Amends TCA Title 13, Chapter 26.

ON APRIL 22, 2021, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 280, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill. This amendment revises various provisions under the Human Resource Agency Act of 1973, as discussed below. (1) Present law provides for a governing board for each human resource agency. Under present law, the membership of the governing board consists of: (A) The county mayor of each county within the district; (B) The mayor of each municipality within the district; (C) The chief executive officer of any metropolitan government within the district; (D) One representative from a local agency in each county knowledgeable of and dealing with the problems concerning human resource agencies appointed by the county mayor or chair; and (E) One state senator and one state representative whose senatorial or representative districts lie wholly or in part within the development district. The senate member must be selected by the senators whose districts are wholly or in part within the development district and the representative member must be selected by the representatives whose districts are wholly or in part within the development district. This amendment clarifies that such governing board is established when a human resource agency (HRA) is created pursuant to the Act. This amendment revises the membership provision in (1)(B) above to instead provide for three or more municipal mayors within the HRA's district who serve on a rotating basis as determined by the bylaws of the HRA and removes from the membership those described above in items (1)(C) and (1)(D). This amendment removes from item (1)(E) above that the districts of the selected senator and representative must lie wholly or in part within the district (but retains that selection will be made by those senators and representatives, respectively, whose districts are wholly or partially in the HRA). This amendment adds that an HRA may appoint additional persons to the governing board as required by state and federal guidelines. (2) Present law details the term lengths of the members discussed above in (1)(A)-(E). The senators and representatives serve for two years or until they leave the general assembly, whichever occurs first, and membership on the board is for four years or until expiration of the term by the official by whom such representative was appointed, whichever occurs first. Senators whose districts lie wholly or partly within the development district must meet at the call of the senior senator among those affected, for the purpose of selecting a member of the governing board, and representatives must meet at the call of their senior representative for that purpose. The representative of each county and city government as discussed above may be chosen from an existing city or county planning commission. This amendment removes all of these provisions. (3) Under present law, a member of the general assembly may not receive any additional compensation for such member's service on a board. This amendment clarifies that such a member may not receive any compensation for service on the board. (4) Present law also provides that: (A) Votes may not be cast by proxy and only duly appointed members of the board may vote. If a member of a board created under the Act participates in a vote after such member's term of office has expired, state funds may not be released to or expended by such board until such time as the board meets and rescinds any votes in which such member has participated and reconsiders its action with a lawfully constituted board; and (B) The board must appoint a policy council to act for it and must determine the authority of such council over and above that specified in the present law provision governing the powers of the policy council. The membership of the policy council must be broadly based and equitably distributed between providers and consumers of human resource services and/or established by public law. This amendment deletes the provisions discussed in item (4)(A) above and revises the provisions discussed in item (4)(B) to provide that governing board will appoint an advisory council composed of ex officio nonvoting members, to be invited to meet with the governing board at least once annually. The membership of the council will be broadly based and equitably distributed between the representatives of providers and consumers of human resource services and as established by law, and the council includes members of the governing board and municipal mayors in the service area of the human resource agency. This amendment also adds that the governing board, executive committee, or advisory council may conduct a special or regular meeting. (5) Under present law, the powers of every policy council include the power to adopt bylaws, appoint persons to senior staff positions, determine major personnel, fiscal, and program policies, approve overall program plans and priorities, and assure compliance with conditions of and approve proposals for financial assistance under the Act, subject to ratification by the governing board. This amendment revises these provisions so that these are powers of the governing board instead of the policy council (and, accordingly, removes the reference to ratification by the governing board). This amendment also specifies that the governing board may appoint an executive director, who will serve at the pleasure of the board. (6) Under present law, each governing board operating under the Act must: (A) Jointly adopt statewide uniform travel regulations subject to the approval of the commissioner of finance and administration and reimburse its officers and employees for official travel in conformance with such regulations; (B) Develop a system of competitive bidding on purchases of supplies and equipment and other contracts and submit the written procedures governing such system to the state procurement commission for approval; and (C) Develop written personnel procedures to be filed with the commissioner of finance and administration for the hiring, promotion, demotion and dismissal of all employees and include an employee compensation plan based on a salary comparability analysis, which accounts for state salary schedules, local government salary schedules, and regional private market variations. This amendment also revises item (5)(A) above to require the board to keep the jointly adopted statewide uniform travel regulations on file with the commissioner of finance and administration and to remove that such regulations are subject to the approval of commissioner. This amendment rewrites item (5)(C) above to instead provide that the governing board must develop written personnel procedures that are kept on file with the commissioner of finance and administration. (7) Present law provides: (A) That it is the legislative intent that the commissioner consider the financial needs of human resource agencies, particularly matching funds as envisioned by present law provision governing appropriations under the Act, and to the extent deemed appropriate must include such funds in the budget request of the department of human services submitted to the commissioner of finance and administration pursuant the present law provision governing estimates by departments and classification of expenditures in regard to the state budget and appropriations; (B) The commissioner of human services must provide planning assistance and oversight to these agencies to assure coordination and avoidance of duplication of activities among human service providers in each jurisdiction; and (C) Nothing in these provisions requires any expenditure of funds unless such funds are lawfully appropriated by the general assembly. This amendment revises item (6)(A) above to require the commissioner to consider the financial needs of human resource agencies and specifies that the commissioner must include the disbursement of matching funds to the extent deemed appropriate. This amendment also rewrites item (6)(B) above to require the department of human services to provide planning assistance and oversight to the partner agencies with whom the department seeks to coordinate services. This amendment removes item (3)(C) above.