S.B. No. 339
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the qualifications of sheriffs.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Subsection (c), Section 415.015, Government Code,
    1-4  is amended to read as follows:
    1-5        (c)  This chapter does not affect a constable or other
    1-6  officer or county jailer elected under the Texas Constitution
    1-7  before September 1, 1985, and does not affect a person who held the
    1-8  office of sheriff before January 1, 1994.
    1-9        SECTION 2.  Section 415.053, Government Code, is amended to
   1-10  read as follows:
   1-11        Sec. 415.053.  LICENSING OF CERTAIN LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS
   1-12  ELECTED UNDER TEXAS CONSTITUTION OR STATUTE.  An officer, including
   1-13  a sheriff, elected under the Texas Constitution or a statute or
   1-14  appointed to fill a vacancy in an elective office must be licensed
   1-15  by the commission not later than two years after the date that the
   1-16  officer takes office.  The commission shall establish requirements
   1-17  for licensing and for revocation, suspension, cancellation, or
   1-18  denial of a license of such an officer.  It is incompetency and a
   1-19  ground for removal from office under Title 100, Revised Statutes,
   1-20  or any other removal statute if an officer to whom this section
   1-21  applies does not obtain the license by the required date or does
   1-22  not remain licensed.
   1-23        SECTION 3.  Subchapter A, Chapter 85, Local Government Code,
   1-24  is amended by adding Section 85.0011 to read as follows:
    2-1        Sec. 85.0011.  QUALIFICATIONS.  A person is not eligible to
    2-2  serve as sheriff unless the person:
    2-3              (1)  has a high school diploma or a high school
    2-4  equivalency certificate; and
    2-5              (2)  is eligible to be licensed under Section 415.058
    2-6  and 415.059, Government Code.
    2-7        SECTION 4.  The change in law made by Section 85.0011, Local
    2-8  Government Code, as added by this Act, applies only to a person
    2-9  first elected or appointed to the office of sheriff on or after the
   2-10  effective date of this Act.  A person elected or appointed to the
   2-11  office of sheriff before the effective date of this Act is covered,
   2-12  for the remainder of the term for which the person was elected or
   2-13  appointed, or for any subsequent term for which the person serves
   2-14  as sheriff, by the law relating to qualifications and continuing
   2-15  education in effect when the person was first elected or appointed,
   2-16  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-17  Changes made to Subchapter A, Chapter 85, Local Government Code, by
   2-18  Section 85.0011, as added by this Act, do not apply to a person
   2-19  first elected or appointed before the effective date of this Act.
   2-20        SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect on the date on which the
   2-21  constitutional amendment proposed by Section 1, S.J.R. No. 18, 73rd
   2-22  Legislature, Regular Session, 1993, takes effect.  If that
   2-23  amendment does not take effect, this Act has no effect.
   2-24        SECTION 6.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-25  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-26  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-27  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force according to its
    3-3  terms, and it is so enacted.