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.