BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 3788

By: Marquez

County Affairs

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law provides for a system of civil service for county employees and members of sheriff's departments in certain counties as a mechanism for disciplinary action and appeal for its members and to help address relevant workplace issues.  H.B. 3788 seeks to bolster the system by establishing provisions relating to the authority of a county civil service commission to administer oaths and issue subpoenas.

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

H.B. 3788 amends the Local Government Code to require the chairman of a county civil service commission or the chairman of a sheriff's department civil service commission in certain counties, as applicable, in a proceeding before a commission and on request of an affected employee, county attorney, or a designee of the employee or county attorney, to administer oaths and issue subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum for the attendance of witnesses and for the production of documentary material.  The bill authorizes the affected employee, the county attorney, or a designee of the employee or county attorney to request the chairman of the commission to subpoena any books, records, documents, papers, accounts, or witnesses that the requestor considers pertinent to the case. The bill requires the request to be made before the 10th day before the date a commission proceeding will be held.  The bill establishes that an oath administered under the bill's provisions has the same force and effect as an oath administered by a magistrate in the magistrate's judicial capacity.  The bill establishes that a response to a subpoena duces tecum so issued is considered to have been made under oath.  The bill makes it a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $1,000, confinement in the county jail for not more than 30 days, or both the fine and confinement for a person's failure to appear, as required by the subpoena.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.