1-1     By:  Harris                                           S.B. No. 1180
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 10, 1999; March 11, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
 1-4     April 19, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 5,
 1-5     Nays 0; April 19, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to certain duties of county bail bond boards.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Subsection (f), Section 5, Chapter 550, Acts of
1-11     the 63rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 2372p-3,
1-12     Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
1-13           (f)  In addition to the powers and duties given to the County
1-14     Bail Bond Board by this Act, the board has the following powers and
1-15     duties:
1-16                 (1)  To exercise any powers incidental or necessary to
1-17     the administration of this Act, to supervise and regulate all
1-18     phases of the bonding business and enforce this Act within the
1-19     county, and to prescribe and post any rules necessary to implement
1-20     this Act;
1-21                 (2)  To conduct hearings and investigations and make
1-22     determinations respecting the issuance, refusal, suspension, or
1-23     revocation of licenses to bondsmen within the provisions of this
1-24     Act and to issue licenses to those applicants who qualify under the
1-25     terms of this Act, to refuse licenses to those applicants who do
1-26     not qualify, and to suspend or revoke the licenses of licensees who
1-27     commit violations under this Act or the rules prescribed by the
1-28     board under this Act;
1-29                 (3)  To require applicants and licensees to appear
1-30     before the board, and to administer oaths, examine witnesses, and
1-31     compel the production of pertinent books, accounts, records,
1-32     documents, and testimony by the licensee or applicant in its
1-33     hearings;
1-34                 (4)  To cause records and transcripts to be made of all
1-35     its proceedings;
1-36                 (5)  To maintain records and minutes and otherwise
1-37     operate its office affairs;
1-38                 (6)  To employ such employees to assist the board in
1-39     its functions as necessary; and
1-40                 (7)  To furnish and post in each court in the county
1-41     having jurisdiction of criminal cases and each local official
1-42     responsible for the detention of prisoners in the county with
1-43     current lists of the bondsmen and their agents licensed and
1-44     approved in the county and to notify immediately each court and
1-45     local official when a bondsman's license is suspended or revoked or
1-46     an agent's authority is rescinded[; and]
1-47                 [(8)  To file reports and furnish information on the
1-48     operation of the bonding business in the county at the request of
1-49     the Texas Judicial Council which shall report annually to the
1-50     governor and the legislature on or before December 1 of each year
1-51     on the operation of the bonding business in the state].
1-52           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-53     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-54     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-55     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-56     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-57     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-58     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-59                                  * * * * *