S.B. No. 695
AN ACT
1-1 relating to powers and duties of certain municipal hospital
1-2 authorities, including the power to have municipalities issue bonds
1-3 on their behalf.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 262, Health and Safety
1-6 Code, is amended by adding Section 262.035 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 262.035. POWERS AND DUTIES OF CERTAIN HOSPITAL
1-8 AUTHORITIES; LEASE. (a) This section applies only to an authority
1-9 created in a county with a population of at least 350,000 in which
1-10 a hospital district is not located.
1-11 (b) A municipality may lease to an authority subject to this
1-12 section all or part of a hospital and any other health facilities
1-13 owned by the municipality. The lease may provide that the
1-14 municipality may retain during the term of the lease specified
1-15 rights relating to the operation of the authority and the
1-16 facilities leased from the municipality. The lease may provide
1-17 that:
1-18 (1) the municipality may retain the power to appoint
1-19 all directors of the authority, notwithstanding Section 262.012;
1-20 (2) the authority is required to perform specified
1-21 health care services on behalf of the municipality;
1-22 (3) the municipality may agree to fund specified
1-23 health care services;
1-24 (4) the authority is prohibited from eliminating or
2-1 curtailing specified health care services offered at the facilities
2-2 leased from the municipality without prior consultation with or the
2-3 approval of the municipality;
2-4 (5) the authority is prohibited from subletting the
2-5 facilities leased from the municipality or assigning its rights
2-6 under the lease for a total term of more than five years, or
2-7 entering into a management contract for the operation of the
2-8 facilities leased from the municipality as a whole, or pledging the
2-9 authority's revenues derived from the operation of the facilities
2-10 leased from the municipality, without prior consultation with or
2-11 the approval of the municipality;
2-12 (6) the board may be subject to any ethics or conflict
2-13 of interest ordinance applicable to other sovereign city boards and
2-14 commissions adopted by the municipality and any goals for hiring
2-15 and contracting with minorities or women adopted by and for the
2-16 municipality;
2-17 (7) the authority will comply with Chapter 252, Local
2-18 Government Code, relating to purchasing and contracts;
2-19 (8) the municipality may issue general obligation
2-20 bonds for the use and benefit of the authority;
2-21 (9) an authority and its employees may participate in
2-22 the municipality's employee retirement plan, employee health plans,
2-23 and other employee benefit plans; and
2-24 (10) the lease may contain other terms and conditions
2-25 that the municipality and authority agree on and which are not
2-26 prohibited by law or by the constitution.
2-27 (c) If the municipality retains in the lease the right to
3-1 appoint all members of the board, the municipality may remove the
3-2 entire board or any member of the board at any time with cause.
3-3 The municipality may remove the board or a member of the board
3-4 under this subsection only after reasonable written notice to the
3-5 board or board members and on the affirmative vote of a majority of
3-6 the members of the governing body of the municipality.
3-7 (d) For purposes of Chapters 101 and 102, Civil Practice and
3-8 Remedies Code, a municipal hospital authority subject to this
3-9 section is a unit of local government and not a municipality.
3-10 (e) An authority subject to this section is subject to the
3-11 open meetings law, Chapter 271, Acts of the 60th Legislature,
3-12 Regular Session, 1967 (Article 6252-17, Vernon's Texas Civil
3-13 Statutes), and the open records law, Chapter 424, Acts of the 63rd
3-14 Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 6252-17a, Vernon's
3-15 Texas Civil Statutes).
3-16 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
3-17 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-18 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-19 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-20 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-21 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-22 passage, and it is so enacted.