1-1 By: Duncan S.B. No. 264
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed January 25, 1999; January 28, 1999,
1-3 read first time and referred to Committee on Intergovernmental
1-4 Relations; February 25, 1999, reported favorably by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 5, Nays 0; February 25, 1999, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the probationary period for a police officer under the
1-9 municipal civil service law.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Section 143.027, Local Government Code, is
1-12 amended to read as follows:
1-13 Sec. 143.027. PROBATIONARY PERIOD. (a) A person appointed
1-14 to a beginning position in the fire [or police] department must
1-15 serve a probationary period of one year beginning on that person's
1-16 date of employment as a fire fighter[, police officer,] or academy
1-17 trainee.
1-18 (b) A person appointed to a beginning position in the police
1-19 department must serve a probationary period beginning on the date
1-20 the person is commissioned as a police officer in the employing
1-21 police department and ending on the first anniversary of that date.
1-22 (c) During a fire fighter's or police officer's probationary
1-23 period, the department head shall discharge the person and remove
1-24 the person from the payroll if the person's appointment was not
1-25 regular or was not made in accordance with this chapter or the
1-26 commission rules.
1-27 (d) [(c)] During a fire fighter's or police officer's
1-28 probationary period, the person may not be prohibited from joining
1-29 or required to join an employee organization. Joining or not
1-30 joining an employee organization is not a ground for retaining or
1-31 not retaining a fire fighter or police officer serving a
1-32 probationary period.
1-33 (e) [(d)] A fire fighter or police officer who was appointed
1-34 in substantial compliance with this chapter and who serves the
1-35 entire probationary period automatically becomes a full-fledged
1-36 civil service employee and has full civil service protection.
1-37 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-38 applies only to the probationary period of a person employed in a
1-39 beginning position in a police department on or after the effective
1-40 date of this Act. The probationary period of a person employed in
1-41 a beginning position in a police department before the effective
1-42 date of this Act is governed by the law as it existed immediately
1-43 before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in
1-44 effect for that purpose.
1-45 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-46 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-47 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-48 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-49 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-50 * * * * *