By:  Brown                                             S.B. No. 111
       73R1143 JRD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of a volunteer fire department to obtain
    1-3  from the Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement
    1-4  agencies the criminal conviction record of a volunteer fire
    1-5  department applicant.
    1-6        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-7        SECTION 1.  Section 3, Article 6252-13c, Revised Statutes, is
    1-8  amended by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
    1-9        (d)  The chief executive officer of a volunteer fire
   1-10  department may obtain from the Department of Public Safety or a
   1-11  local law enforcement agency the conviction record of a person
   1-12  applying for membership in the volunteer fire department.  The
   1-13  information obtained under this subsection is for the exclusive use
   1-14  of the volunteer fire department and is privileged and
   1-15  confidential.  In this subsection, "volunteer fire department"
   1-16  means an association that:
   1-17              (1)  operates fire-fighting equipment;
   1-18              (2)  is organized primarily to provide and actively
   1-19  provides fire-fighting services; and
   1-20              (3)  does not pay its members compensation other than
   1-21  nominal compensation.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-23        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-1  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    2-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.