Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 929 amends the Education Code to make regional education service centers and their employees subject to various laws generally applicable to governmental entities, officials, and employees, including laws prohibiting certain political activities by public officials and employees with public funds or resources or in an official capacity, laws regulating conflicts of interest between public officials doing business with entities in which they have substantial interests, and laws governing the use of depositories for public funds. The bill also makes the centers subject to the Texas Sunset Act and provides for their abolition on September 1, 2005, unless they are continued in existence as provided by that act. The bill provides for a review of the centers in conjunction with a review of the Texas Education Agency, and it requires the comptroller to assist the Sunset Advisory Commission in its review by conducting a review of the centers, in consultation with the commission, and to report the results of that review to the commission not later than June 1, 2004.

            The bill establishes limits on school district compensation of a regional education service center for the center's services as a fiscal agent or broker regarding an inter-district agreement. It also requires the comptroller to contract with a consultant for a comprehensive regional education service center audit, establishes specific requirements for the scope of that audit, and requires the comptroller to submit a report on the audit's results to the legislature not later than June 1, 2004.