|
Senate Bill 1896 |
Senate Author: Gallegos |
|
Effective: 9-1-09 |
House Sponsor: Walle |
Previous law authorized a firefighter or police officer employed by a municipality with a population of 1.5 million or more to file a grievance relating to the same aspects of the person's employment over which the civil service commission for employees not subject to the municipal civil service law for firefighters and police officers would have jurisdiction. Senate Bill 1896 amends the Local Government Code to authorize such a firefighter or police officer to file a grievance relating to any aspect of the person's employment covered under that municipal civil service law. The bill changes the time frame within which such individual must begin a grievance action, giving the individual 30 days from the date the individual knew or should have known of the action or inaction for which the individual feels aggrieved occurred to file a completed step I grievance form rather than 30 days from the date the action or inaction occurred. The bill also requires the firefighter's or police officer's department head to sustain the individual's grievance if the individual's supervisor has not responded as required before the 16th day after the date of the meeting that must occur upon the filing of either a step I or step II grievance form.
Senate Bill 1896 also amends provisions relating to the local control of firefighter and police officer employment matters in a municipality with a population of one million or more that has not adopted either the Fire and Police Employee Relations Act or the firefighters' and police officers' civil service law. The bill makes the meet and confer agreements negotiated under those provisions applicable to firefighters and police officers who are employed by the municipality; are covered by the municipality's fire or police pension plan, respectively; and are classified by the municipality as nonexempt. The bill makes such agreements applicable to firefighter and police officer employee groups in which firefighters and police officers participated and paid dues via automatic payroll deduction on or before September 1, 2007.
Senate Bill 1896 authorizes a municipality that has a population of more than 200,000 but less than 250,000, is located in a county in which another municipality that has a population of more than one million is predominantly located, and whose emergency medical services are administered by a fire department to charge each customer served by a municipal water account a monthly fee for the costs of emergency medical services, including salary and overtime related to medical personnel, and to collect the fee in conjunction with the bill for water services.