By Dukes                                               H.B. No. 621
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the requirements for the location of a correctional or
 1-3     rehabilitation facility.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 244.004, Local Government Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Subsections (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), and (h) to
 1-7     read as follows:
 1-8           (c)  A public hearing under Subsection (a)  must be held in a
 1-9     public meeting facility that is located within 1-1/4 miles of the
1-10     proposed location of the correctional or rehabilitation facility.
1-11           (d)  An entity that is required to give notice under Section
1-12     244.002(a) may not enter a contract, including a lease, for the
1-13     construction or operation of the proposed correctional or
1-14     rehabilitation facility  until the period during which local
1-15     consent may be denied under Subsection (a) has expired.
1-16           (e)  An entity that is required to give notice under Section
1-17     244.002(a) shall also give notice of a public hearing conducted
1-18     under this section, by certified mail, to:
1-19                 (1)  all persons entitled to notice under Section
1-20     244.002; and
1-21                 (2)  each neighborhood association for a neighborhood
1-22     in the area or adjacent to the area in which the facility is
1-23     proposed to be located.
1-24           (f)  Notice under Subsection (e) must:
 2-1                 (1)  describe the proposed facility and the proposed
 2-2     location; and
 2-3                 (2)  contain the following notice in bold letters:
 2-4     "Under state law, if any opposition to the proposed facility is
 2-5     voiced at this public hearing, consent to operate the proposed
 2-6     facility at the proposed location may be granted only by a
 2-7     unanimous vote of the commissioners court or the governing body of
 2-8     the municipality, as appropriate, and the unanimous consent of each
 2-9     neighborhood association for a neighborhood in the area or adjacent
2-10     to the area in which the facility is proposed to be located."
2-11           (g)  A copy of the notice described by Subsection (f) shall
2-12     be published in a newspaper of general circulation published in the
2-13     county or municipality where the proposed facility is to be
2-14     located.
2-15           (h)  Notwithstanding Subsection (a), if any opposition to the
2-16     proposed facility is voiced at the public hearing, a commissioners
2-17     court or the governing body of a municipality, as appropriate, may
2-18     grant consent to operate the proposed facility at the proposed
2-19     location only if:
2-20                 (1)  the governing body of each neighborhood
2-21     association for a neighborhood in the area or adjacent to the area
2-22     in which the facility is proposed to be located, by unanimous vote,
2-23     consents to the operation of the proposed facility; and
2-24                 (2)  the commissioners court or the governing body of
2-25     the municipality, by unanimous vote, determines that the operation
2-26     of the proposed facility is in the best interests of the county or
2-27     the municipality, as appropriate.
 3-1           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-6     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-7     passage, and it is so enacted.