HBA-MPA C.S.H.B. 485 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 485
By: Hill
Urban Affairs
2/33/5/1999
Committee Report (Substituted)




BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

From 1934 to 1997, the Texas Legislature regularly passed validation
statutes that apply to various activities and functions of cities.  These
statutes validate certain actions taken by cities regarding adoption of
home rule charters and incorporation and annexation proceedings, but
specifically exclude validation of any illegal act or any transaction in
litigation at the time of the passage of the statute.  The 75th Legislature
failed to pass a validation statute for the first time in 63 years. 

The validating statute is not absolute in limiting challenges to
governmental action.  C.S.H.B. 485 provides safeguards in that it does not
validate actions that are involved in litigation, and specifically states
that it does not apply to actions which may otherwise be invalid or void
because of nonconformance with applicable laws.  It does, however, provide
some defense to governmental actions that are valid and within a city's
authority to act, but that were enacted incorrectly from a procedural or
clerical standpoint. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 51, Local Government Code, by
adding Section 51.003, as follows: 

Sec. 51.003.  MUNICIPAL ACT OR PROCEEDING PRESUMED VALID.  (a) Provides
that  a governmental act or proceeding of a municipality is conclusively
presumed valid as of the date it occurred and in accordance with applicable
statutes and ordinances if, it occurred before March 1, 1999, and no
litigation has been filed by that date that ultimately results in the act
or proceeding being held invalid by a final judgment of a court.  

(b) Provides that this section does not apply to: an act or proceeding
which was void at the time it occurred or was a misdemeanor or felony at
the time it occurred; an incorporation or attempted incorporation of a
municipality, or an annexation or attempted annexation of territory by a
municipality, within the boundaries or extraterritorial jurisdiction of,
and without the consent of, another municipality in violation of Chapter 42
(Extraterritorial Jurisdiction of Municipalities) or Chapter 43 (Municipal
Annexation); is an ordinance preempted at the time it was passed by a
statute of this state or the United States, including Section 1.06 (Code
Exclusively Governs) or 109.57 (Application of Code; Other Jurisdictions),
Alcoholic Beverage Code; or which has been held invalid by court decision
or is involved in litigation that ultimately results in the matter being
held invalid. 

SECTION 2.  Emergency clause.
            Effective date: upon passage.  


 COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

SECTION 1.  C.S.H.B. 485 differs from the original bill: 

_by adding the words ", as of the date it occurred, to be" between
"presumed" and "valid";  

_by, in Subsection (a), substituting the provision that the act or
proceeding validated must have occurred before March 1, 1999, and
litigation that ultimately results in the act or proceeding being held
invalid has not been filed before that date, rather than a lawsuit to annul
or invalidate the act or proceeding being filed before its first
anniversary; and  

_by substituting "of a municipality" for "by a municipality of territory"
and adding "or an annexation or attempted annexation of territory by a
municipality" in Subsection (b).