H.B. No. 822
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to municipal civil service and the validation of
    1-3  government acts and proceedings regarding certain civil service
    1-4  systems.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 143.002, Local Government Code, is
    1-7  amended to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 143.002.  Municipalities Covered by Chapter.  This
    1-9  chapter applies only to a municipality:
   1-10              (1)  that:
   1-11                    (A) <(1)>  has a population of 10,000 or more;
   1-12                    (B) <(2)>  has a paid fire department and police
   1-13  department; and
   1-14                    (C) <(3)>  has voted to adopt this chapter or the
   1-15  law codified by this chapter; or
   1-16              (2)  whose election to adopt this chapter and whose
   1-17  acts subsequent to that election were validated by the law enacted
   1-18  by House Bill 822, Acts of the 73rd Legislature, Regular Session,
   1-19  1993.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  (a)  The governmental acts and proceedings of a
   1-21  municipality relating to an election to adopt a civil service
   1-22  system under Subchapter A, Chapter 143, Local Government Code, that
   1-23  was held before January 1, 1993, and at which time the municipality
   1-24  did not have a paid fire department and police department are
    2-1  validated as of the dates they occurred.  The validation includes
    2-2  the preparation and wording of the ballot proposition, any action
    2-3  taken by the municipality in calling and holding the election, and
    2-4  any other action taken by the municipality before the effective
    2-5  date of this Act in connection with the civil service commission
    2-6  appointed after the election.  The acts and proceedings may not be
    2-7  held invalid because they were not performed in accordance with
    2-8  law.  A municipality may take any further action or may conduct any
    2-9  further proceeding necessary to complete the actions taken by the
   2-10  civil service commission that was appointed after the election, and
   2-11  any actions taken by the municipality or the civil service
   2-12  commission are valid and binding on the municipality and the civil
   2-13  service commission.
   2-14        (b)  This section does not apply to any matter that on the
   2-15  effective date of this Act:
   2-16              (1)  is involved in litigation if the litigation
   2-17  ultimately results in the matter being held invalid by a final
   2-18  judgment in a court of competent jurisdiction; or
   2-19              (2)  has been held invalid by a final judgment of a
   2-20  court of competent jurisdiction.
   2-21        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-25  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-26  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-27  passage, and it is so enacted.