By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 1596

(In the Senate - Filed March 8, 2013; March 19, 2013, read first time and referred to Committee on Intergovernmental Relations; April 16, 2013, reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 5, Nays 0; April 16, 2013, sent to printer.)

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1596 By: Nichols

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the annexation by a municipality of territory of an emergency services district.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Subsections (a) and (c), Section 775.022, Health and Safety Code, are amended to read as follows:

(a) If a municipality completes all other procedures necessary to annex territory in a district and if the municipality intends to remove the territory from the district and be the sole provider of [provide] emergency services to the territory by the use of municipal personnel or by some method other than by use of the district, the municipality shall send written notice of those facts [that fact] to the board. The municipality must send the notice to the secretary of the board by certified mail, return receipt requested. The territory remains part of the district and does not become part of the municipality until the secretary of the board receives the notice. On receipt of the notice, the board shall immediately change its records to show that the territory has been disannexed from the district and shall cease to provide further services to the residents of that territory. This subsection does not require a municipality to remove from a district territory the municipality has annexed.

(c) If a municipality removes [annexes] territory from [in] a district that the municipality has annexed, the municipality shall compensate the district immediately after disannexation of the territory under Subsection (a) in an amount equal to the annexed territory's pro rata share of the district's bonded and other indebtedness as computed according to the formula in Subsection (e). The district shall apply compensation received from a municipality under this subsection exclusively to the payment of the annexed territory's pro rata share of the district's bonded and other indebtedness.

SECTION 2. Section 43.056, Local Government Code, is amended by amending Subsection (f) and adding Subsections (p) and (q) to read as follows:

(f) A service plan may not:

(1) require the creation of another political subdivision;

(2) require a landowner in the area to fund the capital improvements necessary to provide municipal services in a manner inconsistent with Chapter 395 unless otherwise agreed to by the landowner; [or]

(3) provide services in the area in a manner that would have the effect of reducing by more than a negligible amount the level of fire and police protection and emergency medical services provided within the corporate boundaries of the municipality before annexation;

(4) provide services in the area in a manner that would have the effect of reducing by more than a negligible amount the level of fire and police protection and emergency medical services provided within the area before annexation; or

(5) cause a reduction in fire and police protection and emergency medical services within the area to be annexed below that of areas within the corporate boundaries of the municipality with similar topography, land use, and population density.

(p) This subsection applies only to a municipality in a county with a population of more than one million and less than 1.5 million. For a municipality that has adopted Chapter 143 and directly employs firefighters, a service plan that includes the provision of services to an area that, at the time the service plan is adopted, is located in the territory of an emergency services district:

(1) must require the municipality's fire department to provide initial response to the annexed territory that is equivalent to that provided to other areas within the corporate boundaries of the municipality with similar topography, land use, and population density;

(2) may not provide for municipal fire services to the annexed area solely or primarily by means of an automatic aid or mutual aid agreement with the affected emergency services district or other third-party provider of services; and

(3) may authorize the emergency services district to provide supplemental fire and emergency medical services to the annexed area by means of an automatic aid or mutual aid agreement.

(q) This chapter does not affect the obligation of a municipality that has adopted Chapter 143 to provide police, fire, or emergency medical services within the municipality's corporate boundaries by means of personnel classified in accordance with that chapter.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.

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