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Senate Bill 2552 |
Senate Author: Hinojosa |
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Effective: See below |
House Sponsor: Canales |
Senate Bill 2552 repeals Special District Local Laws Code provisions that provide for the governance of the Agua Special Utility District by a board of seven directors that are elected to represent specified municipalities and elected at large to represent the part of the district not included in those municipalities. The bill amends the Special District Local Laws Code to effectively replace those provisions with provisions providing for the governance of the district by a board of seven directors, each of whom occupies a numbered position on the board and represents a unique subdistrict containing one-seventh of the total number of district residents. These provisions of the bill take effect December 31, 2019.
Senate Bill 2552 requires a director to file the applicable personal financial statement required of state officers with the Texas Ethics Commission and creates a Class B misdemeanor offense for a director who fails to file the statement. The bill establishes that a director, in connection with a vote or decision by the board, is considered to have a substantial interest in a business entity if a person related to the director within the third degree by consanguinity or affinity has a substantial interest in the business entity. The bill establishes grounds for removal of a director from the board and prohibited conduct for directors and district employees. The bill requires the board to employ a person with prior experience and training as general manager and sets out provisions relating to the general manager, including provisions specifying duties of the general manager. The bill sets out conditions under which a person is ineligible to serve as a director or general manager of the district. The bill requires the district to establish and post on the district's website a database of district check register reports and sets a deadline by which the district is required to publish its annual audit on its website. Except as otherwise provided, the bill takes effect September 1, 2019.