By:  Madla                                             S.B. No. 760
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the authorization for the governing body of certain
    1-2  hospitals to conduct meetings by telephone conference call.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Chapter 311, Health and Safety Code, is amended
    1-5  by adding Subchapter E to read as follows:
    1-6          SUBCHAPTER E.  MEETING BY TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL
    1-7        Sec. 311.061.  DEFINITIONS.  In this subchapter:
    1-8              (1)  "Hospital" means a county hospital, county
    1-9  hospital authority, or a hospital district.
   1-10              (2)  "Rural county" means a nonmetropolitan county as
   1-11  defined by the United States Census Bureau in its most recent
   1-12  census.
   1-13        Sec. 311.062.  MEETING BY TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL.
   1-14  (a)  The governing board of a hospital in a rural county may
   1-15  conduct an open or closed meeting by telephone conference call.
   1-16        (b)  The notice of the telephone conference call meeting must
   1-17  specify as the location of the meeting the location where meetings
   1-18  of the governing board are usually held.  The location designated
   1-19  in the notice shall provide two-way communication during each part
   1-20  of the telephone conference meeting that is required to be open to
   1-21  the public under Chapter 551, Government Code, and the
   1-22  identification of each party to the telephone conference call
   1-23  meeting shall be clearly stated prior to speaking.
   1-24        (c)  Each part of the telephone conference call meeting that
    2-1  is required to be open to the public shall be audible to the public
    2-2  at the location specified in the notice of the meeting as the
    2-3  location of the meeting.  A member of the public at a meeting under
    2-4  this subsection must be able to participate in the meeting to the
    2-5  same extent the public is allowed to participate in a meeting held
    2-6  at a single location.
    2-7        (d)  The part of the telephone conference call meeting that
    2-8  is open to the public shall be tape-recorded.  The tape recording
    2-9  shall be made available to the public.
   2-10        SECTION 2.  Subchapter F, Chapter 551, Government Code, is
   2-11  amended by adding Section 551.125 to read as follows:
   2-12        Sec. 551.125.  BOARD MEETINGS FOR CERTAIN HOSPITALS.
   2-13  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b), the governing board of a
   2-14  hospital in a rural county may conduct an open or closed meeting by
   2-15  telephone conference call as provided by Subchapter E, Chapter 311,
   2-16  Health and Safety Code.
   2-17        (b)  The governing board of a hospital in a rural county must
   2-18  conduct a minimum of two regularly scheduled meetings of that board
   2-19  per year without benefit of the telephone conference call provided
   2-20  by Subchapter E, Chapter 311, Health and Safety Code.
   2-21        (c)  In this section, "hospital" and "rural county" have the
   2-22  meanings assigned by Section 311.061, Health and Safety Code.
   2-23        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-25  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-26  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-27  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-1  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-2  passage, and it is so enacted.