Removal of employees.
Houston City Charter, art. V-a, § 3
in effectSec. 3. - Removal of employees.
Any employee may be suspended by the head of the department under which he is employed, and thereupon his salary shall cease. The officer making the order of suspension shall forthwith file with the civil service commission a statement of the suspension and his reasons therefor. Within ten days after such suspension the employee so suspended may, if he desires, file an appeal with the civil service commission which shall hold a hearing and render a decision in writing within thirty days after it receives the appeal as to whether the employee shall be permanently dismissed from the service of the city, or reinstated in his employment. All such hearings shall be public; the decision of the commission shall be final. In order for an employee to file an appeal as hereinbefore provided it shall only be necessary for him to file a written statement showing in what department he was employed, when and for what he was suspended and a statement by him denying the truth of the matters charged in the statement of the officer so suspending him, and that he desires an appeal from the decision of said officer suspending him, which statement of appeal shall be signed and sworn to by the employee so suspended. In all hearings on appeal from the order of suspension to the civil service commission, the judgment of the officer suspending the employee shall be presumed to be correct; the burden of disproving the charges made against the employee that resulted in his removal shall be upon the employee. (Added by amendment October 15, 1913; amended August 14, 1982)
Source: City of Houston, Code of Ordinances and City Charter (Municode Library, library.municode.com)URL: https://library.municode.com/tx/houston/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=CH_ARTV-ACISE_S3REEMFetched: 10/26/2026