By:  West                                               S.B. No. 98
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the consumption of an alcoholic beverage or the
    1-2  possession of an alcoholic beverage in a public area.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Chapter 109, Subchapter C, Alcoholic Beverage
    1-5  Code, is amended by adding Section 109.34 to read as follows:
    1-6          Sec. 109.34.  MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF OPEN CONTAINERS.
    1-7  (a)  Notwithstanding any authority granted to the commission by
    1-8  this code, the governing body of a municipality by ordinance may
    1-9  prohibit, limit, or restrict the consumption of an alcoholic
   1-10  beverage or the possession of an alcoholic beverage in an open
   1-11  container in all or any designated part of the public places in the
   1-12  municipality.  The ordinance may not apply to premises licensed or
   1-13  permitted for on-premises consumption or to consumption of alcohol
   1-14  in motor vehicles.
   1-15        (b)  The governing body may grant a variance to the ordinance
   1-16  in specific circumstances if the governing body, after
   1-17  consideration of public health and safety and the equities of the
   1-18  specific circumstances, determines that enforcement of the
   1-19  ordinance:
   1-20              (1)  is not in the best interest of the public;
   1-21              (2)  constitutes waste or inefficient use of land or
   1-22  other resources;
   1-23              (3)  does not serve its intended purpose; or
    2-1              (4)  is not effective or necessary.
    2-2        (c)  In this section:
    2-3              (1)  "Possession" means physical possession or actual
    2-4  care custody, control, or management.
    2-5              (2)  "Public place" means any area to which the public
    2-6  or a significant segment of the public has general access or any
    2-7  area, facility, or land that the municipality owns or controls or
    2-8  in which the municipality has an easement, including a public
    2-9  sidewalk, alley, street, highway, park, parking lot, pedestrian
   2-10  mall, passageway, tunnel, bridge, or skywalk.
   2-11        SECTION 2.  This act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.