1-1     By:  Puente (Senate Sponsor - Gallegos)               H.B. No. 1138

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 27, 1997;

 1-3     April 29, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     Intergovernmental Relations; May 8, 1997, reported favorably by the

 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; May 8, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the use of neighborhood associations in the enforcement

 1-9     of certain municipal health and safety ordinances.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 54, Local Government Code,

1-12     is amended by adding Section 54.020 to read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 54.020.  USE OF NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS IN ENFORCEMENT

1-14     OF CERTAIN ORDINANCES.  (a)  In this section, "neighborhood

1-15     association" means an association that is dedicated to the

1-16     improvement or upkeep of a defined residential area and that is

1-17     registered by the municipality.

1-18           (b)  A municipality may institute a program to use volunteers

1-19     from a neighborhood association to help enforce certain municipal

1-20     ordinances that concern health and safety in the association's

1-21     neighborhood.  The health and safety ordinances included in the

1-22     program may only be those for which a violation can be observed

1-23     without entering the property at which the  violation occurs.

1-24           (c)  The municipality shall establish a training program for

1-25     the volunteers.  The training must include instruction on:

1-26                 (1)  which ordinances are covered by the volunteer

1-27     enforcement program; and

1-28                 (2)  whether and how  a volunteer should inform a

1-29     property owner or resident of an alleged violation.

1-30           (d)  A person trained under Subsection (c) who observes a

1-31     suspected violation of an ordinance covered by the program may

1-32     inform:

1-33                 (1)  the owner of, or a person residing on, the

1-34     property at which the alleged violation occurs; or

1-35                 (2)  the appropriate agency of the municipality.

1-36           (e)  A person trained under Subsection (c):

1-37                 (1)  is not a peace officer;

1-38                 (2)  has no authority other than the authority

1-39     applicable to a citizen to enforce a law other than this section;

1-40     and

1-41                 (3)  may not carry a weapon while performing activities

1-42     under this section.

1-43           (f)  A municipality by ordinance may provide that the notice

1-44     of violation served on the owner or a person residing on the

1-45     property under Subsection (d) is considered the first warning of a

1-46     violation of a municipal ordinance.

1-47           (g)  A person trained under Subsection (c) is not entitled

1-48     to:

1-49                 (1)  compensation for performing activities under this

1-50     section; or

1-51                 (2)  indemnification from the municipality or the state

1-52     for:

1-53                       (A)  injury or property damage the person

1-54     sustains in performing duties under this section;  or

1-55                       (B)  liability the person incurs in performing

1-56     duties under this section.

1-57           (h)  The municipality and the state are not liable for any

1-58     damage arising from an act or omission of a person trained under

1-59     Subsection (c) in performing activities under this section.

1-60           (i)  If a volunteer from a neighborhood association makes

1-61     multiple complaints to a city against the same landowner, asserting

1-62     in bad faith that the landowner has violated city ordinances, the

1-63     volunteer shall be liable to the landowner for all attorney's fees

1-64     and other reasonable costs incurred by the landowner in

 2-1     establishing to the city's satisfaction that no violation occurred.

 2-2     For purposes of this subsection, there shall be a rebuttable

 2-3     presumption of bad faith if, on three or more occasions within a

 2-4     period of six months, the volunteer's complaints have been

 2-5     determined by the city to be invalid.

 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.

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