BLS C.S.H.B. 3567 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS
NATURAL RESOURCES
C.S.H.B. 3567
By: Raymond
5-5-97
Committee Report (Substituted)
BACKGROUND
Duval County is a rural county with an economy largely based on
agriculture and ranching;
however, the municipalities in Duval County are experiencing some
urban growth. As
municipalities grow, they naturally, want to gain greater
autonomy from their counties. The
Duval County Conservation and Reclamation District (hereinafter
"the District") serves two of
the three municipalities, and nearly all of the county's rural
area. The exception is the area served
by the Freer Water Control and Improvement District which
includes the city of Freer and an
area extending from the center of town three miles to the north
and approximately one mile in
each other direction.
PURPOSE
To establish disannexation procedures for San Diego and Benavides
and guarantees rural areas
representation on the District's governing board.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly
grant any additional rulemaking
authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 1, Chapter 398, Acts of the 51st
Legislature, Regular Session,
1949, by amending the boundaries of the District to include that
part of Jim Wells County within
the corporate limits of the City of San Diego.
SECTION 2. Amends Section 3, Chapter 398, Acts of the 51st
Legislature, Regular Session,
1949, as follows:
(b) Increases the number of directors from four to seven;
requires that they be elected
using the place system, and that directors elected to place 1, 2,
or 3 must be residents of San
Diego and elected by the qualified voters of the District who
are residents of San Diego and its
extraterritorial jurisdiction. Requires that directors elected to
place 4 or 5 must be a resident of
Benavides and elected by the qualified voters of the District who
are residents of Benavides and
its extraterritorial jurisdiction. Also requires that a director
elected to place 6 or 7 must be a
resident of, and is elected by the qualified voters of the
District who are residents of, the part of
Duval County that is not within:
(1) the corporate limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction
of:
(A) San Diego; or
(B) Benavides; or
(2) the Freer Water Control and Improvement District.
(d) Requires that an election be held on the first Tuesday in May
of each even-numbered
year and the directors elected shall each serve for a term of
four years.
(e) Establishes that if either San Diego or Benavides and the
area within its extraterritorial
jurisdiction disannex under Section 4A of this Act, a person on
the board who represents San
Diego or its extraterritorial jurisdiction or Benavides and the
area within its extraterritorial
jurisdiction ceases to be a director on the date disannexation
takes effect. Also requires that the
remaining directors as soon as possible shall call a special
election to elect the appropriate
number of directors to fill the unexpired terms if the
disannexation results in vacancies on the
board.
(f) Establishes that if both San Diego and Benavides and the area
within their
extraterritorial jurisdictions disannex under Section 4A of this
Act, a director for each place on
the board must be a resident of the part of Duval County that is
not within:
(1) the corporate limits of extraterritorial jurisdiction of:
(A) San Diego; or
(B) Benavides; or
(2) the Freer Water Control and Improvement District.
(g) Requires that if San Diego and its extraterritorial
jurisdiction disannex under Section
4A of this Act, the number of board places is reduced to four.
(h) Establishes that if Benavides and the area within the
extraterritorial jurisdiction
disannex under Section 4A of the Act:
(1) a director for place 4 must be a resident of San Diego or its
extraterritorial
jurisdiction if San Diego and the area within its
extraterritorial jurisdiction have not previously
disannexed; and
(2) a director for place 5, or for place 4 or place 5 if San
Diego and the are within
its extraterritorial jurisdiction have previously disannexed,
must be a resident of the part of Duval
County that is not within:
(A) the corporate limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction of:
(i) San Diego; or
(ii) Benavides; or
(B) the Freer Water Control and Improvement District.
