By Garcia H.B. No. 2666
75R7709 CAG-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to enforcement of certain public health and safety
1-3 ordinances by a municipality.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 54.032, Local Government Code, is amended
1-6 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 54.032. ORDINANCES SUBJECT TO QUASI-JUDICIAL
1-8 ENFORCEMENT. This subchapter applies only to ordinances:
1-9 (1) for the preservation of public safety, relating to
1-10 the materials or methods used to construct a building or
1-11 improvement, including the foundation, structural elements,
1-12 electrical wiring or apparatus, plumbing and fixtures, entrances,
1-13 or exits;
1-14 (2) relating to the fire safety of a building or
1-15 improvement, including provisions relating to materials, types of
1-16 construction or design, warning devices, sprinklers or other fire
1-17 suppression devices, availability of water supply for extinguishing
1-18 fires, or location, design, or width of entrances or exits;
1-19 (3) relating to dangerously damaged or deteriorated
1-20 buildings or improvements; [or]
1-21 (4) relating to conditions caused by accumulations of
1-22 refuse, vegetation, or other matter that creates breeding and
1-23 living places for insects and rodents; or
1-24 (5) relating to a building code or to the condition,
2-1 use, or appearance of property in a municipality.
2-2 SECTION 2. Subchapter C, Chapter 54, Local Government Code,
2-3 is amended by adding Section 54.043 to read as follows:
2-4 Sec. 54.043. ALTERNATIVE ADJUDICATION PROCESSES. A
2-5 municipality by ordinance may adopt a civil adjudication process,
2-6 as an alternative to the enforcement process prescribed by the
2-7 other provisions of this subchapter, for the enforcement of
2-8 ordinances described by Section 54.032. The alternative process
2-9 must contain provisions relating to notice, the conduct of
2-10 proceedings, permissible orders, penalties, and judicial review
2-11 that are similar to the provisions of this subchapter.
2-12 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-13 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-14 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-15 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-16 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-17 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-18 passage, and it is so enacted.