By Harris of Tarrant S.B. No. 116
74R1585 MLR-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the method of selection of municipal court of record
1-3 judges in Arlington.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 30.424, Government Code, is amended by
1-6 amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (k) to read as
1-7 follows:
1-8 (c) A municipal judge, including the chief judge, serves <is
1-9 appointed by the governing body of the city> for a term of two
1-10 years. The governing body of the city shall appoint the municipal
1-11 judge unless the method of selection of the judge is changed under
1-12 Subsection (k) to an election method.
1-13 (k) The governing body of the city, on its own motion, may
1-14 submit the question of election or appointment of municipal judges,
1-15 including the chief judge, to the qualified voters of the city.
1-16 The governing body shall submit the question to the voters if the
1-17 governing body receives a petition requesting a referendum on the
1-18 question. The petition must be signed by a number of qualified
1-19 voters equal to at least five percent of the total number of
1-20 qualified voters who voted in the most recent municipal general
1-21 election and must meet the requirements for a petition under
1-22 Chapter 277, Election Code. If a majority of the votes received at
1-23 the election approve a change in the method of selection, the
1-24 governing body of the city shall implement the change as soon as
2-1 possible. A change made under this subsection in the method of
2-2 selection of the judges of the municipal courts of record may not
2-3 be implemented in a manner that prevents a municipal judge from
2-4 continuing to serve the term to which that judge was previously
2-5 appointed or elected.
2-6 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-7 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-8 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-9 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-10 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-11 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-12 passage, and it is so enacted.