BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

                                                                                                                                              S.B. 189

                                                                                                                                         By:  Brimer

                                                                                                                                      Urban Affairs

                                                                                                       Committee Report (Unamended)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

Under current law, police officers who work in a municipality of 560,000 or less accumulate a rate of 4.61 hours of sick leave for each full month employed, totaling 55.32 hours per year.  House Bill No. 304, 79th Legislature, Regular Session, 2005, allowed police officers who work four 10-hour days to have their sick leave days calculated differently in order to receive 120 hours of sick leave per year.  However, there was a technical error in the calculation and time was calculated by 4.61 hours instead of 10 hours per month.

 

As proposed, Senate Bill No. 189 allows a police officer, who works in a municipality of 560,000 or less, to accumulate a rate of 10 hours of sick leave for each full month employed in a calendar year instead of 4.61 hours.  An officer will total 120 hours of credit for every 12 months of employment.  Currently, this only affects City of Forth Worth police officers.

 

 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a State officer, institution, department or agency.

 

 

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

 

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 143.3015(i), Local Government Code, by increasing from 4.61 hours to 10 hours the rate at which sick leave with pay is accumulated by police officers for each full month employed in a calendar year, so as to total 120 hours to the person's credit each 12 months, as a provision for certain municipalities to be authorized to adopt rules for police officers converting vacation and sick leave days to hours that supersede the provisions of Section 142.0013, Section 143.045, and Section 143.046 (regarding accumulation and payment of sick leave for police officers and firefighters).  Makes non-substantive changes. 

 

SECTION 2.  Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2007.

 

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

Immediately, if it receives a vote of at least two-thirds of the membership of each house of the Legislature.  If it receives a lesser margin than that, then the Act would take effect on the default date of September 1, 2007.