By: Watson, Bettencourt S.B. No. 1640
 
 
 
   
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to changing the criminal offense of conspiracy to
  circumvent the open meetings law.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 551.143(a), Government Code, is amended
  to read as follows:
         Sec. 551.143.  PROHIBITED SERIES OF COMMUNICATIONS
  [CONSPIRACY TO CIRCUMVENT CHAPTER]; OFFENSE; PENALTY. (a) A
  member [or group of members] of a governmental body commits an
  offense if:
               (1)  the member [or group of members] knowingly engages
  in at least one among a series of communications that each occur
  outside of an open meeting concerning any public business of the
  governmental body where individual communications are among fewer
  than a quorum of members; and [conspires to circumvent this chapter
  by meeting in numbers less than a quorum for the purpose of secret
  deliberations in violation of this chapter]
               (2)  the member knew at the time the member engaged in
  the series of communications that the series:
                     (A)  involved or would involve a quorum and,
                     (B)  would constitute a deliberation in violation
  of this chapter if the series of communications had occurred in a
  single instance among every member involved in the series.
         SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
  to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
  An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
  governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
  purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
  effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
  before that date.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
  a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
  provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
  Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
  Act takes effect September 1, 2019.