitted property when perfected according to law under such conditions as state law may allow under authority of the Texas Health and Safety Code and as further authorized by this Code at subsection 14-65(b) et seq., and section 14-64, for issuance of service to fix a lien.
(j)
It is the affirmative duty of any person responsible for solid waste to ensure and perform legal disposal of solid waste. Persons responsible for solid waste are property owners, tenants/occupants, or generators. Persons alleged to be in violation of this chapter must present to the judge or trier of fact a true and credible receipt from a duly licensed and regulated landfill or disposal facility to demonstrate the waste in question has been legally and properly disposed according to its character (type of material).
(k)
No collection in alleys. It shall be unlawful for any person to place brush, bulky waste or any form of debris in alleys.
(l)
Refusing material for disposal, deposit, or recycling. The director or the director's authorized representative, shall have the right to refuse acceptance of any material for disposal or deposit for recycling at any city-owned facility when, in his/her opinion, such material poses by its nature a threat to the health and safety of any employee, may result in pollution of the environment, pose a detriment to the site, or violate state operation permits as a result of its disposal or deposit in facility or site area. This discretionary authority pertains to any city operated facility, including, but not limited to, brush recycling facilities, the city's household hazardous waste site(s), and any other fixed or temporary sites used by the city for purposes of solid waste management.
(m)
It shall be unlawful for the owner, manager, tenant or occupant of any premises or building within the city, or the agent or employee of any such person to place, allow or suffer to remain after it has been emptied by the city or city's contractor, any container for solid waste, rubbish, or trash in, on, or about any street, plaza, park, sidewalk, or other public place, except in an alley in the rear of such premises.
(Ord. No. 2010-11-04-0955, § 1(Att. I), 11-4-10; Ord. No. 2013-01-31-0079, § 1, 1-31-13; Ord. No. 2015-09-10-0760 , § 1, 9-10-15; Ord. No. 2018-03-29-0204 , § 1, 3-29-18)