By:  Whitmire                                         S.B. No. 1064
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to a municipality's remedies when vacant buildings are
    1-2  left open and unsecured.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that it is a danger to the
    1-5  public health, safety, and welfare for a building located in a
    1-6  metropolitan area to remain open, vacant, and unsecured because
    1-7  such buildings often serve as harborage for criminal activity,
    1-8  illegal dumping, and rats and other vermin and constitute a
    1-9  recurring problem for urban communities.
   1-10        SECTION 2.  Subsection (b), Section 214.0015, Local
   1-11  Government Code, is amended to read as follows:
   1-12        (b)  In addition to the authority granted to the municipality
   1-13  by Section 214.001, after the expiration of the time allotted under
   1-14  Section 214.001(c) or (d) for the repair, securing, removal, or
   1-15  demolition of a building, the municipality may:
   1-16              (1)  repair the building at the expense of the
   1-17  municipality and assess the expenses against <on> the land on which
   1-18  the building stands or to which it is attached and may provide for
   1-19  that assessment, the mode and manner of giving notice, and the
   1-20  means of recovering the repair expenses; <or>
   1-21              (2)  demolish the building, regardless of its
   1-22  structural integrity, if it is determined pursuant to a public
   1-23  hearing held in accordance with Section 214.001 that the building
    2-1  is not in compliance with an order to secure the building issued in
    2-2  a prior public hearing held pursuant to Section 214.001 and assess
    2-3  the demolition expenses against the land on which the building
    2-4  stood or was attached; or
    2-5              (3)  assess a civil penalty against the property owner
    2-6  for failure to repair, remove, secure, or demolish the building and
    2-7  provide for that assessment, the mode and manner of giving notice,
    2-8  and the means of recovering the assessment.
    2-9        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-10        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.