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Amend Amendment No. 6 by Puente to CSSB 3 on page 98 of the
prefiled amendments packet by striking lines 6-26 and substituting
the following:
ARTICLE 5A
SECTION 5A.01. Section 3, Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945, 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, 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;
(c) [(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;
[(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
the boundaries of the county of Bexar [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 5A.02. Section 5A, Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Subsection
(c) to read as follows:
(c) The District's boundaries for the purpose of conducting
an election are coextensive with the boundaries of Bexar County.
SECTION 5A.03. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 7A to read as
follows:
Sec. 7A. The District is governed by a board of nine
directors, composed of:
(1) the members of the Commissioners Court of Bexar
County;
(2) the county judge of Atascosa County, if the
District provides services to customers in Atascosa County;
(3) the county judge of Comal County, if the District
provides services to customers in Comal County;
(4) the county judge of Medina County, if the District
provides services to customers in Medina County; and
(5) the mayor of San Antonio.
SECTION 5A.04. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 8A to read as
follows:
Sec. 8A. (a) The board of directors is subject to review under
Chapter 325, Government Code (Texas Sunset Act), but may not be
abolished under that chapter. The review shall be conducted as if
the board of directors were scheduled to be abolished September 1,
2010.
(b) If the legislature does not continue the members of the
board of directors in office:
(1) the Commissioners Court of Bexar County shall hold
an election to elect new board members, in accordance with Section
5A, on the uniform election date in November of 2010; and
(2) the terms of the board members expire on the date
the election returns are canvassed.
SECTION 5A.05. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by amending Section 9 to read as
follows:
Sec. 9. The Board of Directors from time to time shall be
authorized to make or cause to be made surveys and engineering
investigations for the information of the District to facilitate
the accomplishment of the purposes for which the District is
created, as expressed in the provisions of this Act; and may employ
engineers, attorneys and all other technical and non-technical
employees or assistants and fix and provide the amount and manner of
their compensation, and may provide for payment of expenditures
deemed essential to the proper maintenance and administration of
the District. Notwithstanding Section 49.060, Water Code, a member
[The members] of the Board of Directors is not entitled to receive
fees of office [shall receive a per diem of not more than Ten
Dollars ($10) per day, for the time actually expended on business of
the District, together with traveling and other necessary expenses,
provided that such per diem fee shall not be paid to a Director for
more than one hundred (100) days in any one year].
SECTION 5A.06. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Sections 23A and 23B to
read as follows:
Sec. 23A. The District may not provide a service to a
customer located outside Bexar County unless:
(1) the customer received services from the District
on or before April 4, 2007; or
(2) the District is the only service provider in the
service area in which the customer is located.
Sec. 23B. (a) The District may not charge a customer who
receives water services from the District on and after September 1,
2007, a residential or commercial water rate that is greater than
the rate charged by the District on September 1, 2007. This
subsection expires September 1, 2012.
(b) If, on or after September 1, 2007, the District
contracts with a person to provide water services to District
customers and the person with whom the District contracts has water
rates lower than the District's, a customer who receives water
services from the District on September 1, 2007, and when the
contract is in effect is entitled to the water rate charged by the
person with whom the District contracts.
SECTION 5A.07. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 27A to read as
follows:
Sec. 27A. (a) The District may not terminate without cause
an employee who, on June 1, 2007:
(1) is vested in the District's retirement plan; and
(2) earns an annual salary of $50,000 or less.
(b) An employee described by Subsection (a) of this section
who is terminated by the District for cause is entitled to the
grievance process available to an employee of Bexar County who is
not classified as a civil service employee.
SECTION 5A.08. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 27C to read as
follows:
Sec. 27C. (a) The District may not employ fewer than 90
percent of the number of employees employed by the District on June
1, 2007, who earned an annual salary of $50,000 or less.
(b) The District may reduce the number of employees employed
by the District who earn an annual salary of $50,000 or less only
through:
(1) retirement;
(2) voluntary resignation; or
(3) termination for cause.
(c) An employee terminated by the District for cause is
entitled to the grievance process available to an employee of Bexar
County who is not classified as a civil service employee.
(d) This section expires September 1, 2012.
SECTION 5A.09. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 27D to read as
follows:
Sec 27D. (a) Not later than 120 days after the first meeting
of the Board of Directors of the District composed of the persons
described by Section 7A, the District shall:
(1) produce a report of an assessment of the
operations and maintenance condition of the District;
(2) produce a status report of infrastructure
improvements under construction;
(3) produce a report certifying any rate structure
changes approved by the District and documenting a schedule for
future changes to rate structure anticipated by the District; and
(4) deliver these reports to the Bexar Metropolitan
Water District Legislative Oversight Committee.
(b) Not later than 180 days after the first meeting of the
Board of Directors of the District composed of the persons
described by Section 7A, the District shall produce an assessment
of the District's financial condition and present it to the
legislative oversight committee.
