By:  Hupp (Senate Sponsor - Fraser)                               H.B. No. 3539
	(In the Senate - Received from the House May 20, 2005; 
May 20, 2005, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural 
Resources; May 21, 2005, reported favorably by the following vote:  
Yeas 8, Nays 0; May 21, 2005, sent to printer.)

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the composition of the board of directors of the Saratoga Underground Water Conservation District. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Section 7, Chapter 519, Acts of the 71st Legislature, Regular Session, 1989, is amended to read as follows: SECTION 7. BOARD OF DIRECTORS; ELECTION OF DIRECTORS. (a) The district is governed by a board of five directors to be elected according to the commissioners precinct method as provided by this section [composed of the county judge and the county commissioners of Lampasas County]. (b) Directors serve staggered four-year terms [The county judge is the chairman of the board of directors]. (c) On the uniform election date in November of each even-numbered year, the appropriate number of directors shall be elected [The county judge and each county commissioner serves as a director as an additional duty of service on the commissioners court]. (d) One director shall be elected by the voters of the entire district, and one director shall be elected from each county commissioners precinct by the voters of that precinct. (e) Except as provided by Subsection (g) of this section, to be eligible to be a candidate for or to serve as director at large, a person must be a registered voter in the district. To be a candidate for or to serve as director from a county commissioners precinct, a person must be a registered voter of that precinct. (f) A person shall indicate on the application for a place on the ballot: (1) the precinct that the person seeks to represent; or (2) that the person seeks to represent the district at large. (g) When the boundaries of the county commissioners precincts are redrawn under Section 18, Article V, Texas Constitution, 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, shall serve the term or the remainder of the term in the precinct to which elected or appointed even though the change in boundaries places the person's residence outside the precinct for which the person was elected or appointed. SECTION 2. (a) As soon as practicable after the effective date of this Act, the Lampasas County Commissioners Court shall appoint five temporary directors to the board of directors of the Saratoga Underground Water Conservation District. The temporary directors appointed under this section replace the persons serving as directors immediately before the effective date of this Act. (b) The commissioners court shall appoint one person to represent the district at large and one person from each county commissioners precinct. To be eligible to be appointed as director at large, a person must be a registered voter in the district. To be eligible to be appointed from a county commissioners precinct, a person must be a registered voter of that precinct. (c) The director appointed to represent the district at large and the directors appointed from precincts two and four shall serve until the November uniform election date in 2006. The directors appointed from precincts one and three shall serve until the November uniform election date in 2008. SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2005.
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