By Gutierrez                                          H.B. No. 1740
       74R4818 MLR-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to temporary justices of the peace.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 27.055, Government Code, is amended by
    1-5  amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsections (c), (d), and (e) to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  If a justice is temporarily unable to perform official
    1-8  duties because of absence, recusal, illness, injury, or other
    1-9  disability, the county judge may appoint a qualified person to
   1-10  serve as temporary justice for the duration of the disability.  The
   1-11  commissioners court shall compensate the temporary justice by the
   1-12  day, week, or month in an amount equal to the compensation of the
   1-13  regular justice.  A temporary justice has all the rights and powers
   1-14  of the justice of the peace while serving in that capacity but may
   1-15  not make personnel decisions about, or significant changes in, the
   1-16  justice of the peace's office.
   1-17        (c)  In Subsection (b), "qualified person" means a person who
   1-18  has served as a justice of the peace for not less than 4-1/2 years
   1-19  and who has not been convicted of a criminal offense that involves
   1-20  moral turpitude.
   1-21        (d)  A person appointed under Subsection (b) may reside in a
   1-22  county other than the county in which the person is appointed as a
   1-23  temporary justice of the peace.
   1-24        (e)  The county judge may appoint any qualified voter under
    2-1  Section 11.002, Election Code, to serve as a temporary justice of
    2-2  the peace if the judge cannot find a qualified person who agrees to
    2-3  serve under Subsection (b).
    2-4        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-10  passage, and it is so enacted.