(c) Not later than 240 days after the first meeting of the
Board of Directors of the District composed of the persons
described by Section 7A, the District shall:
(1) produce a report of necessary improvements to the
system and a schedule for the implementation of those improvements;
(2) produce a report on the sustainability and
adequacy of the water resources of the District and a plan for
obtaining additional water resources if deficiencies exist; and
(3) deliver these reports to the legislative oversight
committee.
(d) Not later than one year after the first meeting of the
Board of Directors of the District composed of the persons
described by Section 7A, the District shall:
(1) produce a report on service delivery improvements
that have been completed and that are in progress;
(2) produce a report identifying all service
improvements necessary for the system and a schedule for the
completion of those improvements; and
(3) deliver these reports to the legislative oversight
committee.
(e) Not later than three years after the first meeting of
the Board of Directors of the District composed of the persons
described by Section 7A, the District shall have a uniform rate
structure that contains rates that are equal to or lower than the
rates of other large retail water providers in the region, except
that the District's rates must be sufficient to meet debt service
obligations and debt coverage requirements.
(f) This section expires September 1, 2012.
SECTION 5A.10. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 27E to read as
follows:
Sec. 27E. (a) Bexar County may not transfer, sell, or lease
to a public utility the management or assets, including
certificates of convenience and necessity and water rights, of the
District.
(b) This section does not apply to a certificate of
convenience and necessity or an asset of the District outside of
Bexar County.
SECTION 5A.11. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 32 to read as
follows:
Sec. 32. (a) The District shall permit a customer to pay a
bill at one or more retail locations in the District.
(b) The District may not close a customer service branch
that is in operation on May 1, 2007 unless a comparable customer
service branch is opened. This subsection expires May 1, 2012.
SECTION 5A.12. For purposes of service on the Canyon Regional
Water Authority Board of Directors, a representative from the
district shall be selected from the Board of Directors of the
District.
SECTION 5A.13. Section 8, Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945, is repealed.
ARTICLE 5B
SECTION 5B.01. Section 3, Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th
Legislature, Regular Session, 1945, 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, 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;
(c) [(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;
[(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
the boundaries of the county of Bexar [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 5B.02. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Sections 23A and 23B to
read as follows:
Sec. 23A. The District may not provide a service to a
customer located outside Bexar County unless the customer received
services from the District on or before April 4, 2007.
Sec. 23B. (a) The District may not charge a customer who
receives water services from the District on and after September 1,
2007, a residential or commercial water rate that is greater than
the rate charged by the District on September 1, 2007. This
subsection expires September 1, 2012.
(b) If, on or after September 1, 2007, the District
contracts with a person to provide water services to District
customers and the person with whom the District contracts has water
rates lower than the District's, a customer who receives water
services from the District on September 1, 2007, and when the
contract is in effect is entitled to the water rate charged by the
person with whom the District contracts.
SECTION 5B.03. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 27D to read as
follows:
Sec 27D. (a) Not later than 120 days after the effective date
of the Act enacting this article, the District shall:
(1) produce a report of an assessment of the
operations and maintenance condition of the District;
(2) produce a status report of infrastructure
improvements under construction;
(3) produce a report certifying any rate structure
changes approved by the District and documenting a schedule for
future changes to rate structure anticipated by the District; and
(4) deliver these reports to the legislative oversight
committee.
(b) Not later than 180 days after the effective date of the
Act enacting this article, the District shall produce an assessment
of the District's financial condition and present it to the Bexar
Metropolitan Water District Legislative Oversight Committee.
(c) Not later than 240 days after the effective date of the
Act enacting this article, the District shall:
(1) produce a report of necessary improvements to the
system and a schedule for the implementation of those improvements;
(2) produce a report on the sustainability and
adequacy of the water resources of the District and a plan for
obtaining additional water resources if deficiencies exist; and
(3) deliver these reports to the legislative oversight
committee.
(d) Not later than one year after the effective date of the
Act enacting this article, the District shall:
(1) produce a report on service delivery improvements
that have been completed and that are in progress;
(2) produce a report identifying all service
improvements necessary for the system and a schedule for the
completion of those improvements; and
(3) deliver these reports to the legislative oversight
committee.
(e) Not later than eighteen months after the effective date
of the Act enacting this article, the District must have a uniform
rate structure that contains rates that are equal to or lower than
the rates of other large retail water providers in the region.
(f) This section expires September 1, 2012.
SECTION 5B.04. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 32 to read as
follows:
Sec. 32. (a) The District shall permit a customer to pay a
bill at one or more retail locations in the District.
(b)The District may not close a customer service branch that
is in operation on June 1, 2007, unless a comparable customer
service branch is opened. This subsection expires September 1,
2012.
SECTION 5B.05. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 27A to read as
follows:
Sec. 27A. The District shall submit to the Bexar Metropolitan
Water District Legislative Oversight Committee the following:
(1) a schedule for achieving the objectives set out in
Section 27D within six months of the effective date of this section;
(2) evidence that the District, within one and one half
years from the effective date of this section, has completed its
three-year plan of improvements as adopted by the board of
directors of the District before the effective date of this Act;
(3) audited annual financial statements indicating the
financial condition of the district within six months of the
effective date of this section;
(4) a written projection of all rate and fee increases
for three years following the effective date of this Act within six
months of the effective date of this section;
(5) any documentation or materials used in conducting a
standard managerial and financial audit; and
(6) any other information the legislative oversight
committee requests.
