C.S.H.B. 622 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 622 By: Goolsby Law Enforcement Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, the chief of police may authorize employees to take time off from work to conduct employee organization business. However, the employee organization is required to reimburse the municipality for all time its members take under this authorization. C.S.H.B. 622 requires certain municipalities to establish and maintain a business leave time account for each police officer employee organization. Members of those organizations accumulating vacation or compensatory time may choose to donate some of that time to the account, resulting in cancellation of time taken off by other members for business purposes. By decreasing the total number of hours requiring reimbursement to the municipality, the bill would decrease the amount of money due by the organization. C.S.H.B. 622 applies only to municipalities of one million or more that have not adopted the provisions for civil service; the City of Dallas is the sole municipality meeting these requirements. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 622 amends Chapter 142, Local Government Code, by adding Section 142.013, "Business Leave Time Account for Police Officers in Certain Municipalities." The scope of the bill is limited to police officers employed by a municipality with a population of one million or more that has not adopted Chapter 174 of the Local Government Code, the Fire and Police Employee Relations Act, and to which Section 143.1261 of the Local Government Code (Legislative Leave Account) does not apply. The bill defines "employee organization" to include the Texas Peace Officers Association, the Dallas Police Association, the Dallas Fraternal Order of Police, and the Latino Peace Officers Association. It requires the municipality to establish and maintain a business leave time account for each municipal police employee organization, allows a member of the organization to donate not more than two hours of his or her accumulated vacation time per month to the business leave time account, and provides procedures for this transfer. The bill limits who can withdraw time from the account to police officers who are members of the organization and are using the time to conduct its business and provides procedures for an officer making a request for use of time in the account. C.S.H.B. 622 also requires the municipality to keep an accounting of deposits and withdrawals from the account and limits withdrawals to 4,000 hours per year for any organization, but does not limit accumulation of deposits. EFFECTIVE DATE Upon passage, or, if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2003. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 622 modifies the original by defining "employee organization" to include the Texas Peace Officers Association, the Dallas Police Association, the Dallas Fraternal Order of Police, and the Latino Peace Officers Association. The original did not define the term.