By Price                                              H.B. No. 3232
       74R9398 MI-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the election of commissioners of the Port of Beaumont
    1-3  Navigation District of Jefferson County.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Sections 9(a) and (d), Chapter 147, Acts of the
    1-6  51st Legislature, Regular Session, 1949, are amended to read as
    1-7  follows:
    1-8        (a)  Commissioners serve staggered four-year <six-year> terms
    1-9  with the terms of three <two> commissioners expiring every two
   1-10  years.
   1-11        (d)  One commissioner shall be elected from each of the four
   1-12  wards established under Section 10 of this Act by the qualified
   1-13  voters of that ward.  Two commissioners shall be elected at large
   1-14  by the qualified voters of the  district <Commissioners are elected
   1-15  by the voters of the District at large, and each ward is entitled
   1-16  to representation on the Board of Port Commissioners by a resident
   1-17  of the ward>.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  On the first Saturday in May 1997, an election
   1-19  shall be held to elect all six commissioners of the Port of
   1-20  Beaumont Navigation District of Jefferson County, one commissioner
   1-21  elected at large and two commissioners each elected from a ward to
   1-22  serve for two years and one commissioner elected at large and two
   1-23  commissioners each elected from a ward to serve for four years.
   1-24  The persons elected shall draw lots to determine the length of
    2-1  their terms.  Commissioners elected in subsequent elections serve
    2-2  four-year terms.
    2-3        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.