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.