By:  Barrientos                                        S.B. No. 670
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the authority of a commissioners court to delegate
    1-2  authority to make traffic safety decisions in certain counties.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 2.301, County Road and
    1-5  Bridge Act (Article 6702-1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is
    1-6  amended by amending Subdivision (2) and adding Subdivision (3) to
    1-7  read as follows:
    1-8              (2)  Except as provided by Subdivision (3) of this
    1-9  subsection, the <The> commissioners court shall hold a public
   1-10  hearing before issuing any traffic regulation under this Act.  The
   1-11  court shall give advance notice of the proposed regulation by
   1-12  publishing notice of the hearing in a newspaper of general
   1-13  circulation in the county.  The notice must be published not later
   1-14  than the seventh day or earlier than the 30th day before the day of
   1-15  the hearing.
   1-16              (3)  A commissioners court in a county with a
   1-17  population of more than 500,000, according to the most recent
   1-18  federal census, may delegate any function of the commissioners
   1-19  court under this section to the county engineer or another employee
   1-20  capable of performing the function.  The action of the person in
   1-21  carrying out the delegated function has the same effect as if it
   1-22  were the action of the commissioners court.  Before issuing a
   1-23  traffic regulation under this Act the commissioners court of such a
   1-24  county, as an alternative to publishing any notice required by law
    2-1  other than this Act, may conspicuously post notice of the proposed
    2-2  regulation by sign at any location affected by the proposed
    2-3  regulation.  The commissioners court is not required to hold a
    2-4  public hearing before the regulation is issued unless a resident of
    2-5  the county, in writing, requests the hearing before the eighth day
    2-6  after the later of the date of the publication of the notice, if
    2-7  any, or the date of the posting of the sign.  If a hearing is
    2-8  requested, the commissioners court may not delegate the duty to
    2-9  hold the hearing.
   2-10        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-15  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-16  passage, and it is so enacted.