1-1  By:  Wentworth, et al.                                 S.B. No. 246
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed January 16, 1995; January 18, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
    1-4  March 9, 1995, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
    1-5  Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; March 9, 1995,
    1-6  sent to printer.)
    1-7  COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 246                By:  Wentworth
    1-8                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-9                                AN ACT
   1-10  relating to the application of the open meetings law to certain
   1-11  meetings of governmental bodies.
   1-12        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-13        SECTION 1.  Subdivision (4), Section 551.001, Government
   1-14  Code, is amended to read as follows:
   1-15              (4)  "Meeting" means:
   1-16                    (A)  a deliberation between a quorum of a
   1-17  governmental body, or between a quorum of a governmental body and
   1-18  another person, during which public business or public policy over
   1-19  which the governmental body has supervision or control is discussed
   1-20  or considered or during which the governmental body takes formal
   1-21  action; or
   1-22                    (B)  if the governmental body has four or more
   1-23  members, a gathering at which a quorum of members of the
   1-24  governmental body is present and at which the members receive
   1-25  information from, give information to, ask questions of, or receive
   1-26  questions from any third person, including an employee of the
   1-27  governmental body, about the public business or public policy over
   1-28  which the governmental body has supervision or control.
   1-29              The term does not include the gathering of a quorum of
   1-30  a governmental body at a social function unrelated to the public
   1-31  business that is conducted by the body, or the attendance by a
   1-32  quorum of a governmental body at a regional, state, or national
   1-33  convention or workshop, if formal action is not taken and any
   1-34  discussion of public business is incidental to the social function,
   1-35  convention, or workshop.  The term includes a session of a
   1-36  governmental body.
   1-37        SECTION 2.  Section 551.075, Government Code, is repealed.
   1-38        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-39  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-40  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-41  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-42  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-43  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-44  passage, and it is so enacted.
   1-45                               * * * * *