Commissioners Court - Regular Session

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24.

Meeting Date:	08/21/2012
Discuss and take appropriate action related to delegating the Court's authority to issue traffic regulation to the County Engineer.
Submitted For:	Joe England	Submitted By:	Joe England, Unified Road System
Department:	Unified Road System
Agenda Category:	Regular Agenda Items

Information

Agenda Item

Discuss and take appropriate action on the adoption of Section 251.159 of the Texas Transportation Code delegating the Commissioners Court authority to issue traffic regulation to the County Engineer.

Background

Section 251.159 of the Texas Transportation Code allows the commissioners court of counties with a population of more than 78,000 to delegate to the county engineer or other county employee any function of the commissioners court under that subchapter. An action of the county engineer or other county employee under this section has the same effect as if the action were an action of the commissioners court. Before issuing a traffic regulation under this subchapter, the commissioners court, in lieu of publishing notice required by a law other than this subchapter, may give notice of the proposed regulation by posting a conspicuous sign in any location to be affected by the regulation. The commissioners court is not required to hold a public hearing on the proposed traffic regulation unless a resident of the county requests a public hearing. The request must be in writing and made before the eighth day after the later of: (1) the date that the sign is posted; or (2) the date that the notice under Section 251.152 is published. If a public hearing is requested, the commissioners court may not delegate the duty to hold the hearing.

By taking this action, traffic regulation signage can be adopted, established, and enforced in a more expedited fashion than waiting up to a week to be placed on the courts agenda.

After visiting with various commissioners, it is recommended that once a quarter, the county engineer place an item on the court's agenda notifying the court of the regulatory actions that were administratively enacted during the previous three months. By doing such, this allows the administrative actions to be compiled into a searchable format by the public.

The entirety of Section 251.159 is attached in the Int. Comments.

Fiscal Impact

From/To	Acct No.	Description	Amount

Attachments
No file(s) attached.

Form Review

Inbox	Reviewed By	Date
County Judge Exec Asst.	Wendy Coco	08/16/2012 04:26 PM
Form Started By: jengland		Started On: 08/16/2012 09:43 AM
Final Approval Date: 08/16/2012