By:  Harris                                           S.B. No. 1180
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to certain duties of county bail bond boards.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsection (f), Section 5, Chapter 550, Acts of
 1-4     the 63rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 2372p-3,
 1-5     Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (f)  In addition to the powers and duties given to the County
 1-7     Bail Bond Board by this Act, the board has the following powers and
 1-8     duties:
 1-9                 (1)  To exercise any powers incidental or necessary to
1-10     the administration of this Act, to supervise and regulate all
1-11     phases of the bonding business and enforce this Act within the
1-12     county, and to prescribe and post any rules necessary to implement
1-13     this Act;
1-14                 (2)  To conduct hearings and investigations and make
1-15     determinations respecting the issuance, refusal, suspension, or
1-16     revocation of licenses to bondsmen within the provisions of this
1-17     Act and to issue licenses to those applicants who qualify under the
1-18     terms of this Act, to refuse licenses to those applicants who do
1-19     not qualify, and to suspend or revoke the licenses of licensees who
1-20     commit violations under this Act or the rules prescribed by the
1-21     board under this Act;
1-22                 (3)  To require applicants and licensees to appear
1-23     before the board, and to administer oaths, examine witnesses, and
1-24     compel the production of pertinent books, accounts, records,
 2-1     documents, and testimony by the licensee or applicant in its
 2-2     hearings;
 2-3                 (4)  To cause records and transcripts to be made of all
 2-4     its proceedings;
 2-5                 (5)  To maintain records and minutes and otherwise
 2-6     operate its office affairs;
 2-7                 (6)  To employ such employees to assist the board in
 2-8     its functions as necessary; and
 2-9                 (7)  To furnish and post in each court in the county
2-10     having jurisdiction of criminal cases and each local official
2-11     responsible for the detention of prisoners in the county with
2-12     current lists of the bondsmen and their agents licensed and
2-13     approved in the county and to notify immediately each court and
2-14     local official when a bondsman's license is suspended or revoked or
2-15     an agent's authority is rescinded[; and]
2-16                 [(8)  To file reports and furnish information on the
2-17     operation of the bonding business in the county at the request of
2-18     the Texas Judicial Council which shall report annually to the
2-19     governor and the legislature on or before December 1 of each year
2-20     on the operation of the bonding business in the state].
2-21           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-25     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-26     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-1     passage, and it is so enacted.