By Pitts H.B. No. 1647
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to purchasing and contracting authority of municipalities.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 252.001, Local Government Code, is
1-5 amended to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 252.001. Definitions. In this chapter:
1-7 (1) "Bond funds" includes money in the treasury
1-8 received from the sale of bonds and includes the proceeds of bonds
1-9 that have been voted but have not been issued and delivered.
1-10 (2) "Component purchases" means purchases of the
1-11 component parts of an item that in normal purchasing practices
1-12 would be purchased in one purchase.
1-13 (3) "Current funds" includes money in the treasury,
1-14 taxes in the process of being collected in the current tax year,
1-15 and all other revenue that may be anticipated with reasonable
1-16 certainty in the current tax year.
1-17 (4) "High technology procurement" means the
1-18 procurement of equipment, goods, or services of a highly technical
1-19 nature, including:
1-20 (A) data processing equipment and software and
1-21 firmware used in conjunction with data processing equipment;
1-22 (B) telecommunications equipment and radio and
1-23 microwave systems;
1-24 (C) electronic distributed control systems,
2-1 including building energy management systems; and
2-2 (D) technical services related to those items.
2-3 (5) "Planning services" means services primarily
2-4 intended to guide governmental policy to ensure the orderly and
2-5 coordinated development of the state or of municipal, county,
2-6 metropolitan, or regional land areas.
2-7 (6) <(5)> "Separate purchases" means purchases, made
2-8 separately, of items that in normal purchasing practices would be
2-9 purchased in one purchase.
2-10 (7) <(6)> "Sequential purchases" means purchases, made
2-11 over a period, of items that in normal purchasing practices would
2-12 be purchased in one purchase.
2-13 (8) <(7)> "Time warrant" includes any warrant issued
2-14 by a municipality that is not payable from current funds.
2-15 SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 252, Local Government Code,
2-16 is amended by adding Section 252.004 to read as follows:
2-17 Sec. 252.004. ENCOURAGEMENT OF HISTORICALLY UNDERUTILIZED
2-18 BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES. (a) A
2-19 municipality that authorizes an expenditure relating to personal,
2-20 professional, or planning services described by Section 252.022 is
2-21 encouraged to establish a program designed to reasonably increase
2-22 participation by minority businesses and women-owned businesses in
2-23 contracts related to those expenditures.
2-24 (b) In this section, "minority business" and "women-owned
2-25 business" have the meanings assigned by Section 381.004.
2-26 SECTION 3. Section 252.022(a), Local Government Code, is
2-27 amended to read as follows:
3-1 (a) This chapter does not apply to an expenditure for:
3-2 (1) a procurement made because of a public calamity
3-3 that requires the immediate appropriation of money to relieve the
3-4 necessity of the municipality's residents or to preserve the
3-5 property of the municipality;
3-6 (2) a procurement necessary to preserve or protect the
3-7 public health or safety of the municipality's residents;
3-8 (3) a procurement necessary because of unforeseen
3-9 damage to public machinery, equipment, or other property;
3-10 (4) a procurement for personal, <or> professional, or
3-11 planning services;
3-12 (5) a procurement for work that is performed and paid
3-13 for by the day as the work progresses;
3-14 (6) a purchase of land or a right-of-way;
3-15 (7) a procurement of items that are available from
3-16 only one source, including:
3-17 (A) items that are available from only one
3-18 source because of patents, copyrights, secret processes, or natural
3-19 monopolies;
3-20 (B) films, manuscripts, or books;
3-21 (C) electricity, gas, water, and other utility
3-22 services;
3-23 (D) captive replacement parts or components for
3-24 equipment;
3-25 (E) books, papers, and other library materials
3-26 for a public library that are available only from the persons
3-27 holding exclusive distribution rights to the materials; and
4-1 (F) management services provided by a nonprofit
4-2 organization to a municipal museum, park, zoo, or other facility to
4-3 which the organization has provided significant financial or other
4-4 benefits;
4-5 (8) a purchase of rare books, papers, and other
4-6 library materials for a public library;
4-7 (9) paving drainage, street widening, and other public
4-8 improvements, or related matters, if at least one-third of the cost
4-9 is to be paid by or through special assessments levied on property
4-10 that will benefit from the improvements;
4-11 (10) a public improvement project, authorized by the
4-12 voters of the municipality, for which there is a deficiency of
4-13 funds for completing the project in accordance with the plans and
4-14 purposes authorized by the voters;
4-15 (11) a payment under a contract by which a developer
4-16 participates in the construction of a public improvement as
4-17 provided by Subchapter C, Chapter 212;
4-18 (12) personal property sold:
4-19 (A) at an auction by a state licensed
4-20 auctioneer;
4-21 (B) at a going out of business sale held in
4-22 compliance with Subchapter F, Chapter 17, Business & Commerce Code;
4-23 or
4-24 (C) by a political subdivision of this state, a
4-25 state agency of this state, or an entity of the federal government;
4-26 and
4-27 (13) services performed by blind or severely disabled
5-1 persons.
5-2 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
5-3 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
5-4 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
5-5 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
5-6 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
5-7 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
5-8 passage, and it is so enacted.