81R8370 EAH-D
By: Leibowitz H.B. No. 1424
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the procedure for the disannexation of territory from a
municipality.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 43.141(a) and (b), Local Government
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) The registered [A majority of the qualified] voters of
an annexed area may submit a petition to the governing body of the
municipality to require disannexation of [disannex] the area if the
municipality fails or refuses to provide services or to cause
services to be provided to the area within the period specified by
Section 43.056 or by the service plan prepared for the area under
that section. The petition must contain the signatures of a number
of registered voters of the area equal to more than 50 percent of
the number of registered voters of the area.
(b) The [If the] governing body shall certify whether a
petition submitted under Subsection (a) is valid. If the petition
is certified as valid, the municipality shall [fails or refuses to]
disannex the area within 60 days after the date the petition is
certified unless within that period the municipality brings [of the
receipt of the petition, any one or more of the signers of the
petition may bring] a cause of action in a district court of the
county in which the area is principally located to request that the
area remain annexed to the municipality [be disannexed]. On the
filing of an answer by any registered voter who signed the petition
[the governing body], and on application of either party, the case
shall be advanced and heard without further delay in accordance
with the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. The district court shall
enter an order disannexing the area if the court finds that a valid
petition was filed with the municipality unless the court finds
[and that] the municipality performed [failed to perform] its
obligations in accordance with the service plan and Section 43.056.
Either party may request that the factual determinations in the
proceeding be made by a jury [or failed to perform in good faith].
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act to Section
43.141, Local Government Code, applies only to a disannexation for
which a petition is submitted to a municipality on or after the
effective date of this Act. A disannexation for which the petition
was submitted before the effective date of this Act is governed by
the law in effect at the time the petition was submitted, and the
former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.