By: Stiles H.B. No. 1127 73R1261 CAG-D 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) A person who violates a regulation or prohibition 1-13 adopted under this section commits an offense. An offense under 1-14 this section is a Class C misdemeanor. 1-15 (c) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that 1-16 the county facility or public place in which the offense takes 1-17 place: 1-18 (1) does not have prominently displayed a reasonably 1-19 sized notice that smoking is prohibited in the facility or public 1-20 place or that explains the smoking regulations applying to the 1-21 facility or public place; or 1-22 (2) does not have accommodations for extinguishment of 1-23 smoking materials. 1-24 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 2-1 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-2 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-3 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-4 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 2-5 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-6 passage, and it is so enacted.