By Junell H.B. No. 3053
74R7933 JJT-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to powers, duties, and operations of the Upper Colorado
1-3 River Authority.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 2, Chapter 126, General Laws, Acts of the
1-6 44th Legislature, Regular Session, 1935, is amended to read as
1-7 follows:
1-8 Sec. 2. Except as expressly limited by this Act, the
1-9 District shall have and is hereby authorized to exercise all
1-10 powers, rights, privileges and functions conferred by General Law
1-11 upon any District or Districts created pursuant to Section 59a, of
1-12 Article 16, of the Constitution of the State of Texas. Without
1-13 limitation of the generality of the foregoing the District shall
1-14 have and is hereby authorized to exercise the following powers,
1-15 rights, privileges and functions:
1-16 (a) to control, store and preserve, within the
1-17 boundaries of the District, the waters of the Colorado River and
1-18 its tributaries for any useful purpose or purposes, and to use,
1-19 distribute and sell the same, within the boundaries of the District
1-20 for any such purpose or purposes;
1-21 (b) to sell and distribute water without the
1-22 boundaries of the District to any municipality or other political
1-23 subdivision of this state for domestic, municipal, and irrigation
1-24 purposes, or purposes of the political subdivision, and to any
2-1 person, firm or corporation for municipal purposes or irrigation,
2-2 or purposes of the political subdivision, together with the right
2-3 to construct flumes, irrigation ditches, pipe lines and storage
2-4 reservoirs without the District for such purposes;
2-5 (c) to develop and generate water power and electric
2-6 energy within the boundaries of the District and to distribute and
2-7 sell water power and electric energy, within or without the
2-8 boundaries of the District; <but such use shall be subordinate and
2-9 inferior to all requirements for irrigation;>
2-10 (d) to prevent or aid in the prevention of damage to
2-11 person or property from the waters of the Colorado River and its
2-12 tributaries;
2-13 (e) to forest and reforest and to aid in the foresting
2-14 and reforesting of the watershed area of the Colorado River and its
2-15 tributaries and to prevent and to aid in the prevention of soil
2-16 erosion and floods within said watershed area;
2-17 (f) to acquire by purchase, lease, gift, or in any
2-18 other manner (otherwise than by condemnation) and to maintain, use
2-19 and operate any and all property of any kind, real, personal or
2-20 mixed, or any interest therein, within or without the boundaries of
2-21 the District, including property used for parks and recreational
2-22 areas, necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers,
2-23 rights, privileges, and functions conferred upon it by this Act;
2-24 (g) to acquire by condemnation any and all property of
2-25 any kind, real, personal or mixed, or any interest therein, within
2-26 or without the boundaries of the District necessary or convenient
2-27 to the exercise of the powers, rights, privileges and functions
3-1 conferred upon it by this Act, in the manner provided by General
3-2 Law with respect to condemnation or, at the option of the District,
3-3 in the manner provided by the Statutes relative to condemnation by
3-4 Districts organized under General Law pursuant to Section 59-a of
3-5 Article 16 of the Constitution of the State of Texas;
3-6 (h) subject to the provisions of this Act from time to
3-7 time sell or otherwise dispose of any property of any kind, real or
3-8 personal, or mixed, or any interest therein, which shall not be
3-9 necessary to the carrying on of the business of the District;
3-10 (i) to overflow and inundate any public lands and
3-11 public property and to require the relocation of roads and highways
3-12 in the manner and to the extent permitted to Districts organized
3-13 under General Law pursuant to Section 59-a of Article 16 of the
3-14 Constitution of the State of Texas;
3-15 (j) to construct, extend, improve, maintain and
3-16 reconstruct, to cause to be constructed, extended, improved,
3-17 maintained and reconstructed, and to use and operate, any and all
3-18 facilities of any kind necessary or convenient to the exercise of
3-19 such powers, rights, privileges and functions;
3-20 (k) to sue and be sued in its corporate name;
3-21 (l) to make by-laws for the management and regulation
3-22 of its affairs;
