79R13881 HLT-D
By: Puente H.B. No. 3565
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the administration, powers, and duties of the Bexar
Metropolitan Water District.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 2, Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945 (Article 8280-126, Vernon's
Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 2. (a) The District is a special utility district in
Bexar County created under and essential to accomplish the purposes
of Section 59, Article XVI, Texas Constitution.
(b) Except as otherwise provided by this Act, Chapters 49
and 65, Water Code, apply to the District.
(c) The District may not establish, operate, or maintain
fire-fighting facilities [The District is hereby created as a
governmental agency, a body politic and corporate, and a municipal
corporation, vested with all the authority as such under the
Constitution and laws of the State of Texas; and shall have and be
empowered to exercise all the rights, privileges, functions, and
powers of such governmental agency and body politic and corporate
as authorized or implied by the provisions of Article 16, Section 59
of the Constitution and as have been or may be conferred by General
Law upon conservation districts and as authorized or implied by the
provisions of this Act, for the purpose of controlling, conserving,
protecting, preserving, distributing, and utilizing the storm and
flood waters of the rivers and streams situated in said District and
for the purpose of regulating and controlling the disposal of
sewage, wastes, and other refuse, and the collection and disposal
thereof, to prevent the contamination and pollution of the public
waters of the District. It shall have the power to formulate and
execute any and all plans deemed essential to the accomplishment of
the purposes for which it is created and shall be recognized to have
such authority and power of control and regulation over the storm
and flood waters of its rivers and streams as may be exercised by
the State of Texas, subject to the provisions of the Constitution
and Section 4 of this Act].
SECTION 2. Section 3, Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945 (Article 8280-126, Vernon's
Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 3. In addition to the powers vested by the Constitution
and general laws in such public agency for the greatest practicable
measure of the conservation, preservation, and beneficial
utilization of its public waters and[,] the power to control and
utilize its public waters [and to regulate the disposal and the
disposal of sewage, waste, and refuse], the District shall have the
following general powers:
(a) Through every practical and legal means to develop,
transport, deliver, distribute, store, and treat water for use
within the District, [including the storm and flood waters within
the District,] including the power to cooperate with the United
States Government or any agency thereof, or any municipality,
public, quasi-public or private agency and to contract, negotiate,
and enter into agreements with any one or more of such agencies in
effecting such purposes;
(b) [to store, control, and conserve storm and flood waters
of its rivers and streams and to prevent the escape of any such
waters without first obtaining therefrom a maximum of public
service; to prevent devastation of property from overflow and to
protect life and property from uncontrolled flood and storm waters;
[(c)] to conserve and distribute waters essential for
domestic and other uses by the inhabitants of the District,
including necessary water supply for cities and towns situated
within the District;
[(d) to provide for the development of drainage systems to
control, regulate, and dispose of all storm and flood waters of the
District so as to protect effectively lives and property, and to
utilize such waters for each and every purpose for which flood and
storm waters when controlled, conserved, or regulated may be
utilized as contemplated by the Constitution and the public policy
therein declared;]
(c) [(e)] to provide by purchase, construction, lease,
gift, or in any other manner and to operate any and all facilities
deemed by the District essential for preserving the purity of all
the surface and underground waters of the District for the
protection of the health of its inhabitants[, and to formulate
plans to make and enforce rules and regulations for the effective
disposal of any and all sewage wastes, refuse, or residuum, however
accumulated; which otherwise would contaminate, pollute, or render
unsafe and insanitary the surface and underground waters of the
District and which might threaten or impair the health of its
inhabitants or which might adversely affect the health of the
inhabitants downstream below the District];
(d) [(f)] to acquire by purchase, construction, lease,
gift, or in any other manner (otherwise than by condemnation) and to
maintain, use, and operate any and all property of any kind, real,
personal, or mixed, or any interest therein within or without the
boundaries of the District deemed by its Board of Directors
necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers, rights,
privileges, and functions conferred upon it by this Act;
(e) [(g)] to acquire by condemnation any and all property of
any kind, real, personal, or mixed, or any interest therein, within
[or outside of] the boundaries of the District, necessary to the
exercise of the powers, rights, privileges, and functions conferred
by this Act, in the manner provided by General Law relative to
