By:  De la Garza                                      H.B. No. 1086
       73R4819 JRD-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to eligibility for beginning positions in fire or police
    1-3  departments.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 142, Local Government Code, is amended by
    1-6  adding Section 142.011 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 142.011.  ELIGIBILITY FOR BEGINNING POSITION IN FIRE OR
    1-8  POLICE DEPARTMENT.  An applicant's relationship by consanguinity or
    1-9  affinity to a municipal employee may not be considered in
   1-10  determining eligibility for a beginning position in the fire or
   1-11  police department of a municipality.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  Section 143.026(b), Local Government Code, is
   1-13  amended to read as follows:
   1-14        (b)  From the three names certified, the chief executive
   1-15  shall appoint the person having the highest grade unless there is a
   1-16  valid reason why the person having the second or third highest
   1-17  grade should be appointed.  A person's relationship by
   1-18  consanguinity or affinity to a municipal employee is not a valid
   1-19  reason why a person should or should not be appointed.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-1  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-2  passage, and it is so enacted.