By Stiles H.B. No. 1127 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to the authority of a commissioners court to regulate or 1-3 prohibit smoking in county facilities or other county public 1-4 places; providing a penalty. 1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-6 SECTION 1. Chapter 291, Local Government Code, is amended by 1-7 adding Section 291.007 to read as follows: 1-8 Sec. 291.007. COUNTY REGULATION OF SMOKING. (a) The 1-9 commissioners court of a county may regulate or prohibit smoking in 1-10 any county facility or public place owned or leased by the county, 1-11 including the county courthouse or a county office. 1-12 (b) The county commissioners of a county may regulate a 1-13 multipurpose room of the county courthouse to the exclusion of any 1-14 other elected office. "Multipurpose room" is defined to mean any 1-15 room in the courthouse that may be used for more than one purpose. 1-16 (c) A person who violates a regulation or prohibition 1-17 adopted under this section commits an offense. An offense under 1-18 this section is a Class C misdemeanor. 1-19 (d) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that 1-20 the county facility or public place in which the offense takes 1-21 place: 1-22 (1) does not have prominently displayed a reasonably 1-23 sized notice that smoking is prohibited in the facility or public 1-24 place or that explains the smoking regulations applying to the 2-1 facility or public place; or 2-2 (2) does not have accommodations for extinguishment of 2-3 smoking materials. 2-4 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 2-5 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-6 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-7 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-8 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 2-9 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-10 passage, and it is so enacted.