By: King of Parker, Springer, Lang H.B. No. 2194
(Senate Sponsor - Estes)
(In the Senate - Received from the House April 24, 2017;
May 1, 2017, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural
Resources & Economic Development; May 4, 2017, reported favorably
by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 1; May 4, 2017, sent to
printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the board of trustees of the Weatherford Junior College
District.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter E, Chapter 130, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 130.0828 to read as follows:
Sec. 130.0828. ADDITIONAL TRUSTEES FOR WEATHERFORD JUNIOR
COLLEGE DISTRICT. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, in addition
to the members of the board of trustees of the Weatherford Junior
College District elected or appointed under other provisions of
this subchapter, the commissioners court of each county in which a
branch campus of the district is located and that imposed a branch
campus maintenance tax under Section 130.253 on September 1, 2017,
shall appoint one member to serve on the district's board of
trustees.
(b) Members of the board of trustees appointed under this
section serve two-year terms and may be appointed to serve
successive terms. The commissioners court shall appoint initial
members to serve a term beginning December 1, 2017.
(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), a member of the
board of trustees appointed under this section may participate in
the decision-making of the board to the same extent as any other
member of the board, including by voting on any budget that affects
the entire district.
(d) A member of the board of trustees appointed under this
section:
(1) may not participate in the decision-making of the
board in matters related to:
(A) the imposition of a tax; or
(B) an issue that only affects a campus located
in the junior college district;
(2) is not counted for purposes of determining whether
a quorum of the board is present for the purpose of Subdivision (1);
and
(3) may not serve as an officer of the board of
trustees.
(e) Unless this section is continued in effect by the
legislature, this section expires on December 1, 2027.
SECTION 2. The commissioners court of each county to which
Section 130.0828, Education Code, as added by this Act, applies
shall appoint the initial members of the board of trustees of the
Weatherford Junior College District under that section not later
than November 30, 2017.
SECTION 3. SEVERABILITY. (a) It is the intent of the
legislature that every provision, section, subsection, sentence,
clause, phrase, and word in this Act, and every application of the
provisions in this Act to each local law, are severable from each
other. All constitutionally valid and lawful applications of this
Act shall be severed from an application that a court finds to be
invalid, leaving the valid applications in force because it is the
legislature's intent and priority that the valid applications be
allowed to stand alone.
(b) A court may not decline to enforce the severability
requirements in this Act on the ground that the enforcement of the
severability requirements would be contrary to legislative intent.
The legislature hereby declares that it intends for the
severability requirements of this Act to be enforced as written,
without any exceptions.
(c) A court may not decline to enforce the severability
requirements of this Act on the ground that the Act's provisions or
applications are essentially and inseparably connected. The
legislature hereby declares that it intends for the severability
requirements of this Act to be enforced without regard to whether
this Act's provisions or applications are essentially and
inseparably connected.
(d) If a final court order or judgment finds that the
composition of the board of trustees of the Weatherford Junior
College District as composed under this Act is invalid, the
court-ordered remedy shall require the appointment of members of
the board of trustees by the commissioners court of each county in
which a branch campus of the district is located in the manner
described by Section 130.0828, Education Code, as added by this
Act, so that the composition of the board of trustees complies with
applicable law.
(e) Section 311.032(a), Government Code, applies to this
Act.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
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