By:  Hamric                                           H.B. No. 1961
       73R3301 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to indefinite suspensions of police officers and fire
    1-3  fighters in certain municipalities.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 143.1017(h), Local Government Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (h)  The department head may order an indefinite suspension
    1-8  based on an act classified as a felony or any other crime involving
    1-9  moral turpitude after the 180-day period following the date of the
   1-10  discovery of the act by the department if the department head
   1-11  considers delay to be necessary to protect a criminal investigation
   1-12  of the person's conduct.  If the department head intends to order
   1-13  an indefinite suspension after the 180-day period, the department
   1-14  head must file with the attorney general a statement describing the
   1-15  criminal investigation and its objectives within 180 days after the
   1-16  date of the discovery by the department of the act <complained of
   1-17  occurred>.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  Section 143.119(g), Local Government Code, is
   1-19  amended to read as follows:
   1-20        (g)  In the original written statement and charges and in any
   1-21  hearing conducted under this chapter, the department head may not
   1-22  complain, except as provided by Section 143.1017, of an act that
   1-23  the department head first discovered or became aware of before the
   1-24  180th day <did not occur within the six-month period> preceding the
    2-1  date on which the department head suspends the fire fighter or
    2-2  police officer.
    2-3        SECTION 3.  The changes in law made by this Act relating to
    2-4  the time of discovery or occurrence of an act committed by a fire
    2-5  fighter or police officer that may form the basis for an indefinite
    2-6  suspension of the fire fighter or police officer do not apply to an
    2-7  indefinite suspension ordered before the effective date of this
    2-8  Act, and the law relating to the time of discovery or occurrence of
    2-9  the act in effect on the date the suspension was ordered is
   2-10  continued in effect for matters relating to those suspensions.
   2-11        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-16  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-17  passage, and it is so enacted.