By Brimer                                             H.B. No. 2513
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to removal of certain district and county officers.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 87.013, Local Government Code, is amended
    1-5  by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (c) and (d) to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  An officer may be removed for:
    1-8              (1)  incompetency;
    1-9              (2)  official misconduct; <or>
   1-10              (3)  intoxication on or off duty caused by drinking an
   1-11  alcoholic beverage; or
   1-12              (4)  absence from the district or county, as
   1-13  applicable, as provided by Subsection (c).
   1-14        (b)  Intoxication is not a ground for removal if it appears
   1-15  at the trial that the intoxication was caused by drinking an
   1-16  alcoholic beverage on the direction and prescription of a licensed
   1-17  physician practicing in this state.
   1-18        (c)  An officer is absent from the district or county, as
   1-19  applicable, if the officer is not continuously and without
   1-20  interruption present in the district or county, except for absences
   1-21  from the district or county of 15 or fewer days a month.  This
   1-22  subsection does not apply to sickness or vacation.
   1-23        (d)  Subsections (a)(4) and (c) do not supercede Section
    2-1  87.043.
    2-2        SECTION 2.  This Act applies to a district or county officer
    2-3  who is absent from the district or county, as applicable, for the
    2-4  requisite period after the effective date of this Act.
    2-5        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-10  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-11  passage, and it is so enacted.