By:  Patterson                                         S.B. No. 631
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the authority of a municipality to provide for the
    1-2  repair and assessment of repairs of bulkheads or other structures.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 214.002, Local Government Code, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 214.002.  Requiring Repair, Removal, or Demolition of
    1-7  Building or Other Structure. (a)  If the governing body of a <Type
    1-8  A general-law> municipality finds that a building, bulkhead or
    1-9  other method of shoreline protection, fence, shed, awning, or other
   1-10  structure, or part of a structure, is likely to <fall and> endanger
   1-11  persons or property, the governing body may:
   1-12              (1)  order the owner of the structure, the owner's
   1-13  agent, or the owner or occupant of the property on which the
   1-14  structure is located to repair, remove, or demolish the structure,
   1-15  or the part of the structure, within a specified time; or
   1-16              (2)  repair, remove, or demolish the structure, or the
   1-17  part of the structure, at the expense of the municipality, on
   1-18  behalf of the owner of the structure or the owner of the property
   1-19  on which the structure is located, and assess the repair, removal,
   1-20  or demolition expenses on the property on which the structure was
   1-21  located.
   1-22        (b)  The governing body shall provide by ordinance for:
   1-23              (1)  the assessment of repair, removal, or demolition
   1-24  expenses incurred under Subsection (a)(2);
    2-1              (2)  a method of giving notice of the assessment; and
    2-2              (3)  a method of recovering the expenses.
    2-3        (c)  The governing body may punish by a fine, confinement in
    2-4  jail, or both a person who does not comply with an order issued
    2-5  under Subsection (a)(1).
    2-6        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-11  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-12  passage, and it is so enacted.