1-1 By: Junell (Senate Sponsor - Shapiro) H.B. No. 2779
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 21, 1997;
1-3 April 23, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Jurisprudence; May 15, 1997, reported favorably by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 15, 1997, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to requiring the office of the attorney general to defend
1-9 local community supervision and corrections departments in certain
1-10 suits brought against them.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12 SECTION 1. Section 76.006, Government Code, is amended to
1-13 read as follows:
1-14 Sec. 76.006. Employee Status and Benefits. (a) Except as
1-15 provided by Subsection (c), department employees are not state
1-16 employees. The department shall contract with the most populous
1-17 county served by the department for insurance and retirement plans,
1-18 and the employees are governed by personnel policies and benefits
1-19 equal to personnel policies for and benefits of other employees of
1-20 that county.
1-21 (b) The judicial districts served by a department shall pay
1-22 the salaries of department employees.
1-23 (c) Department employees are state employees for the
1-24 purposes of Chapter 104, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and
1-25 Chapter 501, Labor Code.
1-26 (d) The attorney general has the duty to defend a department
1-27 for suits for injunctive, declaratory, or monetary relief brought
1-28 against it for any action not covered by an indemnification policy,
1-29 except any action brought by the state or another political
1-30 subdivision. The attorney general shall not defend a department or
1-31 its employees in cases in which a person under supervision
1-32 challenges the fact or duration of the supervision.
1-33 (e) The department shall provide information requested by
1-34 the attorney general that the attorney general considers necessary
1-35 for the defense or prosecution of any case brought under this
1-36 section. [A department is a governmental unit for the purposes of
1-37 Section 101.103(a), Civil Practice and Remedies Code.]
1-38 (f) [(e)] The department shall provide transportation or
1-39 automobile allowances for officers who supervise defendants placed
1-40 on community supervision.
1-41 SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
1-42 a cause of action that accrues on or after the effective date of
1-43 this article. A cause of action that accrues before the effective
1-44 date of this article is governed by the law in effect on the date
1-45 the cause of action accrues, and that law is continued in effect
1-46 for this purpose.
1-47 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect on September 1, 1997.
1-48 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
1-49 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-50 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-51 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-52 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-53 * * * * *