### THEAII‘ORNEY GENERAL OFTEXAS AuwrIN, II.**TEXAH**

October 

### 18, 1957

Honorable Henry Wade OpinionNo. WW-283 District Attorney Dallas, Texas Re: Can the employees of the Dallas City-CountyDepartment of PublicWelfare be brought Into the County's Dear Mr. Wade: Retirement System?

You have requested an opinion of this office on the following questions: "1

. Under the applicable constitutionalprovisionsand laws, are full time employees of the Dallas City-County Department of PublicWelfare employeesof Dallas County actually full time employeesof Dallas County? "2

. If the answer to the foregoing question is in the negative, are full time employees of the Dallas City-CountyDepartment of PublicWelfare employees-ofDallas County 'in a positionnormally requiringnot less than nine hundred (900)hours per year'? (Thereare about 1,980 normal working hours In a year for these employeesand 990 of these hours are paid for by County funds.)



### "3. Is it legal for the employees of the Dallas City-County Department of PublicWelfare to be brought into the Dallas CountyRetirement System on either the basis of (a)all of their pay, or (b)half of their pay?



### "4. Is it legal for employees of the Dallas City-County Department of PublicWelfare to be brought into-

Honorable Henry Wade, page 2 

### (W-283)

the Retirement circumstances?"

System under any

Subdivision (b) of Section 62 of Article XVI of the Constitution of Texas provides: "(b) Each county shallhave the right to provide for and administer a Retirement, Disability and Death CompensationFund for the appointive officers and employees of the county; provided same is authorizedby a majority vote of the qualifiedvoters of such county and after such election has been advertisedby being published in at least one newspaper of general circulation in said county once eachweek for four consec'utive weeks;

. . .' The Constitution of Texas sets 'up a method by which countiesmay provide for a County Appointive Officers and EmployeesRetirement, Disability and Death Compensation Fund, and likewise there is a constitutionalprovisionproviding that incorporatedcities of the State of Texashave the power and authority to providea system of retirement.

Section 51-e, Article III of the Constitution of the State of Texas provides:
"See. 51-ee Each incorporated city and town in this State shall have the power and authority to provide a system of retirement and disability pensions for Its appointive officers and employees who have become disabled as a direct and proximateresult of the performanceof their d~uties,

OP have passed their sixtyfifth birthday, or have been employed by such city or town for more than twenty-five (25)years and have passed their sixtiethbirthday,when and if, b,ut

only when and if, such system has been approved at an election by the qualified voters of such city or town entitled to vote on the question of issuance of tax supportedHonorableHenry Wade, page 

### 3 (WW-283)

bonds; provided that no city or town shall contributemore than the equivalent of seven and one half 

### (73)per centum of salaries and wages of the officers and employees entitled to participate in its pension system, and that said officers and employees shall contributea like amount; and this Amendment shall not red,ucethe authority nor duty of anx city or town otherwise existing. The Constitution provides that each city or county may provide for its employeesa Benefit Retirement Program.

However, there is no provision for a jointCityCounty employeeretirement program. The Dallas City-County Department of PublicWelfare is jointlycontrolledby the City Council and Commissioners'Court. The budget of this department is approved by the Commissioners'Court and by the City Council, and the city and county each pays half of the total cost for the PublicWelfare Department's operation. The employees of the Dallas City-County Department of PublicWelfare cannot be considered either county or city employees due to the reason that neither the City Council nor the Commissioners'Court has complete supervision and control over the Department.

If either the County authorities or City authoritieswere in complete control of the PublicWelfare Department, then those employees engaged in rendering services in connectionwith the Department of Welfare would clearly come within the Retirement Benefits for City and/or County employees as set out in the Constitution.

Therefore, it is our opinion that since there is no constitutionalprovision for a jointCity-County employees retirement program, then the County has no authority to bring the employees of the Dallas City-CountyDepartment of PublicWelfare into the County Retirement System. Hence, we answer questions 1, 2 and 

### 3 in the negative.

In reply to question 4, there is no way for the employees of the Dallas City-County Department of Public Welfare to be brought into the CountyRetirement System unless the Department of PublicWelfare becomes solely controlled by the County governing authority.Honorable Henry Wade, page 4 

### (W-283)

SUNMARY The Constitution of Texas provides for both County and City employee retirement benefits; however, there is no constitutional provision for employeeswho are supervisedand employed by a jointCity-CountyAgency, and, therefore,as long as there is joint control over this Department the employees of the Dallas City-County Department of PublicWeltare are not eligible to be brought into the County

### RetirementProgram. Yours very truly,
WILL WILSON Attorney General of Tex.as

LS:wam
APPROVED:
OPIWIOSU

COHMITTEE
Gee. P. Blackburn, Chairman Ralph R. Rash Houghton Brownlee BY Linward Shivers Assistant

REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEY (IENERAL BY: JamesN. Ludlum