By Raymond H.B. No. 1032
74R2928 JRD-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to studying and improving the structure and use of state
1-3 agency field offices.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. (a) The governor, lieutenant governor, speaker
1-6 of the house of representatives, and comptroller shall each appoint
1-7 two representatives to a task force created for the purpose of
1-8 evaluating and recommending needed changes concerning the structure
1-9 and distribution of state agency field offices and the work
1-10 performed by those offices. The executive director of the General
1-11 Services Commission serves as a member and as the presiding officer
1-12 of the task force. A member of the task force is not entitled to
1-13 receive compensation for service on the task force, but is entitled
1-14 to reimbursement of the member's travel expenses as provided in the
1-15 General Appropriations Act. Service on the task force by an officer
1-16 or employee of state government is an additional duty of the
1-17 member's office or employment, and the member is entitled to
1-18 reimbursement of the member's travel expenses as provided in the
1-19 General Appropriations Act for the member's office or employment.
1-20 (b) The task force shall select a populous county in this
1-21 state, but not the most populous county, in which to conduct a
1-22 detailed pilot study that evaluates the structure and distribution
1-23 of state agency field offices in that county.
1-24 (c) The pilot study shall address both ways to redesign the
2-1 structure and distribution of state agency field offices in the
2-2 county and ways to redesign the work done by the field offices in
2-3 the county. The task force in the pilot study shall consider:
2-4 (1) opportunities for locating different agencies
2-5 together in the same building or in buildings that are located
2-6 closely together;
2-7 (2) the extent to which work currently done in field
2-8 offices could more efficiently or effectively be done by
2-9 telecommuting;
2-10 (3) the extent to which space in the field offices
2-11 could be more efficiently or effectively used;
2-12 (4) whether considering the state's space needs in the
2-13 county as a whole would allow the state to negotiate more favorable
2-14 leases or purchases of space in the county;
2-15 (5) whether there are state agency field offices in
2-16 the county that could be closed, consolidated, or reduced in size;
2-17 (6) currently planned acquisitions of space for the
2-18 state in the county; and
2-19 (7) other questions or options that the task force
2-20 considers relevant to its study.
2-21 (d) The task force may adapt for its purposes the methods
2-22 and criteria used by state and federal agencies that have
2-23 considered issues similar to those studied by the task force.
2-24 (e) The task force shall determine the ways in which the
2-25 results of the pilot study may be relevant to improving the
2-26 structure and distribution of state agency field offices in other
2-27 counties or the methods by which field office work is done in other
3-1 counties.
3-2 (f) The task force shall study and evaluate the current
3-3 state effort to locate together the field offices of different
3-4 health and human services agencies.
3-5 (g) The task force shall develop proposed performance
3-6 measures that can be used to evaluate the efficiency of a state
3-7 agency's field office operations.
3-8 (h) The task force shall present the results of its pilot
3-9 study and its other work and make its recommendations in a report
3-10 submitted to the Legislative Budget Board not later than September
3-11 1, 1996.
3-12 (i) Each state agency in the executive branch of state
3-13 government, other than an institution of higher education as
3-14 defined by Section 61.003, Education Code, shall on the request of
3-15 the task force participate in the study and provide the task force
3-16 with the staff support, information, and analysis that the task
3-17 force requests.
3-18 (j) Article 6252-33, Revised Statutes, does not apply to the
3-19 task force.
3-20 (k) The task force is abolished and this section expires
3-21 December 31, 1996.
3-22 SECTION 2. (a) This section applies only to a state agency
3-23 in the executive branch of state government:
3-24 (1) that is not an institution of higher education as
3-25 defined by Section 61.003, Education Code; and
3-26 (2) that operates one or more field offices.
3-27 (b) In the first strategic plan a state agency issues after
4-1 the effective date of this Act under Chapter 2056, Government Code,
4-2 the agency shall include a proposal for improving the efficiency
4-3 and effectiveness of its field office operations. The proposal must
4-4 demonstrate that the agency has analyzed:
4-5 (1) opportunities for telecommuting;
4-6 (2) the possible applications of new technologies to
4-7 its field office work;
4-8 (3) combining its field offices if possible;
4-9 (4) locating its field offices in the same or in a
4-10 nearby building with another state agency; and
4-11 (5) other possible strategies for improving its field
4-12 office operations.
4-13 (c) This section expires December 31, 1996.
4-14 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
4-15 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-16 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-17 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-18 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
4-19 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
4-20 passage, and it is so enacted.