By:  Ratliff                                          S.B. No. 1449
       73R9884 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the identification of certain city and county vehicles.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 1, Chapter 235, Acts of the 56th
    1-5  Legislature, Regular Session, 1959 (Article 6701m-2, Vernon's Texas
    1-6  Civil Statutes), as amended by Chapters 121 and 1051, Acts of the
    1-7  71st Legislature, Regular Session, 1989, is amended to read as
    1-8  follows:
    1-9        Sec. 1.  On every city or county-owned motor vehicle and
   1-10  piece of heavy equipment, there shall be printed upon each side the
   1-11  name of the city or county, followed in letters that are plainly
   1-12  legible at a distance of not less than 100 feet, the title of the
   1-13  department or official having the custody of the vehicle or piece
   1-14  of heavy equipment, and the inscription shall be in a color
   1-15  sufficiently different from the body of the vehicle or piece of
   1-16  heavy equipment so that the lettering shall be plainly legible, and
   1-17  the official having control thereof shall have the wording placed
   1-18  thereon as prescribed herein, and whoever drives any motor vehicle
   1-19  or piece of heavy equipment belonging to any city or county upon
   1-20  the streets of any town or city or upon a public highway without
   1-21  the inscription printed thereon shall be fined not less than
   1-22  Twenty-five Dollars ($25) nor more than One Hundred Dollars ($100).
   1-23  Provided however, upon approval of the governing body in the case
   1-24  of a city or the approval of the commissioners court in the case of
    2-1  a county, that the provisions of this Section shall not apply to
    2-2  automobiles used by police, sheriffs' and constables' departments,
    2-3  the office of criminal district attorney, district attorney, or
    2-4  county attorney, magistrates as defined by Article 2.09, Code of
    2-5  Criminal Procedure, city or county arson investigators, or juvenile
    2-6  probation department vehicles used to transport children, when used
    2-7  for the purpose of performing official duties.  This exception for
    2-8  unmarked vehicles does not apply to "contract deputies".
    2-9        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-10        SECTION 3.  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.