By: Madla S.B. No. 432
73R3293 JMM-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the powers and duties of a county bail bond board.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 5, Chapter 550, Acts of the 63rd
1-5 Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 2372p-3, Vernon's Texas
1-6 Civil Statutes), is amended by amending Subsection (f) and adding
1-7 Subsections (g) and (h) to read as follows:
1-8 (f) In addition to the powers and duties given to the County
1-9 Bail Bond Board by this Act, the board has the following powers and
1-10 duties:
1-11 (1) To exercise any powers incidental or necessary to
1-12 the administration of this Act, to supervise and regulate all
1-13 phases of the bonding business and enforce this Act within the
1-14 county, and to prescribe and post any rules necessary to implement
1-15 this Act;
1-16 (2) To conduct hearings and investigations and make
1-17 determinations respecting the issuance, refusal, suspension, or
1-18 revocation of licenses to bondsmen within the provisions of this
1-19 Act and to issue licenses to those applicants who qualify under the
1-20 terms of this Act, to refuse licenses to those applicants who do
1-21 not qualify, and to suspend or revoke the licenses of licensees who
1-22 commit violations under this Act or the rules prescribed by the
1-23 board under this Act;
1-24 (3) To require applicants and licensees to appear
2-1 before the board, and to administer oaths, examine witnesses, and
2-2 compel the production of pertinent books, accounts, records,
2-3 documents, and testimony by the licensee or applicant in its
2-4 hearings;
2-5 (4) To cause tape recordings or <records and>
2-6 transcripts or both to be made of all its proceedings;
2-7 (5) To maintain records and minutes and otherwise
2-8 operate its office affairs;
2-9 (6) To employ such employees to assist the board in
2-10 its functions as necessary;
2-11 (7) To furnish and post in each court in the county
2-12 having jurisdiction of criminal cases and each local official
2-13 responsible for the detention of prisoners in the county with
2-14 current lists of the bondsmen and their agents licensed and
2-15 approved in the county and to notify immediately each court and
2-16 local official when a bondsman's license is suspended or revoked or
2-17 an agent's authority is rescinded; and
2-18 (8) To file reports and furnish information on the
2-19 operation of the bonding business in the county at the request of
2-20 the Texas Judicial Council which shall report annually to the
2-21 governor and the legislature on or before December 1 of each year
2-22 on the operation of the bonding business in the state.
2-23 (g) A county bail bond board shall keep the tape recording
2-24 of a board proceeding until the first anniversary of the date of
2-25 the proceeding. The recording shall be kept by the chairman of the
2-26 board and shall be made available, except as otherwise provided by
2-27 law, for public inspection during normal business hours.
3-1 (h) If a transcript of a proceeding of a county bail bond
3-2 board is caused to be made by the board, an applicant, a license
3-3 holder, or any other party to the proceeding, the person who caused
3-4 the transcript to be made shall pay the cost of the transcript.
3-5 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
3-6 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-7 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-8 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-9 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-10 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-11 passage, and it is so enacted.