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.

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