By Keel                                         H.B. No. 2235

      75R7716 DRH-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the requirements for disannexation.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Sections 43.141(a), (b), and (f), Local

 1-5     Government Code, are amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (a)  A majority of the qualified voters of an annexed area

 1-7     may petition the governing body of the municipality to disannex the

 1-8     area if the municipality:

 1-9                 (1)  fails or refuses to provide services or to cause

1-10     services to be provided to the area within the period specified by

1-11     Section 43.056 or by the service plan prepared for the area under

1-12     that section; or

1-13                 (2)  provides the area with fewer or a lower level of

1-14     services than the municipality provides to other parts of the

1-15     municipality.

1-16           (b)  If the governing body fails or refuses to disannex the

1-17     area within 60 days after the date of the receipt of the petition,

1-18     any one or more of the signers of the petition may bring a cause of

1-19     action in a district court of the county in which the area is

1-20     principally located to request that the area be disannexed.  On the

1-21     filing of an answer by the governing body, and on application of

1-22     either party, the case shall be advanced and heard without further

1-23     delay in accordance with the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.  The

1-24     district court shall enter an order disannexing the area if the

 2-1     court finds that a valid petition was filed with the municipality

 2-2     and that:

 2-3                 (1)  the municipality failed to perform its obligations

 2-4     in accordance with the service plan or failed to perform in good

 2-5     faith; or

 2-6                 (2)  the municipality has provided the area with fewer

 2-7     or a lower level of services than the municipality provides to

 2-8     other parts of the municipality.

 2-9           (f)  Before the petition is circulated among the voters,

2-10     notice of the petition must be given by posting a copy of the

2-11     petition for 10 days in three public places in the annexed area and

2-12     by publishing a copy of the petition once in a newspaper of general

2-13     circulation serving the area before the 15th day before the date

2-14     the petition is first circulated.  Proof of the posting and

2-15     publication must be made by attaching to the petition presented to

2-16     the secretary[:]

2-17                 [(1)  the sworn affidavit of any voter who signed the

2-18     petition, stating the places and dates of the posting; and]

2-19                 [(2)]  the sworn affidavit of the publisher of the

2-20     newspaper in which the notice was published, stating the name of

2-21     the newspaper and the issue and date of publication.

2-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

2-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-25     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-26     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-27     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.