By Gallegos                                           S.B. No. 1624
          Substitute the following for S.B. No. 1624:
          By Longoria                                       C.S.S.B. No. 1624
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the legal defense of certain county officials or
    1-3  employees.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 157.901, Local Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (d) to
    1-7  read as follows:
    1-8        (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), if <If> additional
    1-9  counsel is necessary or proper in the case of an official or
   1-10  employee provided legal counsel under Subsection (a) or if it
   1-11  reasonably appears that the act complained of may form the basis
   1-12  for the filing of a criminal charge against the official or
   1-13  employee, the official or employee is entitled to have the
   1-14  commissioners court of the county employ and pay private counsel.
   1-15        (d)  The commissioners court of a county with a population of
   1-16  2.8 million or more may pay the private counsel retained by a
   1-17  county official or employee in a matter involving the official's or
   1-18  employee's duties, except a matter relating to the removal of the
   1-19  official or employee, only if the commissioners court, by unanimous
   1-20  vote, agrees to the payment.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 157, Local Government Code,
   1-22  is amended by adding Section 157.9011 to read as follows:
   1-23        Sec. 157.9011.  PAYMENT OF COUNSEL RETAINED BY EMPLOYEE.  (a)
   1-24  If a county official or employee who is sued by any entity, other
    2-1  than the county with which the official or employee serves, for an
    2-2  action arising from the performance of a public duty fails to
    2-3  request additional counsel under Section 157.901 before a trial on
    2-4  the merits and retains private counsel, the commissioners court of
    2-5  the county may pay the private counsel retained by the official or
    2-6  employee for representing the official or employee, except if the
    2-7  matter involves or relates to the removal of the county official or
    2-8  employee, if:
    2-9              (1)  the commissioners court, by unanimous vote,
   2-10  determines that retained counsel was necessary and proper; and
   2-11              (2)  the official or employee prevails in the action.
   2-12        (b)  This section expires August 31, 1997.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  This Act applies only to the payment of legal
   2-14  fees for a lawsuit that is finally decided after the January 1,
   2-15  1994 and before December 1, 1994.
   2-16        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-22  passage, and it is so enacted.