79R6797 DRH-D


By:  Leibowitz                                                    H.B. No. 1728



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the procedure for the disannexation of territory from a 
municipality.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Sections 43.141(a) and (b), Local Government 
Code, are amended to read as follows:
	(a)  The registered [A majority of the qualified] voters of 
an annexed area may submit a petition to the governing body of the 
municipality to require disannexation of [disannex] the area if the 
municipality fails or refuses to provide services or to cause 
services to be provided to the area within the period specified by 
Section 43.056 or by the service plan prepared for the area under 
that section.  The petition must contain the signatures of a number 
of registered voters of the area equal to more than 50 percent of 
the number of voters of the area who voted in the most recent 
municipal election.
	(b)  The [If the] governing body shall certify whether a 
petition submitted under Subsection (a) is valid.  If the petition 
is certified as valid, the municipality shall [fails or refuses to] 
disannex the area within 60 days after the date the petition is 
certified unless within that period the municipality brings [of the 
receipt of the petition, any one or more of the signers of the 
petition may bring] a cause of action in a district court of the 
county in which the area is principally located to request that the 
area remain annexed to the municipality [be disannexed].  On the 
filing of an answer by any registered voter who signed the petition
[the governing body], and on application of either party, the case 
shall be advanced and heard without further delay in accordance 
with the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.  The district court shall 
enter an order disannexing the area if the court finds that a valid 
petition was filed with the municipality unless the court finds
[and that] the municipality performed [failed to perform] its 
obligations in accordance with the service plan [or failed to 
perform] in good faith.  Either party may request that the factual 
determinations in the proceeding be made by a jury.
	SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act to Section 
43.141, Local Government Code, applies only to a disannexation for 
which a petition is submitted to a municipality on or after the 
effective date of this Act.  A disannexation for which the petition 
was submitted before the effective date of this Act is governed by 
the law in effect at the time the petition was submitted, and the 
former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.