condemnation, or at the option of the District, in the manner
provided by law with respect to condemnation by agencies organized
pursuant to Section 59, Article 16 of the Constitution of the State
of Texas; provided that the District shall not have the right or
power to so condemn any such property that may be owned by any other
political subdivision, city, or town located within the District;
(f) [(h)] to cooperate, contract, and enter into agreements
with towns, cities, districts, or political subdivisions located in
or outside of the District and with Bexar County, in the
construction, purchase, lease, maintenance, improvement, use, and
operation of any and all facilities, works, and plants necessary or
convenient to the accomplishment of the purposes for which the
District was created;
(g) [(i)] to make contracts with any person, private
corporation, municipal corporation, political subdivision, or the
Board of Trustees thereof, operating water distribution facilities
for the benefit of a city or town within the District, under which
the District may perform services for such parties or such parties
may perform services for the District, or under which either may
operate all or any part of the facilities of the other, having due
regard for the duties and obligations of such parties in the
instrument prescribing their or its duties;
(h) [(j)] to construct, extend, improve, maintain, and
reconstruct, to cause to be constructed, extended, improved,
maintained, or reconstructed and to use and operate any and all
facilities of any kind necessary or convenient to the exercise of
the powers, rights, privileges, and functions conferred by this
Act;
(i) [(k)] to sue and be sued in its corporate name;
(j) [(l)] to make by-laws for the management and regulation
of its affairs conformably to the powers and purposes herein
conferred and consistent with the Constitution of this State;
(k) [(m)] to make rules and regulations and to prescribe
penalties for the breach of any rule or regulation of the District,
which penalties shall not exceed fines of more than Two Hundred
Dollars ($200), or imprisonment for more than thirty (30) days, or
may provide both such fine and such imprisonment. The penalties
hereby authorized shall be in addition to any other penalties
provided by the laws of Texas and may be enforced by complaints
filed in the appropriate court of jurisdiction in the county in
which the district's principal office is located; provided,
however, that no rule or regulation which provides a penalty for the
violation thereof shall be in effect, as to enforcement of the
penalty, until five days next after the district may have caused a
substantive statement of the particular rule or regulation and the
penalty for the violation thereof to be published, once a week for
two consecutive weeks, in one or more newspapers affording general
circulation in the area in which the property of the district is
situated; and, the substantive statement so to be published shall
be as condensed as is possible to afford an intelligent direction of
the mind to the object sought to be accomplished or the act
forbidden by the rule or regulation; one notice may embrace any
number of regulations; there must be embraced in the notice advice
that breach of the particular regulation, or regulations, will
subject the violator to the infliction of a penalty and there also
shall be included in the notice advice that the full text of the
regulation sought to be enforced is on file in the principal office
of the District, where the same may be read by any interested
person. Five (5) days after the second publication of the notice
hereby required, the advertised regulation shall be in effect, and
ignorance of any such regulation shall not constitute a defense to a
prosecution for the enforcement of a penalty; and, the rules and
regulations authorized hereby, after the required publication,
shall judicially be known to the courts and shall be considered of a
nature like unto that of valid penal ordinances of a city of the
State;
(l) [(n)] to adopt, use, and alter a corporate seal;
(m) [(o)] to appoint agents and employees; prescribe their
duties and fix their compensation;
(n) [(p)] to make contracts and execute instruments
necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers, rights,
privileges, and functions herein conferred;
(o) [(q)] to borrow money for its authorized purposes, to
accept grants or loans or allotments from the United States
Government or any of its agencies, or others, and in connection with
any such grants, loans, or allotments to enter into such agreements
as may be required to make them effective, and for the purpose of
obtaining funds to issue its negotiable tax bonds and its
negotiable revenue bonds in the manner and to the extent
hereinafter provided;
(p) [(r)] to operate and maintain with consent of the
governing body of any city, town, or political subdivision located
in the District any works, plants, or facilities deemed necessary
or convenient to the accomplishment of the purposes for which the
District is created;
(q) [(s)] to enter into planning agreements with the Texas
Water Development Board under Subchapter C, Chapter 16, Water Code,
for the purpose of conducting studies necessary to maintain retail
water supply services to customers within the boundaries of the
District; and
(r) [(t)] to cooperate with and support local fire
departments and economic development activities sponsored by local
entities within the District that use water and water resources
provided, or to be provided, by the District.
