By Swinford H.B. No. 1577 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to meetings of the Texas State Seed and Plant Board under 1-3 the Texas Open Meetings Act. 1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-5 SECTION 1. Amend Section 2 of the Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. Ann., 1-6 Art. 6252-17 by adding subsection (s) to read as follows: 1-7 (s) This Act does not prohibit the Texas State Seed and 1-8 Plant Board, as defined by Sec. 62.002 of the Texas Agriculture 1-9 Code, from holding an open or executive meeting by telephone 1-10 conference call. Each part of a meeting that is required to be 1-11 open to the public and that is held by conference call must be 1-12 available to be heard by the public at a meeting place designated 1-13 by the Texas State Seed and Plant Board and must be tape recorded. 1-14 The tape recording must be made available to the public. A meeting 1-15 held by conference call is subject to the same notice requirements 1-16 that apply to other meetings. For purposes of the notice, the 1-17 designated place of the meeting by conference call is considered to 1-18 be the offices of the Texas Department of Agriculture located in 1-19 the Stephen F. Austin Building, Austin, Texas. Telephone 1-20 conference calls shall be restricted to special called meetings 1-21 requiring immediate action when it is otherwise difficult or 1-22 impossible to convene a quorum of the Texas State Seed and Plant 1-23 Board in one location. 2-1 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 2-6 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-7 passage, and it is so enacted.