By:  Naishtat                                         H.B. No. 1988
       73R5614 DWS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to public hearings about, and the authority of a
    1-3  commissioners court to delegate authority to make, traffic safety
    1-4  decisions in certain counties.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 2.301(a)(2), County Road and Bridge Act
    1-7  (Article 6702-1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read
    1-8  as follows:
    1-9              (2)  A commissioners court in a county with a
   1-10  population of more than 500,000, according to the most recent
   1-11  federal census, may delegate any function of the commissioners
   1-12  court under this section to the county engineer or another employee
   1-13  capable of performing the function.  The action of the person in
   1-14  carrying out the delegated function has the same effect as if it
   1-15  were the action of the commissioners court.  <The commissioners
   1-16  court shall hold a public hearing before issuing any traffic
   1-17  regulation under this Act.  The court shall give advance notice of
   1-18  the proposed regulation by publishing notice of the hearing in a
   1-19  newspaper of general circulation in the county.  The notice must be
   1-20  published not later than the seventh day or earlier than the 30th
   1-21  day before the day of the hearing.>
   1-22        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-3  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-4  passage, and it is so enacted.