81R8959 KFF-D
By: Olivo H.B. No. 2120
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to eligibility for custodial officer service in the
Employees Retirement System of Texas by certain juvenile
correctional officers and caseworkers employed by the Texas Youth
Commission.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 811.001(8), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(8) "Custodial officer" means a member of the
retirement system who is employed by the Board of Pardons and
Paroles or the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a parole
officer or caseworker, who is employed by the Texas Youth
Commission as a juvenile correctional officer or caseworker, or who
is employed by the correctional institutions [institutional]
division [or the state jail division] of the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice and certified by the department as having a normal
job assignment that requires frequent or infrequent regularly
planned contact with, and in close proximity to, inmates or
defendants of the correctional institutions [institutional]
division [or inmates or defendants confined in the state jail
division] without the protection of bars, doors, security screens,
or similar devices and includes assignments normally involving
supervision or the potential for supervision of inmates in inmate
housing areas, educational or recreational facilities, industrial
shops, kitchens, laundries, medical areas, agricultural shops or
fields, or in other areas on or away from property of the department
[institutional division or the state jail division]. The term
includes a member who transfers from the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice to the managed health care unit of The University
of Texas Medical Branch or the Texas Tech University Health
Sciences Center pursuant to Section 9.01, Chapter 238, Acts of the
73rd Legislature, 1993, elects at the time of transfer to retain
membership in the retirement system, and is certified by the
managed health care unit or the health sciences center as having a
normal job assignment described by this subdivision.
SECTION 2. Sections 813.506(b) and (c), Government Code,
are amended to read as follows:
(b) To be creditable as custodial officer service, service
performed must be performed as a parole officer, [or] caseworker,
or juvenile correctional officer, or must meet the requirements of
the rules adopted under Subsection (a) and be performed by persons
in one of the following job categories:
(1) all persons classified as Correctional Officer I
through warden, including training officers and special operations
reaction team officers;
(2) all other employees assigned to work on a unit and
whose jobs require routine contact with inmates or defendants
[confined in the state jail division], including but not limited to
farm managers, livestock supervisors, maintenance foremen, shop
foremen, medical assistants, food service supervisors, stewards,
education consultants, commodity specialists, and correctional
counselors;
(3) employees assigned to administrative offices
whose jobs require routine contact with inmates or defendants
[confined in the state jail division] at least 50 percent of the
time, including but not limited to investigators, compliance
monitors, accountants routinely required to audit unit operations,
sociologists, interviewers, classification officers, and
supervising counselors; and
(4) administrative positions whose jobs require
response to emergency situations involving inmates or defendants
[confined in the state jail division], including but except as
specified not limited to the director, deputy directors, assistant
directors, and not more than 25 administrative duty officers.
(c) The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the managed
health care unit of The University of Texas Medical Branch or the
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the Texas Youth
Commission, or the Board of Pardons and Paroles, as applicable,
shall determine a person's eligibility to receive credit as a
custodial officer. A determination of the department, unit, or
board may not be appealed by an employee but is subject to change by
the retirement system.
SECTION 3. Section 815.505, Government Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 815.505. CERTIFICATION OF NAMES OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND
CUSTODIAL OFFICERS. Not later than the 12th day of the month
following the month in which a person begins or ceases employment as
a law enforcement officer or custodial officer, the Public Safety
Commission, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the Parks and
Wildlife Commission, the office of inspector general at the Texas
Youth Commission, the Texas Youth Commission, the Board of Pardons
and Paroles, or the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, as applicable,
shall certify to the retirement system, in the manner prescribed by
the system, the name of the employee and such other information as
the system determines is necessary for the crediting of service and
financing of benefits under this subtitle.
SECTION 4. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
service that is performed and certified as custodial officer
service on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.