Sec. 31.  TERMINATION OF PARTICIPATION IN ACT.  (a)  A retirement system for a fire department not consisting exclusively of volunteers may not be terminated or merged into another retirement system without the approval of the board of trustees of the retirement system and the approval of the participating members of the system in the manner described by Subdivision (2) of Subsection (b) of Section 7 of this Act provided 51 percent of the volunteers first petition the board for such change.
(b)  The board of trustees of a retirement system for a fire department consisting partly of employees and partly of volunteers may transfer assets actuarially attributable to the volunteers from the retirement system under this Act to the statewide program provided by the Texas Statewide Volunteer Fire Fighters Retirement Act (Article 6243e.3, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), if the board obtains approval as provided by Section 7 of this Act provided 51 percent of the volunteers first petition the board for such change.
(c)  Repealed by Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1316, Sec. 4.01(7), eff. June 14, 2013.
 
For contingent expiration of this section, see Subsection (g).

 
Sec. 31A.  AUTHORITY OF CERTAIN RETIREMENT SYSTEMS TO EXCLUDE CERTAIN PERSONS FROM COVERAGE.  (a)  In this section, "closure effective date" means the first day of the second month after the month in which the Texas Municipal Retirement System receives retirement system plan documents under Subsection (f)(2) of this section.
(b)  This section applies only to a municipality:
(1)  with a population of less than 200,000;
(2)  that is located in a county with a population of not less than 2.5 million and not more than 4 million;
(3)  that has a regularly organized fire department for which a retirement system and fund have been established under Section 4 of this Act; and
(4)  that before January 1, 2017, has one or more departments participating in the Texas Municipal Retirement System.
(c)  Subject to the requirements of this section, the governing body of a municipality subject to this section may adopt one or more ordinances to exclude from participation in the retirement system employees of the fire department first hired on or after the closure effective date.
(d)  If the governing body of a municipality adopts an ordinance under Subsection (c) of this section, the governing body shall concurrently adopt an ordinance to allow the employees described by the ordinance to participate in the Texas Municipal Retirement System.
(e)  Not later than the 60th day after the date an ordinance is adopted under Subsection (c) of this section, the municipality shall submit the ordinance to an election of the participating members of the retirement system established in the municipality. To be approved at the election, a majority of the participating members must vote in favor of the ordinance.
(f)  If the voting members approve an ordinance under Subsection (e) of this section, as soon as practicable after the date of the election:
(1)  the board of trustees of the retirement system shall amend the retirement system plan documents as necessary to be consistent with the approved ordinance; and
(2)  the municipality shall give written notice of the results of the election to the Texas Municipal Retirement System and include copies of the relevant ordinances and any amended retirement system plan documents.
(g)  If a municipality adopts ordinances under Subsections (c) and (d) of this section, all subsequent actions authorized or required by this section must be completed before October 1, 2018.  If all subsequent actions are not completed before October 1, 2018:
(1)  as soon as practicable after that date, the Texas Municipal Retirement System shall publish notice to that effect in the Texas Register; and
(2)  Section 851.0011, Government Code, this section, and the ordinances adopted under Subsections (c) and (d) of this section expire on October 1, 2018.
Sec. 32.  CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION ABOUT MEMBERS, RETIREES, ANNUITANTS, OR BENEFICIARIES.  (a)  Information contained in records that are in the custody of a retirement system established under this Act concerning an individual member, retiree, annuitant, or beneficiary is confidential under Section 3(a)(1), Chapter 424, Acts of the 63rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 6252-17a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), and may not be disclosed in a form identifiable with a specific individual unless:
(1)  the information is disclosed to:
(A)  the individual;
(B)  the individual's attorney, guardian, executor, administrator, conservator, or other person who the board of trustees of the retirement system determines is acting in the interest of the individual or the individual's estate;
(C)  a spouse or former spouse of the individual if the board of trustees determines that the information is relevant to the spouse's or former spouse's interest in member accounts, benefits, or other amounts payable by the retirement system; or
(D)  a person authorized by the individual in writing to receive the information; or
(2)  the information is disclosed under an authorization of the board of trustees that specifies the reason for the disclosure.
(b)  This section does not prevent the disclosure of the status or identity of an individual as a member, former member, retiree, deceased member or retiree, or beneficiary of the retirement system.
(c)  A determination and disclosure under Subsection (a) of this section may be made without notice to the individual member, retiree, annuitant, or beneficiary.