By Harris                                              S.B. No. 771
         76R5079 SMJ-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the legal representation of county officials and
 1-3     employees by district and county attorneys.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 157.901, Local Government Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Subsections (d) and (e) to read as follows:
 1-7           (d)  The district attorney of the district in which a county
 1-8     is located or the county attorney may represent a county official
 1-9     or employee who sues the county or another county official or
1-10     employee for an action arising from the performance of a public
1-11     duty.
1-12           (e)  It is not a conflict of interest for the district or
1-13     county attorney under Subsection (d) to represent a county official
1-14     or employee who sues the county or another county official or
1-15     employee for an action arising from the performance of a public
1-16     duty and, in the same lawsuit, to defend the county or a county
1-17     official or employee who is sued if different assistant district or
1-18     county attorneys are assigned the responsibility for each party.
1-19           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-20     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-21     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-22     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-23     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-24     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-1     passage, and it is so enacted.