SECTION 3. Amends Chapter 398, Acts of the 51st Legislature,
Regular Session, 1949, by
adding Sections 4A and 4B to provide as follows:
Sec. 4A. (a) Establishes that a municipality within the District
and the areas within
the extraterritorial jurisdiction of that municipality may be
disannexed from the District of
petition for an election on disannexation and a majority vote in
favor of disannexation at the
election. Requires that a petition for an election to disannex be
signed by at least 250 qualified
voters of the District who are residents of the municipality or
it extraterritorial jurisdiction or a
number of qualified voters equal to fiver percent of the total
vote cast in the municipality and its
extraterritorial jurisdiction in the most recent District
election, whichever number is less. The
petition must also state that its purpose is to call an election
to determine whether the affected
municipality and its extraterritorial jurisdiction should be
disannexed from the District, and
include each petitioner's signature, printed name, address,
voting precinct, and voter certificate
number and the date on which the petitioner signed.
(b) Requires that a petition must be filed with the District
manager and that not later than
the 30th day after the date on which the petition is filed, the
District manager shall verify the
validity of the petition and determine whether the number of
signatures required for the calling of
an election have been included. if the District manager certifies
the petition to be valid, the board
of directors of the District shall call an election for the
purpose of disannexation not later than the
90th day after the date on which the manager certifies the
sufficiency of the petition. Only
qualified voters who reside within the corporate limits or
extraterritorial jurisdiction of the
municipality to be disannexed may vote in the disannexation
election.
(c) Requires that the disannexation measure appear on the ballot
in a manner that
provides for voting for one of the three following propositions:
(1) "The City of (name of municipality) and the area within its
extraterritorial
shall not be disannexed from the jurisdiction of the Duval County
Conservation and Reclamation
District";
(2) "The City of (name of municipality) and the area within its
extraterritorial
jurisdiction shall be disannexed from the from the Duval County
Conservation and Reclamation
District and on disannexation the city council of the (name of
municipality) shall establish or
acquire systems to provide the water and sewer services formerly
provides by the District in the
disannexed area"; or
(3) "The City of (name of municipality) and the area within its
extraterritorial
jurisdiction shall be disannexed from the Duval County
Conservation and Reclamation District
and on disannexation the city council of (name of municipality)
shall initiate a petition for, and
shall consent to, as provided by Sections 54.014 and 54.016,
Water Code, the creation of a
municipal utility district to provide the water and sewer
services formerly provided by the
District in the disannexed area."
(d) Establishes that if a majority of the total votes in the is
in favor of proposition (1), the
municipality and the area within its extraterritorial
jurisdiction are not disannexed. If the total
vote in favor of proposition (2) and (3) is a majority of the
votes cast, the majority of the vote os
for disannexation. As between propositions (2) and (3), the
proposition with that receives the
most votes prevails. If disannexation fails, an election under
this section to disannex the same
municipality and the areas within its extraterritorial may not be
held for one year.
(e) Establishes that it a majority of the vote is for
disannexation, the directors of the
District shall vote to disannex at the same board meeting at
which the election results are
canvassed. Also requires that not later than 30 days after the
election results and the District's
disannexation vote, the executive director of the Texas Natural
Resources Commission shall
appoint an independent master to oversee the distribution of
assets consistent with disannexation.
All infrastructure and real property, including water and sewer
lines, storage tanks, treatment
plants, towers, buildings, land, and other facilities within the
corporate limits or extraterritorial
jurisdiction of the disannexed municipality that are related to
the provision of water and sewer
services by the District within the disannexed municipality or
its extraterritorial jurisdiction shall
revert tot he disannexed municipality. All receivables from
connections within the corporate
limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction of the disannexed
municipality transfer to the municipality.
Other assets, including vehicles, computers, office furniture and
equipment, and cash, shall be
divided between the District and the municipality by the master
in proportion to the number of
residents, according to the most recent decennial federal census,
living within the boundaries of
the District or within the boundaries of the municipality or its
extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Sec. 4B. (a) Establishes that if a municipality and the area
within its extraterritorial
jurisdiction disannex as a result of the approval of proposition
(2), a municipal water or sewer
system established or acquired by the city council of the
disannexed municipality may serve an
area immediately outside the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the
disannexed municipality if the
residents of the area agreed to be served.
