81R8959 KFF-D

By: Olivo H.B. No. 2120

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to eligibility for custodial officer service in the Employees Retirement System of Texas by certain juvenile correctional officers and caseworkers employed by the Texas Youth Commission.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 811.001(8), Government Code, is amended to read as follows:

(8) "Custodial officer" means a member of the retirement system who is employed by the Board of Pardons and Paroles or the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a parole officer or caseworker, who is employed by the Texas Youth Commission as a juvenile correctional officer or caseworker, or who is employed by the correctional institutions [institutional] division [or the state jail division] of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and certified by the department as having a normal job assignment that requires frequent or infrequent regularly planned contact with, and in close proximity to, inmates or defendants of the correctional institutions [institutional] division [or inmates or defendants confined in the state jail division] without the protection of bars, doors, security screens, or similar devices and includes assignments normally involving supervision or the potential for supervision of inmates in inmate housing areas, educational or recreational facilities, industrial shops, kitchens, laundries, medical areas, agricultural shops or fields, or in other areas on or away from property of the department [institutional division or the state jail division]. The term includes a member who transfers from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to the managed health care unit of The University of Texas Medical Branch or the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center pursuant to Section 9.01, Chapter 238, Acts of the 73rd Legislature, 1993, elects at the time of transfer to retain membership in the retirement system, and is certified by the managed health care unit or the health sciences center as having a normal job assignment described by this subdivision.

SECTION 2. Sections 813.506(b) and (c), Government Code, are amended to read as follows:

(b) To be creditable as custodial officer service, service performed must be performed as a parole officer, [or] caseworker, or juvenile correctional officer, or must meet the requirements of the rules adopted under Subsection (a) and be performed by persons in one of the following job categories:

(1) all persons classified as Correctional Officer I through warden, including training officers and special operations reaction team officers;

(2) all other employees assigned to work on a unit and whose jobs require routine contact with inmates or defendants [confined in the state jail division], including but not limited to farm managers, livestock supervisors, maintenance foremen, shop foremen, medical assistants, food service supervisors, stewards, education consultants, commodity specialists, and correctional counselors;

(3) employees assigned to administrative offices whose jobs require routine contact with inmates or defendants [confined in the state jail division] at least 50 percent of the time, including but not limited to investigators, compliance monitors, accountants routinely required to audit unit operations, sociologists, interviewers, classification officers, and supervising counselors; and

(4) administrative positions whose jobs require response to emergency situations involving inmates or defendants [confined in the state jail division], including but except as specified not limited to the director, deputy directors, assistant directors, and not more than 25 administrative duty officers.

(c) The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the managed health care unit of The University of Texas Medical Branch or the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the Texas Youth Commission, or the Board of Pardons and Paroles, as applicable, shall determine a person's eligibility to receive credit as a custodial officer. A determination of the department, unit, or board may not be appealed by an employee but is subject to change by the retirement system.

SECTION 3. Section 815.505, Government Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 815.505. CERTIFICATION OF NAMES OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND CUSTODIAL OFFICERS. Not later than the 12th day of the month following the month in which a person begins or ceases employment as a law enforcement officer or custodial officer, the Public Safety Commission, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the Parks and Wildlife Commission, the office of inspector general at the Texas Youth Commission, the Texas Youth Commission, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, or the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, as applicable, shall certify to the retirement system, in the manner prescribed by the system, the name of the employee and such other information as the system determines is necessary for the crediting of service and financing of benefits under this subtitle.

SECTION 4. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to service that is performed and certified as custodial officer service on or after the effective date of this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.