73R1648 RWS-D
          By Chisum                                              H.B. No. 647
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the sale of real property by municipalities.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Chapter 253, Local Government Code, is amended by
    1-5  adding Section 253.007 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 253.007.  SALE OF REAL PROPERTY BY PUBLIC AUCTION.
    1-7  (a)  The governing body of a municipality may sell real property
    1-8  owned by the municipality by public auction or by sealed bid under
    1-9  Section 272.001.
   1-10        (b)  To sell real property by public auction, the governing
   1-11  body of a municipality shall publish notice of the auction before
   1-12  the 20th day before the date the auction is held.  The notice for
   1-13  sale of the real property must be published once a week for three
   1-14  consecutive weeks before the date the auction is held in a
   1-15  newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the
   1-16  municipality is located and, if the real property is located in
   1-17  another county, in a newspaper of general circulation in the county
   1-18  in which the real property is located.  The notice must include a
   1-19  description of the real property, including its location, and the
   1-20  date, time, and location at which the auction is to be held.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  Section 272.001(a), Local Government Code, is
   1-22  amended to read as follows:
   1-23        (a)  Except for the types of land and interests covered by
   1-24  Subsection (b) or (g) and except as provided by Section 253.007,
    2-1  before land owned by a political subdivision of the state may be
    2-2  sold or exchanged for other land, notice to the general public of
    2-3  the offer of the land for sale or exchange must be published in a
    2-4  newspaper of general circulation in either the county in which the
    2-5  land is located or, if there is no such newspaper, in an adjoining
    2-6  county.  The notice must include a description of the land,
    2-7  including its location, and the procedure by which sealed bids to
    2-8  purchase the land or offers to exchange the land may be submitted.
    2-9  The notice must be published on two separate dates and the sale or
   2-10  exchange may not be made until after the 14th day after the date of
   2-11  the second publication.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-17  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-18  passage, and it is so enacted.