By Cuellar of Webb H.B. No. 459
74R2884 MLR-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to contracts made by the Texas Commission on Fire
1-3 Protection implementing the commission's volunteer program and to
1-4 the membership of the volunteer firefighter advisory committee.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Section 419.071(b), Government Code, is amended
1-7 to read as follows:
1-8 (b) The commission shall contract with one or more <a>
1-9 statewide organizations <organization> whose members include both
1-10 volunteer and paid fire fighters to administer and implement the
1-11 program. The commission in a <the> contract under this subsection
1-12 shall reserve the right to evaluate the administration and
1-13 implementation of the program under the contract and the right to
1-14 observe and to require information from the other party to the
1-15 contract so that the commission may perform a meaningful
1-16 evaluation.
1-17 SECTION 2. Section 419.072(a), Government Code, is amended
1-18 to read as follows:
1-19 (a) The commission shall establish a volunteer fire fighter
1-20 advisory committee to assist the commission in matters relating to
1-21 volunteer fire fighters and volunteer fire departments. The
1-22 committee shall be composed of nine members appointed by the
1-23 commission. Six members must be volunteer fire fighters who
1-24 collectively represent various areas in the field of fire
2-1 protection. Three members must be instructors of volunteer fire
2-2 fighters. Six of the nine members must be appointed from separate
2-3 lists <a list> submitted each year before September 1 to the
2-4 commission by, respectively, the State Firemen's and Fire Marshals'
2-5 Association of Texas and the Texas Association of Hispanic
2-6 Firefighters. The commission may not select all six members from
2-7 any single list. A committee member:
2-8 (1) serves at the will of the commission;
2-9 (2) serves for a one-year term that expires February
2-10 1; and
2-11 (3) may be reappointed to the committee after the
2-12 expiration of a term.
2-13 SECTION 3. As the terms of the members of the volunteer
2-14 firefighter advisory committee expire, or as a vacancy occurs on
2-15 the committee, the Texas Commission on Fire Protection shall
2-16 appoint members to the committee in accordance with Section
2-17 419.072(a), Government Code, as amended by this Act.
2-18 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-19 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-20 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-21 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-22 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-23 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-24 passage, and it is so enacted.