C.S.S.B. 347 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS C.S.S.B. 347 By: Barrientos Natural Resources Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, the board of directors of the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (district) is composed of five members, who are elected from single-member districts. Members of two of the districts are elected from the City of Austin. Whenever the City of Austin annexes territory within the district's boundaries, the district must redistrict to ensure that only two of its members are elected by City of Austin residents. As proposed, C.S.S.B. 347 would revise the district's single-member districts as soon as practicable after the publication of each federal decennial census as the board considers appropriate to reflect population changes. This is in keeping with the redistricting requirements of other political bodies. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS SECTION 1. C.S.S.B. 347 amends Section 7, Chapter 429, Acts of the 70th Legislature, Regular Session, 1987, by adding Subsections (d), (e), (f), (g), and (h) as follows: (d) This subsection provides that the Barton Springs-Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (district) is divided into five numbered, single-member districts for electing directors. The bill authorizes the board of the district (board) to revise the single-member districts as necessary or appropriate. (e) This subsection requires the board to revise the single-member districts as soon as practicable after the publication of each federal decennial census as the board considers appropriate to reflect population changes. (f) This subsection requires the board, when the board revises the single-member districts under Subsection (e), to place two of the districts entirely within the boundaries of the City of Austin, as they exist at that time. The bill provides that changes in the boundaries of the City of Austin between revisions of the single-member districts under Subsection (e) do not affect the boundaries of the single-member districts. (g) This subsection provides that the two single-member districts within the boundaries of the City of Austin are allowed to include unincorporated areas and other municipalities that are surrounded wholly or partly by the boundaries of the City of Austin, if the areas or municipalities are noncontiguous to the territory of any other single-member district. (h) This subsection provides that when the boundaries of the single-member districts are changed, a director in office on the effective date of the change, or elected or appointed before the effective date of the change to a term of office beginning on or after the effective date of the change, is entitled to serve the term or the remainder of the term in the single-member district to which elected or appointed even though the change in boundaries places the person's residence outside the singlemember district for which the person was elected or appointed. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2003. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The substitute clarifies which areas can be included in the City of Austin districts listed in subsection (f). This change allows unincorporated areas within (wholly or partly) the boundaries of the city to be included if they are not bordering another single-member district in the Barton Springs-Edwards Aquifer Conservation District.