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Senate Bill 917 |
Senate Author: Wentworth |
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Effective: 6-17-11 |
House Sponsor: Miller, Doug |
Senate Bill 917 amends the Health and Safety Code to repeal the statutes governing emergency services districts in counties of 125,000 or less. The bill converts such a district into a district governed by the statutes relating to all emergency services districts and provides for the continuing service of an emergency services commissioner of a converted district.
Senate Bill 917 requires the commissioners court of each county with a population of three million or less in which a proposed emergency services district is located, if the territory of the proposed district overlaps with the boundaries of another existing district, to send to the board of emergency services commissioners of the existing district a copy of the petition for creation of the proposed district. The board is required to adopt a statement before the date of the confirmation election that specifies the types of emergency services the existing district will provide or continue to provide in the overlapping territory if the proposed district is created. The bill revises the prohibition related to the provision of duplicate services by the most recently created district. The bill authorizes a person to serve as an emergency services commissioner of a district at the same time that the person serves as an emergency services commissioner of another district with overlapping territory.
The bill specifies that two or more districts may consolidate, rather than merge, into a single district and requires the board of each district, before consolidation, to determine that consolidation would allow the districts to provide services more economically and efficiently. The bill establishes provisions relating to the appointment of commissioners to the board of the consolidated district if the board does not make the appointments before a specified date, revises procedures related to an election for the consolidation of districts, and establishes provisions relating to the property tax rates for a consolidated district.
The bill prohibits an emergency services district from regulating the sale, use, or transportation of fireworks but authorizes a district to adopt a rule relating to fireworks that is the same as or less stringent than certain rules adopted or enforced by the commissioner of insurance and the state fire marshal.
The bill establishes provisions requiring an emergency services commissioner to complete at least six hours of continuing education at least once in a two-year period and authorizing the board of emergency services commissioners to contract with a local government to provide necessary staff, facilities, equipment, programs, or services.
The bill revises provisions relating to the removal of appointed board members and authorizes the removal of elected board members under specified provisions of the Local Government Code. The bill establishes, in provisions relating to the audit of certain districts, the condition under which a president and treasurer of a board are removed from the board. The bill prohibits a board from setting the property tax rate for a fiscal year before the date the board adopts a budget for that fiscal year. The bill makes provisions relating to a district election regarding the approval of bonds and notes inapplicable to a secured loan for real property or emergency services equipment, including a loan made before the bill's effective date.