By Uher                                                H.B. No. 335
       74R220 DRH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the period for filing a petition for a place on the
    1-3  ballot for the board of directors of the Sweeny Hospital District.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 3, Chapter 135, Acts of the 58th
    1-6  Legislature, Regular Session, 1963, is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 3.  Within ten (10) days after such election is held the
    1-8  election judges shall convene and canvass the returns of the
    1-9  election, and if a majority of the qualified property taxpaying
   1-10  electors voting at said election voted in favor of the proposition,
   1-11  they shall so find and declare the hospital district established
   1-12  and created and O. K. Hitchcock, Earl Wells, Bobby W. Brown, George
   1-13  Sparkman and Roy Walby shall be the directors of the district to
   1-14  serve until the first Saturday in April following the creation and
   1-15  establishment of the district at which time five (5) directors
   1-16  shall be elected.  The three (3) directors receiving the highest
   1-17  vote at such first election shall serve for two (2) years, the
   1-18  other two (2) directors shall serve for one (1) year.  On the
   1-19  effective date of this amendment, the board of directors shall
   1-20  appoint two (2) new members to the board, one (1) to serve until
   1-21  the first Saturday in April, 1974, and one (1) to serve until the
   1-22  first Saturday in April, 1975.  Thereafter, all directors shall
   1-23  serve for a period of two (2) years and until their successor has
   1-24  been duly elected or appointed and qualified.  No person shall be
    2-1  appointed or elected as a member of the board of directors of said
    2-2  hospital district unless he is a resident thereof and unless at the
    2-3  time of such election or appointment he shall be more than
    2-4  twenty-one (21) years of age.  Each member of the board of
    2-5  directors shall qualify by executing the constitutional oath of
    2-6  office and shall execute a good and sufficient bond for One
    2-7  Thousand Dollars ($1,000) payable to said district conditioned upon
    2-8  the faithful performance of his duties, and such oaths and bonds
    2-9  shall be deposited with the depository bank of the district for
   2-10  safekeeping.
   2-11        The board of directors shall organize by electing one (1) of
   2-12  their number as president and one (1) of their number as secretary.
   2-13  Any four (4) members of the board of directors shall constitute a
   2-14  quorum and a concurrence of four (4) shall be sufficient in all
   2-15  matters pertaining to the business of the district.   All vacancies
   2-16  in the office of director shall be filled for the unexpired term by
   2-17  appointment of the remainder of the board of directors.  In the
   2-18  event the number of directors shall be reduced to less than four
   2-19  (4) for any reason, the remaining directors shall immediately call
   2-20  a special election to fill said vacancies, and upon failure to do
   2-21  so a district court may, upon application of any voter or taxpayer
   2-22  of the district, issue a mandate requiring that such election be
   2-23  ordered by the remaining directors.
   2-24        A regular election of directors shall be held on the first
   2-25  Saturday in May <April> of each year and notice of such election
   2-26  shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the
   2-27  county one (1) time at least ten (10) days prior to the date of
    3-1  election.  Any person desiring his name to be printed on the ballot
    3-2  as a candidate for director shall file a petition, signed by not
    3-3  less than twenty-five (25) qualified voters asking that such name
    3-4  be printed on the ballot, with the secretary of the board of
    3-5  directors of the district.  Such petition shall be filed with such
    3-6  secretary not later than 5 p.m. of the 45th day before <at least
    3-7  twenty-five (25) days prior to> the date of election.
    3-8        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-13  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-14  passage, and it is so enacted.