HBA-CMT H.B. 617 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 617
By: Puente
Urban Affairs
3/19/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Often times, the only course of action citizens are able to take when
health and safety ordinances are violated in their neighborhoods is to
contact the department or agency in their city charged with enforcing code
compliance.  City officials may then to take a significant amount of time
to respond to a complaint. House Bill 617 provides for the institution of a
program for neighborhood association volunteers to help enforce certain
municipal ordinances and the training of volunteers, and sets limits on the
authority of the volunteers. 

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. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 617 amends the Local Government Code to authorize a municipality
to institute a program to use volunteers from a neighborhood association to
help enforce certain municipal health and safety ordinances in the
association's neighborhood.  The health and safety ordinances included in
the program may only be those in which a violation can be observed without
entering the property at which the violation occurs.  The program may not
include any ordinance that relates to the National Electrical Safety Code
(NESC) or to the operations of a utility.   

H.B. 617 requires the municipality to establish a training program for the
volunteers and sets forth criteria for what instruction must be included in
the training program.  The bill sets forth provisions for the persons or
agency a trained person is authorized to inform if the person has observed
a violation of an ordinance covered in the program.  H.B. 617 authorizes
the municipality to provide by ordinance that the notice of violation
served on the owner and a person residing on the property is considered the
first warning of a violation of a municipal ordinance. 

The bill  provides that a person who has attended the training program is
not entitled to receive compensation for engaging in an activity under
these provisions or indemnification from the municipality or the state for
injury or property damage the person sustains or liability the person
incurs while engaging in an activity under these provisions.  The
municipality and the state are not liable for any damage arising from an
act or omission of a trained person who engages in an activity under these
provisions.   

A trained person who makes more than one complaint against the same owner
of a property is liable to the owner if a court determines the person acted
in bad faith in making complaints.  The bill sets forth provisions
regarding the liability of a trained person who has acted in bad faith.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001.