3-23 (m) to adopt, use and alter a corporate seal;
3-24 (n) to appoint officers, agents and employees, to
3-25 prescribe their duties and to fix their compensation;
3-26 (o) to make contracts and to execute instruments
3-27 necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers, rights,
4-1 privileges and functions conferred upon it by this Act;
4-2 (p) to borrow money for its corporate purposes and,
4-3 without limitation of the generality of the foregoing, to borrow
4-4 money and accept grants from the United States of America, and, in
4-5 connection with any such loan or grant, to enter into such
4-6 agreements as the United States of America or such corporation or
4-7 agency may require; and to make and issue its negotiable bonds for
4-8 moneys borrowed in the manner and to the extent provided in Section
4-9 10. Nothing in this Act shall authorize the issuance of any bonds,
4-10 notes or other evidences of indebtedness of the District, except as
4-11 specifically provided in this Act, and no issuance of bonds, notes
4-12 or other evidences of indebtedness of the District, except as
4-13 specifically provided in this Act, shall ever be authorized except
4-14 by an Act of the Legislature;
4-15 (q) to do any and all other acts or things necessary
4-16 or convenient to the exercise of the powers, rights, privileges or
4-17 functions conferred upon it by this Act or any other Act or law;
4-18 (r) this district and/or the Brazos River Conservation
4-19 and Reclamation District heretofore created by act of the
4-20 Legislature of the State of Texas, Chapter 13, Special Laws, Second
4-21 Called Session of the Forty-first Legislature, shall have the
4-22 authority and it is hereby authorized to issue its negotiable
4-23 revenue bonds secured only by pledge of the sums granted and/or
4-24 donated by the State of Texas and/or out of any other current
4-25 revenues of the district in any such amount as may be authorized by
4-26 the directors of such district, which sums shall be paid to the
4-27 legal holders of said bond;
5-1 (s) to appoint advisory committees the District
5-2 considers necessary to assist the District.
5-3 Provided further, that in creating and conferring the
5-4 benefits of this Act on said District, it is declared as an
5-5 essential part thereof that irrespective of any existing right or
5-6 rights or permits issued by the Board of Water Engineers of the
5-7 State of Texas to use the water of the Colorado River and its
5-8 tributaries for the generation of hydro-electric power and which
5-9 rights or permits may be acquired by the District; the impounding
5-10 and use of the flood waters of the Colorado River and/or its
5-11 tributaries for the generation of hydro-electric power by the
5-12 District and/or any one who may succeed to the rights and
5-13 privileges conferred upon it by this Act, shall be subject to the
5-14 rights of any other person, municipal corporation or body politic
5-15 heretofore impounding or now putting to beneficial use any such
5-16 waters for the purposes, set forth in subdivisions (1), (2) and (3)
5-17 of Article 7471 of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of
5-18 Texas, as amended by Chapter 128 of the Acts of the Forty-second
5-19 Legislature of the State of Texas, when such other person,
5-20 municipal corporation or body politic has heretofore received a
5-21 permit for such use or uses from the Board of Water Engineers of
5-22 the State of Texas, or who by law has heretofore been permitted to
5-23 impound water for the aforesaid purposes, and nothing in this Act
5-24 shall ever be construed so as to subject to condemnation by said
5-25 District or any successors or by anyone who may succeed to the
5-26 rights and privileges conferred upon it by this Act any waters
5-27 heretofore impounded or to be impounded within or without the
6-1 District under any law authorizing water to be impounded or under
6-2 any permits heretofore granted or hereafter granted to a municipal
6-3 corporation or body politic or any waters heretofore impounded or
6-4 permitted to be impounded or used without the District under
6-5 permits heretofore or hereafter granted to any person.
6-6 Nothing in this Act shall be construed as depriving any
6-7 person or municipality of the right to impound the waters of the
6-8 Colorado River and/or its tributaries for domestic and/or municipal
6-9 purposes, nor of repealing any law granting such rights to persons
6-10 and municipalities.
