By:  Barrientos                                        S.B. No. 851
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to exceptions to open meeting requirements for certain
    1-2  deliberations of municipal hospitals and municipal hospital
    1-3  authorities.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 2, Open Meetings Act (Article 6252-17,
    1-6  Texas Revised Civil Statutes), is amended by adding Subsection (u)
    1-7  to read as follows:
    1-8        (u)  Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require the
    1-9  board of a municipal hospital or a municipal hospital authority to
   1-10  deliberate in open meetings regarding:
   1-11              (1)  business and financial planning information which
   1-12  would give an advantage to a for profit or non-profit hospital
   1-13  competitor; or
   1-14              (2)  information pertaining to new services or product
   1-15  lines prior to public announcement of the service or product.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September  1, 1993.
   1-17        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.