By:  Ratliff                                  S.B. No. 899

         97S0570/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the organization and governance of water supply and

 1-2     sewer service corporations.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 5, Chapter 76, Acts of the 43rd

 1-5     Legislature, 1st Called Session, 1933 (Article 1434a, Vernon's

 1-6     Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 5.  After the issuance of a charter and annually

 1-8     thereafter following the annual membership or stockholders meeting,

 1-9     the board of directors shall elect a president, a vice president,

1-10     and a secretary-treasurer and may require of such officers bonds

1-11     for the faithful performance of their duties.  At the meeting, each

1-12     member or stockholder shall be allowed only one vote regardless of

1-13     the number of memberships or stock certificates held by the person.

1-14     The annual meeting of the members or stockholders of the

1-15     corporation shall be held at any time between January 1 and May 1

1-16     of each year, at such time as shall be specified by the by-laws or

1-17     the board of directors of the corporation.  The salaries of all the

1-18     officers of said corporation except that of the secretary-treasurer

1-19     and of the manager whose salary is hereinafter referred to, shall

1-20     not exceed Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000) per year.  The salary of

1-21     the secretary-treasurer shall be fixed by the board of directors at

1-22     a sum commensurate with the duties required of him.

1-23           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-5     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-6     passage, and it is so enacted.