By:  Nelson                                                       S.B. No. 756


A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to a declaration of a local state of disaster by certain 
joint airport boards.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 418.004, Government Code, is amended by 
adding Subdivision (8) to read as follows:
		(8)  "Joint board" means a board created under Section 
22.074, Transportation Code, whose constituent agencies are 
populous home-rule municipalities as defined by Section 22.071, 
Transportation Code.
	SECTION 2.  Subsection (b), Section 418.102, Government 
Code, is amended to read as follows:
	(b)  The county program is the first channel through which a 
municipal corporation or a joint board shall request assistance 
when its resources are exceeded.  Requests that exceed the county 
capability shall be forwarded to the state as prescribed in the 
state emergency management plan.
	SECTION 3.  Section 418.108, Government Code, is amended to 
read as follows: 
	Sec. 418.108.  DECLARATION OF LOCAL DISASTER.  (a)  Except 
as provided by Subsection (e), the [The] presiding officer of the 
governing body of a political subdivision may declare a local state 
of disaster.
	(b)  A declaration of local disaster may not be continued or 
renewed for a period of more than seven days except with the consent 
of the governing body of the political subdivision or the joint 
board as provided by Subsection (e), as applicable.
	(c)  An order or proclamation declaring, continuing, or 
terminating a local state of disaster shall be given prompt and 
general publicity and shall be filed promptly with the city 
secretary, the [or] county clerk, or the joint board's official 
records, as applicable.
	(d)  A declaration of local disaster activates the recovery 
and rehabilitation aspects of all applicable local or 
interjurisdictional emergency management plans and authorizes the 
furnishing of aid and assistance under the declaration.  The 
preparedness and response aspects of the plans are activated as 
provided in the plans.
	(e)  The chief administrative officer of a joint board has 
exclusive authority to declare that a local state of disaster 
exists within the boundaries of an airport operated or controlled 
by the joint board, regardless of whether the airport is located in 
or outside the boundaries of a political subdivision.
	SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.