SECTION 3. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945 (Article 8280-126, Vernon's Texas Civil
Statutes), is amended by adding Section 3A to read as follows:
Sec. 3A. The District may not:
(1) collect, transport, process, dispose of, store, or
control domestic, industrial, or communal wastes as provided by
Section 65.201(b)(2), Water Code, or other law;
(2) alter land elevation in the District as provided
by Section 65.201(b)(5), Water Code, or other law;
(3) provide fire-fighting services for inhabitants of
the District as provided by Section 65.201(b)(6), Water Code, or
other law; or
(4) collect solid waste or purchase, construct,
acquire, own, operate, maintain, repair, improve, or extend a solid
waste collection and disposal system as provided by Section 65.203,
Water Code, or other law.
SECTION 4. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945 (Article 8280-126, Vernon's Texas Civil
Statutes), is amended by adding Section 3B to read as follows:
Sec. 3B. (a) In this section, "facility" means a building
or structure of any kind, including an underground facility. The
term does not include a pipe.
(b) Section 49.222, Water Code, applies to the District,
except that the District may not exercise the power of eminent
domain outside the District boundaries to:
(1) construct or maintain a District facility; or
(2) acquire a recreational easement.
SECTION 5. Section 4, Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945 (Article 8280-126, Vernon's
Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 4. [(a)] The powers vested in and the duties devolved
upon the District in this Act are subject to the continuing right of
supervision of the flow waters of its rivers and streams [and the
impounding of flood waters,] by the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality [State Board of Water Engineers], and in
instances where the plans of the District provide for the use of
water from any rivers or streams [or the impounding of any flood
waters thereof], it shall submit such plans to the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality [State Board of Water Engineers] for
approval as to efficacy and shall make application for a permit as
required by law[;
[(b) Where the general plans of the District provide for the
disposal of sewage and wastes, such plans shall be submitted to the
State Board of Water Engineers for approval as to compliance with
the provisions of Article 848a of the Penal Code of Texas].
SECTION 6. Section 13, Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945 (Article 8280-126, Vernon's
Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 13. In furtherance of the purposes for which it is
created and to provide funds for the construction or purchase,
improvement, extension, repair, replacement or betterment of
waterworks systems[, storm sewers, sanitary sewer systems, sewage
disposal plants] or any other improvements, works, plants or
facilities deemed necessary to accomplish any part of its plans and
purposes the District shall have the power to borrow money and to
evidence such loan by the authorization, issuance and sale of its
negotiable bonds, provided that it shall not be authorized, to
issue bonds or incur any form of continuing obligations or
indebtedness for said purposes which would be payable from the
proceeds of taxes levied against lands or properties within the
District, unless the proposition for the incurring of such
indebtedness shall have been submitted to the qualified property
taxpaying voters of the District and approved by a majority of such
electors voting thereon. The Board of Directors is authorized to
call an election for the issuance of any such bonds and the levy of a
tax in payment thereof and such proposition shall be submitted in
the manner provided by Chapter 1, Title 22 of the Revised Civil
Statutes of Texas, 1925, relating to County and City bond
elections, to the qualified property taxpaying resident voters of
the District who have duly rendered property for taxation. If at
such election a majority of the legal votes cast are favorable to
the issuance of the bonds they may be issued to mature serially or
otherwise, as may be determined by the Board, not more than forty
(40) years from their date, with or without option of prior
redemption, and if an option of redemption prior to maturity is
reserved it shall be plainly so stated in the resolution
authorizing such bonds and in the face of each bond, together with
the prices at which and the terms under which the bonds may be so
redeemed; provided the price so fixed for prior redemption shall
never exceed one hundred and five per cent (105%) of the principal
amount of such bonds, plus the interest accrued to date of
redemption, and such bonds shall bear interest at not exceeding
five per cent (5%) per annum. All bonds issued under the provisions
of this Act shall be executed in the name of the District, shall be
signed by the President and Secretary of the Board of Directors and
shall have the official seal of the District impressed thereon. The
tax authorized to be levied in payment of the bonds shall be levied
upon all taxable property situated in said District in an amount and
at a rate sufficient to pay the interest as it accrues and create a
sinking fund to retire said bonds as such bonds mature, and such tax
shall be assessed and collected annually.