(b) Establishes that if the City of San Diego and the area within
its extraterritorial
jurisdiction disannex as provided by Section 4A of this Act and a
municipal water or sewer
system is established or acquired as described by Subsection (a)
of this section, the Glossbrenner
Substance Abuse Facility is disannexed from the District
effective on the date on which that
system is established or acquired, and that system may serve that
facility.
SECTION 4. (a) Establishes effective date of Act as September 1,
1997.
(b) Establishes that directors serving on August 31, 1997,
serve until their successors are
elected and have qualified under this section. The additional
positions on the District board
created by Section 3, Chapter 398, Acts of the 51st Legislature,
Reg. Session, 1949, as amended
by this Act, shall be filled at the election to be held May 1998,
and until that time the District is
governed by a board of four directors.
(c) Establishes that the two directors elected at the May 1994
election and the two
directors elected at the May 1995 election serve until the May
1998 election.
(d) Provides that, except as provided by subsection (f) of this
section, seven directors
shall be elected at the May 1998 election. Those directors shall
draw lots to determine which
three directors serve two-year terms and which four directors
serve four-year terms. Successor
directors serve four-year terms.
(e) Establishes that if before the May 1998 election, the City of
Benavides has
disannexed, and the City of San Diego has not disannexed, four
directors elected at that election
must be residents of San Diego or its extraterritorial
jurisdiction, and three directors elected must
be residents of that part of Duval County that is not within the
corporate limits or extraterritorial
jurisdiction of San Diego or Benavides or within the Free Water
Control or Improvement
District.
(f) Provides that if before the May 1998 election, the City of
San Diego has disannexed,
four directors shall be elected at that election. If the City of
Benavides has not disannexed before
that election, two directors elected at that election must be
residents of Benavides or its
extraterritorial jurisdiction, and two directors elected must be
residents of that part of Duval
County that is not within the corporate limits or
extraterritorial jurisdiction of San Diego or
Benavides or the Freer Water Control and Improvement District. If
the City of Benavides has
disannexed before that election, all four directors elected must
be residents of that part of Duval
County that is not within the corporate limits of San Diego,
Benavides or the Freer Water Control
and Improvement District. Those directors hall draw lots to
determine which two directors serve
two-year terms and which two directors serve four-year terms.
Successor directors serve four-
year terms.
SECTION 5. Emergency clause.
COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE
SECTION 1. No changes.
SECTION 2. In the original, the board was to be composed of 6
members elected at large (with
certain residency requirements for each of the directors). In
the substitute, the board is to be
composed of seven members and establishes that as otherwise
provided by this Act directors
shall be elected using the place system (with designated
residency requirements for each place).
The substitute also specifies that only qualified voters who are
residents of a municipality or its
extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) may vote to elect a director
to a place assigned to a
municipality. The substitute also establishes that only qualified
voters who live outside a
municipality or its ETJ can vote to elect a director to a place
assigned to the rural area of the
county; reassigns places to conform with increase in number of
directors and deletes language
preventing presiding officer from voting except to break a tie;
changes frequency of elections
from each year to each even-numbered year; and requires that
should San Diego vote to
disannex, the board would revert to four members. Finally, in the
substitute, redistribution of
places are adjusted, should disannexation occur, to conform with
increase in number of directors.
SECTION 3. The substitute: establishes that extraterritorial
jurisdiction be included in
disannexation provisions with a municipality; changes
responsibility for appointment of master
to oversee distribution of assets from executive director of the
Texas Water Development Board
to the executive director of the Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission; clarifies that
the city council of a municipality voting to disannex is
responsible for establishing or acquiring a
system to provide water and sewer service formerly provided by
the District. The substitute
allows for municipalities that disannex to serve the residents
who live immediately outside their
ETJs if the residents of the area agree to be served. Finally,
the substitute also specifies that the
Glossbrenner Substance Abuse Facility would also be disannexed
should San Diego vote to