By: Slaton H.B. No. 3421
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the provision of law enforcement services in certain
municipalities by the Department of Public Safety.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 411, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subchapter S to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER S. LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICES IN CERTAIN MUNICIPALITIES
Sec. 411.541. APPLICABILITY. This subchapter applies only
to a municipality:
(1) with a population of 950,000 or more;
(2) with a ratio of less than two sworn police officers
per 1,000 residents; and
(3) for which the governor has issued a written
determination under Section 411.542.
Sec. 411.542. DETERMINATION OF PUBLIC SAFETY THREAT DUE TO
INSUFFICIENT FUNDING. If the governor determines that the safety
of a municipality's residents is threatened because the
municipality is providing insufficient municipal resources for
public safety, the governor may issue a determination to that
effect.
Sec. 411.543. PROVISION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICES BY
DEPARTMENT. The department shall provide law enforcement services
in a municipality to which this subchapter applies. The
municipality shall reimburse the department the cost of providing
the law enforcement services.
Sec. 411.544. CONTRACT REQUIRED. (a) Not later than the
first day of a municipality's fiscal year following a determination
by the governor under Section 411.542, the municipality shall enter
into a contract with the department governing the provision of law
enforcement services in the municipality on terms determined solely
by the director.
(b) The contract required by Subsection (a) must:
(1) provide for the transfer from the municipality to
the department of all personnel, property, and liabilities that
relate to the municipality's provision of law enforcement services,
including all employees, equipment, facilities, contracts, and
other assets;
(2) require that the personnel and property described
by Subdivision (1):
(A) be organized as a unique division within the
department as required by Section 411.546; and
(B) benefit the residents of the municipality
through the department's provision of law enforcement services to
the residents of the municipality; and
(3) subject to later modification by the commission or
the director, require the department to administer the division as
similarly in manner as practicable to the manner in which the
municipality's law enforcement agency was administered immediately
before the transfer, including operating the division in accordance
with:
(A) internal policies and procedures of the
municipal law enforcement agency that applied immediately before
the transfer;
(B) positions, wages, leave, and other terms of
employment that applied immediately before the transfer; and
(C) if applicable, civil service laws such as
Chapter 143, Local Government Code, as those laws applied
immediately before the transfer.
(c) The legislature finds that a contract for law
enforcement services under this subchapter serves a public purpose
of the contracting municipality.
Sec. 411.545. CONTINUATION OF CERTAIN CIVIL SERVICE LAWS.
(a) If civil service laws, such as Chapter 143, Local Government
Code, applied immediately before the transfer to any employee
subject to the transfer:
(1) the commission:
(A) shall adopt rules that:
(i) are substantially equivalent to the
civil service laws; and
(ii) apply only to the employees to whom the
civil service laws applied immediately before the transfer; and
(B) may modify the rules described by Paragraph
(A); and
(2) the department shall establish a civil service
commission for a division created under Section 411.546 and the
director shall appoint initial members to that commission not later
than the 60th day after the effective date of the contract
transferring the employees.
(b) To the extent of any conflict, a rule adopted under this
section prevails over another law governing the terms of employment
for an employee of the department, including laws governing wages,
salary, hours, leave, position classification, promotion, and
discipline.
Sec. 411.546. SEPARATE DIVISION OF DEPARTMENT. (a) The
department shall create a separate division within the department
to provide law enforcement services to each municipality to which
this subchapter applies.
(b) The former chief administrative officer of the
transferred law enforcement agency becomes the chief
administrative officer of the division created under this section,
subject to the control of the director.
Sec. 411.547. TRANSFER OF CERTAIN RETIREMENT SYSTEMS. (a)
If before the transfer the sworn police officers of a municipality
transferred to the department under this subchapter were by law
members of a retirement system that applied primarily to the sworn
police officers and not any other employees of the municipality, on
the transfer:
(1) notwithstanding Subtitle B, Title 8, the
employment of the officers is not a position with a department,
commission, board, agency, or institution of the state for purposes
of that subtitle;
(2) the commission and the board of trustees of the
retirement system shall enter into a memorandum of understanding
regarding each entity's responsibilities for the continued
administration of the system in the same manner, to the extent
feasible, as the system was administered by the board and the
municipality;
(3) the department shall assume the duties and
liabilities of the municipality under the law establishing the
retirement system and, unless context requires otherwise, a
reference in that law to:
(A) the municipality as a legal entity means the
department;
(B) the governing body of the municipality means
the commission;
(C) any other official or employee of the
municipality means an official or employee of the department with
substantially equivalent qualifications, as jointly determined in
the memorandum of understanding adopted under Subdivision (2); and
(D) the police department of the municipality
means the division created under Section 411.546;
(4) the commission and the board of trustees of the
retirement system shall jointly adopt any rules necessary to
implement the assumption of duties and liabilities described by
Subdivision (3), and the commission and the board may liberally
construe a law described by Subdivision (3) in adopting the rules
for the purpose of ensuring the continued administration of the
retirement system;
(5) the commission shall enter into a memorandum of
understanding with the comptroller and any other state agency the
commission determines necessary for:
(A) the continued administration of a retirement
system transferred under this section; and
(B) the administration of benefits for an
employee whose change in employment status results in changing
membership between a retirement system transferred under this
section and another retirement system;
(6) an agency designated by the commission under
Subdivision (5) shall provide the assistance necessary to ensure
the continued administration of a retirement system as described by
Subdivision (5)(A) and the transition of employees between
retirement systems as described by Subdivision (5)(B); and
(7) the term of a member of the board of trustees of a
retirement system transferred under this section who is a member of
the board by reason of the member's status as an official or
employee of the municipality, other than sworn police officer,
expires the date the contract required by this subchapter is
effective, and the commission shall appoint members to those
vacancies who are officials or employees of the department and
whose qualifications are substantially similar to the members whose
terms expired under this subdivision.
(b) An employee transferred under this subchapter who is not
covered by Subsection (a) holds a position with a department,
commission, board, agency, or institution of the state for purposes
of Subtitle B, Title 8.
Sec. 411.548. TRUST FUND FOR REIMBURSEMENT PAYMENTS. (a)
The department shall deposit money received as reimbursement for
providing law enforcement services in a municipality in a trust
fund held outside the treasury by the comptroller and administered
by the commission.
(b) The department may spend money in the fund without
appropriation. Interest and income from the assets of the fund
shall be credited to and deposited in the fund.
Sec. 411.549. PROVISION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICES BY
MUNICIPALITY PROHIBITED. A municipality may not provide law
enforcement services after contracting for law enforcement
services with the department under Section 411.544.
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act may not be
construed to impair an obligation under a contract entered into
before the effective date of this Act. A political subdivision may
fulfill the subdivision's obligations under a contract entered into
before that date but may not extend such a contract beyond the
contract's original term.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.