HBA-JEK H.B. 1951 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1951 By: Farrar Urban Affairs 3/12/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The City of Houston has not adopted the provisions for municipal civil service which would enable peace officers who work for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County to meet and confer with their employer through their peace officer association. House Bill 1951 establishes provisions to enable a peace officer association and a rapid transit authority in a municipality of 1.5 million or more to meet and confer on and ratify an agreement regarding peace officer employment. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 1951 amends the Transportation Code to establish provisions for local control of peace officer employment matters that apply to a rapid transit authority in which the principal municipality has a population of more than 1.5 million (authority). The bill prohibits an authority from being denied local control over the wages, salaries, rates of pay, hours of work, or terms and conditions of a peace officer's employment to the extent that the authority that establishes these terms and conditions and the association recognized as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent (association) have a written agreement. The bill does not require an authority or an association to meet and confer on any issue or reach an agreement. H.B. 1951 requires the authority's chief executive officer or the officer's designee to select a group of persons to be the bargaining agent for issues related to the authority's employment of peace officers. The bill authorizes the authority and the association to meet and confer only if the peace officer's association does not advocate the illegal right to strike by public employees. The bill sets forth provisions regarding the recognition of a peace officer's association and prohibits a peace officer of an authority from engaging in a strike or organized work stoppage against this state or a political subdivision of this state. H.B. 1951 provides that a proposed agreement or any related documents are public information only after the agreement is ratified by the governing body of an authority. The bill establishes that an agreement is enforceable and binding on the authority, the recognized association, and the peace officers covered by the agreement only if the authority's governing body and the recognized association both ratify the agreement in the manner described in the bill. The bill provides that an agreement may establish a procedure by which the parties agree to resolve disputes related to the agreement. The bill grants jurisdiction over disputes under a ratified agreement to the state district court of the judicial district in which the majority of the territory within the corporate limits of the principal municipality in the authority is located. H.B. 1951 specifies that a written agreement ratified under these provisions preempts all contrary state statutes, local ordinances, executive orders, civil service provisions, and rules adopted by the authority, another political subdivision, or a division or agent of an authority or political subdivision. The bill prohibits an agreement ratified under these provisions from interfering with the right of a member of a bargaining unit to pursue affirmative action litigation or to pursue allegations of discrimination with the Commission on Human Rights or the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.