By Lewis of Tarrant                                   H.B. No. 2942
         76R6705 DRH-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the lease of certain county property for health and
 1-3     human service activities in the public interest.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 263.007, Local Government Code, is
 1-6     amended by  relettering Subsection (f) as Subsection (g) and adding
 1-7     a new Subsection (f) to read as follows:
 1-8           (f)  The commissioners court of a county that contains the
 1-9     majority of the territory of two or more municipalities each with a
1-10     population of 250,000  or more may lease property owned or
1-11     controlled by the county that was formerly owned or controlled by
1-12     the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation to a
1-13     for-profit entity to conduct health and human service activities
1-14     that the commissioners court finds to be in the public interest,
1-15     without using the sealed-bid or sealed-proposal process described
1-16     by Subsection (a)  and without using any other competitive bidding
1-17     process that would otherwise be required by law.  The commissioners
1-18     court shall follow the procedure prescribed by Subsection (e) for a
1-19     lease under this subsection.
1-20           (g)  The procedure authorized by this section is an
1-21     alternative procedure to the procedure authorized by Section
1-22     272.001.
1-23           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-4     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-5     passage, and it is so enacted.