2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB2713
HB2713 narrows the population range for a voter-petition election to repeal a municipality's Chapter 143 firefighter and police civil-service system.
Official caption: Relating to the repeal of a municipal civil service system for firefighters and police officers in certain municipalities.
Official report lists House author(s): Darby, Metcalf, Spiller. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB2713 narrows the population range for a voter-petition election to repeal a municipality's Chapter 143 firefighter and police civil-service system.
- For eligible smaller cities, the existing requirements remain: the city must have operated under Chapter 143 for at least one year, and the repeal petition must have signatures from at least 10% of the city's qualified voters.
- The change applies when an election had not already been ordered before June 20.
- This law does not abolish anyone's civil-service system or require every city to adopt one.
What does it do?
HB2713 narrows the population range for a voter-petition election to repeal a municipality’s Chapter 143 firefighter and police civil-service system. The route previously applied to cities with fewer than 950,000 residents; it now applies only to those with fewer than 50,000. Cities at exactly 50,000 are outside the new limit. The law took effect June 20, 2025. Final law
For eligible smaller cities, the existing requirements remain: the city must have operated under Chapter 143 for at least one year, and the repeal petition must have signatures from at least 10% of the city’s qualified voters. The council must then order the repeal election. The retained text says Chapter 143 becomes void in the municipality if “a majority of the qualified voters vote to repeal” it. The petition does not itself abolish civil service.
The change applies when an election had not already been ordered before June 20. If an election had been ordered before then, the former law continues to govern that petition. Merely filing a petition before the effective date is not the exception the act specifies.
This law does not abolish anyone’s civil-service system or require every city to adopt one. It limits this particular repeal-election process while leaving the chapter’s adoption provisions unchanged. Chapter 143’s stated purpose is capable fire and police departments insulated from political influence, with permanent public-service employment tenure; HB2713 changes the repeal mechanism, not individual hiring, promotion or disciplinary standards.
What changed along the way?
The filed bill and House committee version proposed a limit of fewer than 70,000 residents. Darby’s sole House amendment, adopted May 12, changed that number to 50,000. That narrower limit survived into the final law. Seventy thousand was a proposal, not the enacted cutoff.
The history, text index, and amendment index show no additional substantive changes after House engrossment. The House passed it 133–7, with two present but not voting; the Senate passed it 31–0. The governor signed it June 20, making it effective immediately under its vote-dependent clause.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Firefighters and police officers in affected cities gain protection against loss of the Chapter 143 system through this repeal route. Residents and local officials seeking to end that system in cities from 50,000 to below 950,000 lose that option for elections not already ordered before the change. Smaller eligible cities retain it. The bill does not establish that any named city’s population or particular petition qualifies.
The May 16 fiscal note anticipates no state fiscal effect and no significant local fiscal effect. It does not quantify a change in individual pay, employee benefits or city election costs.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
