By:  Gallego                                           H.B. No. 377
       73R844 JRD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the notice required under the open meetings law when a
    1-3  state governmental body holds a meeting on a subject that directly
    1-4  affects a local governmental body.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 3A, Chapter 271, Acts of
    1-7  the 60th Legislature, Regular Session, 1967 (Article 6252-17,
    1-8  Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-9        (b)(1)  A State governmental body shall furnish notice to the
   1-10  Secretary of State, who shall then post the notice on a bulletin
   1-11  board to be located in the main office of the Secretary of State at
   1-12  a place convenient to the public.
   1-13              (2)  A State governmental body that holds a meeting on
   1-14  a subject that directly affects a local governmental body that is
   1-15  described by Subsections (c)-(g) of this section also shall send
   1-16  notice to the affected local governmental body by depositing the
   1-17  notice, with a proper address and postage paid, in the United
   1-18  States mail before the 10th day before the date that the meeting is
   1-19  held.  The local governmental body receiving the notice shall
   1-20  promptly post the notice at the same place that the local
   1-21  governmental body posts notice of its meetings.  The failure of the
   1-22  local governmental body to post the notice does not make the action
   1-23  of the State governmental body voidable.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.  The
    2-1  change in law made by this Act applies only to notice of a meeting
    2-2  held 10 or more days after the effective date of this Act.
    2-3        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.