By Nelson S.B. No. 399
75R769 MLS-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the employment status of employees of the Texas
1-3 Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 551.022(d), Health and Safety Code, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (d) In accordance with board rules and departmental
1-8 operating procedures, the superintendent may:
1-9 (1) establish policy to govern the facility that the
1-10 superintendent considers will best promote the patients' and
1-11 clients' interest and welfare;
1-12 (2) appoint subordinate officers, teachers, and other
1-13 employees and set their salaries, in the absence of other law; and
1-14 (3) remove an officer, teacher, or employee [for good
1-15 cause].
1-16 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997. The
1-17 change in law made by this Act applies only to an officer, teacher,
1-18 or employee hired or rehired by the Texas Department of Mental
1-19 Health and Mental Retardation on or after that date. An officer,
1-20 teacher, or employee employed by the department immediately before
1-21 the effective date of this Act is governed during the continuous
1-22 period of that employment by the law applicable to the officer,
1-23 teacher, or employee immediately before the effective date of this
1-24 Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-1 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.