By:  Gallegos                                          S.B. No. 444
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to abolishment of classified positions within covered fire
 1-2     departments
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter G, Chapter 143, Local Government Code,
 1-5     is amended by adding Section 143.1052 to read as follows:
 1-6           Section 143.1052. Abolishment of Classified Positions.
 1-7                 (a)  Except as provided in Subsection (c), the
 1-8     municipality's governing body may not abolish any classified fire
 1-9     fighter position which existed in the municipality on January 1,
1-10     1999
1-11                 (b)  Nothing in this Section shall prevent the
1-12     municipality's governing body from establishing additional fire
1-13     fighter classifications, or increasing the number of positions from
1-14     within a classification, pursuant to Section 143.021.  However,
1-15     such positions, once created, may not thereafter be abolished
1-16     except as provided in Subsection (c).
1-17                 (c)  A classified position created by the
1-18     municipality's governing body by ordinance pursuant to Section
1-19     143.021 may be abolished only by agreement between the fire
1-20     fighter's association which is the exclusive bargaining agent for
1-21     the municipality's covered fire fighters and the municipality made
1-22     pursuant to Subchapter H.
 2-1           SECTION 2.  This act takes effect on June 1, 1999.
 2-2           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-7     and that this Act take effect and be in force according to its
 2-8     terms, and it is so enacted.