By Oakley H.B. No. 667
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 667:
By Marchant C.S.H.B. No. 667
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to application requirements when information in the
1-3 personnel file of a state employee is inspected under the open
1-4 records law.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Section 4, Chapter 424, Acts of the 63rd
1-7 Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 6252-17a, Vernon's
1-8 Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
1-9 Sec. 4. Application for Public Information. (a) On
1-10 application for public information to the officer for public
1-11 records in a governmental body by any person, the officer for
1-12 public records shall promptly produce such information for
1-13 inspection or duplication, or both, in the offices of the
1-14 governmental body. If the information is in active use or in
1-15 storage and, therefore, not available at the time a person asks to
1-16 examine it, the officer for public records shall certify this fact
1-17 in writing to the applicant and set a date and hour within a
1-18 reasonable time when the record will be available for the exercise
1-19 of the right given by this Act. Nothing in this Act shall
1-20 authorize any person to remove original copies of public records
1-21 from the offices of any governmental body.
1-22 (b) A person requesting access to information in the
1-23 personnel file of an employee of a governmental body described by
1-24 Section 2(1)(A) of this Act must submit a written application to
2-1 the officer for public records of the governmental body. The
2-2 application must include the requestor's name and home or business
2-3 address, the name and home or business address of any person or
2-4 entity on whose behalf the request is made.
2-5 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
2-6 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-7 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-8 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-9 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-10 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.