By:  West                                              S.B. No. 691
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the appointment of an acting county judge.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 26, Government Code, is
    1-4  amended by adding Section 26.015 to read as follows:
    1-5        Sec. 26.015.  APPOINTMENT OF ACTING COUNTY JUDGE.  (a)  Upon
    1-6  the suspension of a constitutional county judge by the State
    1-7  Commission on Judicial Conduct under Section 1-a, Article V, Texas
    1-8  Constitution, the commissioners court may appoint a resident of the
    1-9  county to fill the office until the next term of that office or
   1-10  until the suspension ends, whichever event occurs first.
   1-11        (b)  The commissioners court shall compensate the acting
   1-12  judge by the day, week, or month in an amount equal to the
   1-13  compensation of the regular judge.  For budget amendment purposes
   1-14  under Chapter 111, Local Government Code, this requirement shall
   1-15  constitute an emergency.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-17        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-22  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-23  passage, and it is so enacted.