SECTION 7. Section 14, Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945 (Article 8280-126, Vernon's
Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 14. The District is hereby authorized to issue its
negotiable bonds, secured only by pledge of net revenues to be
derived from the operation of any of its works, plants or
facilities, and in such amounts as may be authorized by the
Directors, to provide funds for the construction or purchase,
improvement, extension, repair, replacement or betterment of
waterworks systems[, storm sewers, sanitary sewer systems, sewage
disposal plants] or any other improvements, works, plants or
facilities deemed by the Board of Directors as essential or
convenient for the accomplishment of its purposes. The term "net
revenue" as used in this Act shall be construed to mean the revenues
of the District from whatever source derived, except taxes,
remaining after the payment of all costs of collection of such
revenues, all costs of operation and maintenance, depreciation and
necessary replacements of such works, plants and facilities, owned
or acquired or controlled by the District. All such bonds shall be
authorized by resolution of the Board of Directors, concurred in by
a majority of the members of the Board without the necessity of an
election, and shall bear interest at not exceeding five per cent
(5%) per annum, mature serially or otherwise not more than forty
(40) years from their date, be payable at such place or places as
such resolution shall provide, be signed by the President and
Secretary of the Board and have the seal of the District affixed
thereto. Such bonds are sometimes referred to in this Act as
"Revenue Bonds". In the discretion of the Board of Directors it may
defer the issuance of Revenue Bonds on any occasion until the
proposition for the issuance of such bonds may be submitted at an
election, which shall be called and held in the manner provided in
Section 13 hereof for the voting of tax bonds, and unless such
election shall have resulted favorably to the issuance of the
Revenue Bonds. The resolution authorizing any such bonds may
contain provisions which shall be a part of the contract between the
District and the bondholders. Such resolution may include among
other provisions any of the following:
(a) Reserving the right to redeem such bonds prior to
maturity at such time or times, in such amounts and at such prices
as may be thus provided, but in no event shall the price so fixed for
prior redemption ever exceed one hundred and five per cent (105%) of
the principal amount of such bonds plus accrued interest;
(b) providing for the setting aside of sinking funds or
reserve funds and the regulation for disposition thereof;
(c) pledging to secure the payment thereof all or any part
of the net revenues thereafter received by the District in respect
of the property, real, personal, or mixed, acquired or to be
acquired or constructed with such bonds or the proceeds thereof, or
all of any part of the net revenues thereafter received by the
District from whatsoever source, except taxes;
(d) prescribing the purposes to which the proceeds of such
bonds or any bonds thereafter to be issued may be applied;
(e) covenant to fix and collect fees, rates and charges for
use of works, plants and facilities sufficient to produce net
revenues adequate to pay such bonds, plus interest, and prescribing
the use and disposition of all District revenues except taxes;
(f) prescribing limitations upon the issuance of additional
revenue bonds and upon all agreements which may be made between the
District and the purchasers and subsequent holders of bonds to be
issued subsequently;
(g) providing for the construction, extension, improvement,
operation, maintenance, depreciation, replacement and betterment
of the properties of the District and carrying insurance of any and
all kinds upon all or part of its properties;
(h) fixing the procedure, by which any contract with the
bondholders may be amended and for the execution and delivery of an
indenture or agreement for the benefit of the holders of such bonds,
which indenture or agreement may define "events of default" and
prescribe the remedies therefor and contain such other items,
conditions and covenants as may be agreed upon that are not
inconsistent with the provisions of this Act or the Constitution of
the State of Texas.
SECTION 8. (a) The Bexar Metropolitan Water District shall
divest itself of any facilities and equipment constructed,
acquired, or maintained by the district to provide flood control,
wastewater, or solid waste services and shall arrange for the
orderly transfer to another provider of the accounts of any
customers and service to those customers not later than the first
anniversary of the effective date of this Act.
(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a) of this section, if the
district has issued revenue bonds, notes, or other obligations in
connection with the facilities or equipment described by Subsection
(a) of this section, the district may not transfer the facilities or
equipment until the obligations have been paid off unless the
provider to whom the facilities or equipment are transferred
assumes the obligations or the holders of the obligations approve
the transfer.
(c) The changes in law made by Section 3, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945 (Article 8280-126, Vernon's
Texas Civil Statutes), as amended by this Act, and Section 3B,
Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature, Regular Session, 1945
(Article 8280-126, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), as added by this
Act, do not affect an eminent domain action initiated before the
effective date of this Act. Such an action is governed by the law in
effect when the action was initiated, and the former law is
continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 9. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.