SECTION 5B.06. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 27C to read as
follows:
Sec. 27C. The District shall implement a rate structure that
promotes and encourages conservation of water and provides for
lower rates for customers using lower quantities of water.
SECTION 5B.07. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49th Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 27E to read as
follows:
Sec. 27E. The District shall implement an appeal and
grievance process for employees of the District.
ARTICLE 5C
SECTION 5C.01. Chapter 306, Acts of the 49 Legislature,
Regular Session, 1945, is amended by adding Section 33A as follows:
Sec. 33A. LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE. (a) In
recognition of the important goal of the state in providing safe and
efficient water supply services to the customers of the District
and the necessity for state oversight and regulation of the
District to ensure the achievement of this goal there is created the
Bexar Metropolitan Water District Legislative Oversight Committee.
(b) The legislative oversight committee shall:
(1) monitor the progress of the district in
implementing a rate structure that conserves water, provides
adequate service to low-income customers, and assists in creating
uniform rates among water utility providers in the region;
(2) monitor the quality of service provided by the
district;
(3) monitor the plans by the district to provide for
sustainability of water resources and plan for infrastructure
needs;
(4) identify regulatory and statutory barriers to
achievement of the district's goals, and make recommendations to
the Legislature, if necessary; and
(5) perform any other oversight function considered
appropriate by the legislative oversight committee.
(c) The legislative oversight committee is composed of
three members appointed to represent the following members:
(1) the senator sponsor of the Act enacting this
section, or, if the senator cannot serve, a senator appointed by the
lieutenant governor;
(2) the house author of the Act enacting this section,
or, if the representative cannot serve, a representative appointed
by the speaker of the house of representatives; and
(3) one member with special expertise in the operation
of public water utilities appointed by the governor.
(d) A member of the legislative oversight committee is not
entitled to receive compensation for service on the legislative
oversight committee but is entitled to reimbursement of the travel
expenses incurred by the member while conducting the business of
the legislative oversight committee, as provided by the General
Appropriations Act.
(e) The District shall provide staff support for the
legislative oversight committee.
(f) If Article 5A of this Act becomes effective, this
section expires on September 1, 2012, and the legislative oversight
committee is abolished.
SECTION 5C.02. STATE AUDIT. Subject to approval by the
Legislative Audit Committee for inclusion in the annual audit plan,
the State Auditor shall conduct a financial and managerial audit of
the District upon passage of this Act and submit the findings from
the audit in a written report to the members of the Legislative
Oversight Committee, the Board of Directors of the District, the
Texas Legislature, and the Bexar County Commissioners. The District
shall cooperate and provide assistance and access to all necessary
records, even if they are confidential, to the state auditor in
conducting the audit pursuant to this Section. The District shall
reimburse the state auditor for the cost of performing the audit.
SECTION 5C.03. TRANSITION PERIOD. (a) The period on or after
the effective date of the Act and before the implementation of
Article 5A or Article 5B of this Act is the transition period.
(b) During the term of the transition period, the district
may not:
(1) destroy or falsify any record of the District,
including, but not limited to, written correspondence, electronic
mail, and tape recordings;
(2) modify in any manner the compensation, benefits,
bonus plan, or any matter related to compensation of all employees,
including management, of the district;
(3) enter into any contract or agreement that cannot
be terminated with 45 days notice and no penalty for termination;
(4) enter into any contract or agreement to privatize
operation of any part of the district system; or
(5) sell, lease, transfer, or convert any assets of
the District.
SECTION 5C.04. (a) The legal notice of the intention to
introduce Articles 5A, 5B, and 5C, setting forth the general
substance of articles 5A, 5B, and 5C, has been published as provided
by law, and the notice and a copy of article 5A, 5B, and 5C have been
furnished to all persons, agencies, officials, or entities to which
they are required to be furnished under Section 59, Article XVI,
Texas Constitution, and Chapter 313, Government Code.
(b) The governor, one of the required recipients, has
submitted the notice of articles 5A and 5B to the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality.
(c) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has filed
its recommendations relating to articles 5A and 5B with the
governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker of the house of
representatives within the required time.
(d) All requirements of the constitution and laws of this
state and the rules and procedures of the legislature with respect
to the notice, introduction, and passage of articles 5A and 5B are
fulfilled and accomplished.
SECTION 5C.05. (a) Articles 5A and 5C take effect January 1,
2008.
(b) If the United States Department of Justice issues a
letter under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act interposing an
objection to the implementation of any portion of Article 5A, 5B, or
5C, the Texas Secretary of State shall publish notice of the
objection in the Texas Register. The notice shall contain a copy of
the letter referenced in this section. On publication of the
notice, Article 5B takes effect and Article 5A is no longer
effective.