1-1  By:  Uher (Senate Sponsor - Patterson)                 H.B. No. 335
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House April 3, 1995;
    1-3  April 4, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Intergovernmental Relations; April 12, 1995, reported favorably by
    1-5  the following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; April 12, 1995, sent to
    1-6  printer.)
    1-7                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-8                                AN ACT
    1-9  relating to the period for filing a petition for a place on the
   1-10  ballot for the board of directors of the Sweeny Hospital District.
   1-11        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-12        SECTION 1.  Section 3, Chapter 135, Acts of the 58th
   1-13  Legislature, Regular Session, 1963, is amended to read as follows:
   1-14        Sec. 3.  Within ten (10) days after such election is held the
   1-15  election judges shall convene and canvass the returns of the
   1-16  election, and if a majority of the qualified property taxpaying
   1-17  electors voting at said election voted in favor of the proposition,
   1-18  they shall so find and declare the hospital district established
   1-19  and created and O. K. Hitchcock, Earl Wells, Bobby W. Brown, George
   1-20  Sparkman and Roy Walby shall be the directors of the district to
   1-21  serve until the first Saturday in April following the creation and
   1-22  establishment of the district at which time five (5) directors
   1-23  shall be elected.  The three (3) directors receiving the highest
   1-24  vote at such first election shall serve for two (2) years, the
   1-25  other two (2) directors shall serve for one (1) year.  On the
   1-26  effective date of this amendment, the board of directors shall
   1-27  appoint two (2) new members to the board, one (1) to serve until
   1-28  the first Saturday in April, 1974, and one (1) to serve until the
   1-29  first Saturday in April, 1975.  Thereafter, all directors shall
   1-30  serve for a period of two (2) years and until their successor has
   1-31  been duly elected or appointed and qualified.  No person shall be
   1-32  appointed or elected as a member of the board of directors of said
   1-33  hospital district unless he is a resident thereof and unless at the
   1-34  time of such election or appointment he shall be more than
   1-35  twenty-one (21) years of age.  Each member of the board of
   1-36  directors shall qualify by executing the constitutional oath of
   1-37  office and shall execute a good and sufficient bond for One
   1-38  Thousand Dollars ($1,000) payable to said district conditioned upon
   1-39  the faithful performance of his duties, and such oaths and bonds
   1-40  shall be deposited with the depository bank of the district for
   1-41  safekeeping.
   1-42        The board of directors shall organize by electing one (1) of
   1-43  their number as president and one (1) of their number as secretary.
   1-44  Any four (4) members of the board of directors shall constitute a
   1-45  quorum and a concurrence of four (4) shall be sufficient in all
   1-46  matters pertaining to the business of the district.   All vacancies
   1-47  in the office of director shall be filled for the unexpired term by
   1-48  appointment of the remainder of the board of directors.  In the
   1-49  event the number of directors shall be reduced to less than four
   1-50  (4) for any reason, the remaining directors shall immediately call
   1-51  a special election to fill said vacancies, and upon failure to do
   1-52  so a district court may, upon application of any voter or taxpayer
   1-53  of the district, issue a mandate requiring that such election be
   1-54  ordered by the remaining directors.
   1-55        A regular election of directors shall be held on the first
   1-56  Saturday in May <April> of each year and notice of such election
   1-57  shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the
   1-58  county one (1) time at least ten (10) days prior to the date of
   1-59  election.  Any person desiring his name to be printed on the ballot
   1-60  as a candidate for director shall file a petition, signed by not
   1-61  less than twenty-five (25) qualified voters asking that such name
   1-62  be printed on the ballot, with the secretary of the board of
   1-63  directors of the district.  Such petition shall be filed with such
   1-64  secretary not later than 5 p.m. of the 45th day before <at least
   1-65  twenty-five (25) days prior to> the date of election.
   1-66        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-67  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-68  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-3  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-4  passage, and it is so enacted.
    2-5                               * * * * *