By Puente                                             H.B. No. 3203
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the election of municipal court of record judges in San
    1-3  Antonio.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 30.084(b), Government Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  The city shall provide by charter for the <appointment
    1-8  or> election of 10 full-time municipal judges from single-member
    1-9  districts <a municipal judge>.  Each judge representing a district
   1-10  must reside in the district.  The city council shall base the
   1-11  districts on the boundaries of city council districts.  The
   1-12  selection must be for a term of four years.  The city council shall
   1-13  appoint, from a list supplied by a majority of the full-time
   1-14  judges, persons to serve as part-time municipal judges.  Part-time
   1-15  judges serve at the will of the majority of the full-time judges
   1-16  and do not serve a term.  A vacancy in the office of part-time
   1-17  judge is filled in the same manner as the original appointment.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  Section 30.084(e), Government Code, is amended to
   1-19  read as follows:
   1-20        (e)  The full-time judges shall select, by majority vote, one
   1-21  of the full-time judges to serve as presiding municipal judge for a
   1-22  six-month term.  There is no limit on the number of terms a judge
   1-23  may serve as presiding municipal judge, but a judge may not serve
   1-24  more than two consecutive terms as <If there is more than one
    2-1  municipal judge, the governing body shall appoint one of the judges
    2-2  to be the presiding municipal judge.  If the city has only one
    2-3  municipal judge or only one permanent, full-time municipal judge,
    2-4  that judge is the> presiding municipal judge.
    2-5        SECTION 3.  A municipal court of record judge in San Antonio
    2-6  in office on the effective date of this Act, unless otherwise
    2-7  removed from office, continues to serve until judges have been
    2-8  elected or appointed as provided by this Act.  Five judges shall be
    2-9  elected in May 1997 with terms that expire in 2001.  Five judges
   2-10  shall be elected in May 1999 with terms that expire in 2003.  The
   2-11  city council shall determine from which districts the voters elect
   2-12  judges in 1997 and 1999.  The city council shall appoint five
   2-13  judges in 1997.  The judges appointed under this Act in 1997
   2-14  continue to serve, unless otherwise removed from office, until five
   2-15  judges are elected in 1999.
   2-16        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.