By Moreno                                              H.B. No. 728
       74R3764 PAM-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to granting county civil service commissions certain
    1-3  powers necessary to conduct hearings.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 158.009, Local Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Subsections (d),  (e), and (f) to read as
    1-7  follows:
    1-8        (d)  The commission may:
    1-9              (1)  conduct examinations and investigations and hear
   1-10  testimony and accept evidence under oath at a public or private
   1-11  hearing on a matter material to the commission's authority to
   1-12  select county employees or decide disciplinary grievances,
   1-13  termination actions, or any other matter relating to substantive
   1-14  rights, advancement, benefits, and working conditions of county
   1-15  employees; and
   1-16              (2)  make a final decision on a matter considered in
   1-17  the hearing.
   1-18        (e)  One or more members of the commission may administer
   1-19  oaths, issue a subpoena requiring the attendance of a witness or
   1-20  the production of books and papers, and issue a commission for the
   1-21  examination of a witness who is outside the state, unable to attend
   1-22  a hearing, or excused from attendance.
   1-23        (f)  If a person fails to comply with a subpoena or
   1-24  commission issued under this section, the county civil service
    2-1  commission may bring suit to enforce the subpoena or commission in
    2-2  a district court of the county in which the witness resides or the
    2-3  county in which the books and papers are located.  A court that
    2-4  determines that good cause exists for the issuance of the subpoena
    2-5  or commission shall order compliance with the subpoena or
    2-6  commission.  The court may hold in contempt a person who does not
    2-7  obey the order.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-13  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-14  passage, and it is so enacted.