6-11 SECTION 2. Sections 3(b) and (c), Chapter 126, General Laws,
6-12 Acts of the 44th Legislature, Regular Session, 1935, are amended to
6-13 read as follows:
6-14 (b) Each director shall receive a fee of Forty-five ($45.00)
6-15 <Fifty ($50.00)> Dollars per day for each day spent in attending
6-16 meetings of the Board.
6-17 (c) Until the adoption of by-laws fixing the time and place
6-18 of regular meetings, and the manner in which special meetings may
6-19 be called, meetings of the Board shall be held at such times and
6-20 places as five (5) of the directors may designate in writing. Five
6-21 (5) directors shall constitute a quorum at any meeting, and, except
6-22 as otherwise provided in this Act, or in the by-laws, all actions
6-23 may be taken by the affirmative vote of a majority of the directors
6-24 present at any such meeting, except that no contract which involves
6-25 an amount greater than Fifteen Thousand ($15,000.00) <Ten Thousand
6-26 ($10,000.00)> Dollars or which is to run for a longer period than a
6-27 year, and no bonds, notes or other evidence of indebtedness and no
7-1 amendment of the by-laws shall be valid unless authorized or
7-2 ratified by the affirmative vote of at least five directors.
7-3 SECTION 3. Section 5, Chapter 126, General Laws, Acts of the
7-4 44th Legislature, Regular Session, 1935, is amended to read as
7-5 follows:
7-6 Sec. 5. The moneys of the District shall be disbursed only
7-7 on checks, drafts, orders or other instruments signed by such
7-8 persons as shall be authorized to sign the same by the by-laws, or
7-9 resolution concurred in by not less than five directors. The
7-10 General Manager, the Treasurer and all other officers, agents and
7-11 employees of the District who shall be charged with the collection,
7-12 custody or payment of any funds of the District shall give bond
7-13 conditioned on the faithful performance of their duties and an
7-14 accounting for all funds and property of the District coming into
7-15 their respective hands, each of which bonds shall be in form and
7-16 amount, but not less than Five Thousand ($5,000) Dollars, and with
7-17 a surety (which shall be a surety company authorized to do business
7-18 in the State of Texas) approved by the Board, and the premiums on
7-19 such bonds shall be paid by the District and charged as an
7-20 operating expense. Such bonds shall be payable to the Board of
7-21 Directors and their successors in office for the use and benefit of
7-22 the District.
7-23 SECTION 4. Section 6, Chapter 126, General Laws, Acts of the
7-24 44th Legislature, Regular Session, 1935, is amended to read as
7-25 follows:
7-26 Sec. 6. The general office of the District shall be located
7-27 by vote of a majority of Board of Directors, the county in which
8-1 said general offices are located to constitute the domicile of the
8-2 District and such general offices shall be in charge of the General
8-3 Manager. The District may open offices in other counties if
8-4 considered necessary by the Board. The District shall cause to be
8-5 kept complete and accurate accounts conforming to approved methods
8-6 of bookkeeping. Said accounts and all contracts, documents and
8-7 records of the District shall be kept at said principal office.
8-8 Said accounts and contracts shall be open to public inspection at
8-9 all reasonable times. The Board shall cause to be made and
8-10 completed within ninety days after the end of each calendar year,
8-11 an audit of the books of account and financial records of the
8-12 District for such calendar year, such audit to be made by an
8-13 independent Certified Public Accountant or firm of Certified Public
8-14 Accountants. Copies of a written report of such audit certified to
8-15 by said accountant or accountants, shall be placed and kept on file
8-16 with the Board of Water Engineers, with the Treasurer of the State
8-17 of Texas and at said principal office, and shall be open to public
8-18 inspection at all reasonable times.
8-19 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
8-20 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
8-21 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
8-22 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
8-23 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.