By:  Wentworth                                         S.B. No. 308

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the application of the open meetings law to certain

 1-2     meetings of governmental bodies.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subdivision (4), Section 551.001, Government

 1-5     Code, is amended to read as follows:

 1-6                 (4)  "Meeting" means:

 1-7                       (A)  a deliberation between a quorum of a

 1-8     governmental body, or between a quorum of a governmental body and

 1-9     another person, during which public business or public policy over

1-10     which the governmental body has supervision or control is discussed

1-11     or considered or during which the governmental body takes formal

1-12     action; or

1-13                       (B)  if the governmental body has four or more

1-14     members, a gathering at which a quorum of members of the

1-15     governmental body is present and which has been called by that

1-16     governmental body and at which the members receive information

1-17     from, give information to, ask questions of, or receive questions

1-18     from any third person, including an employee of the governmental

1-19     body, about the public business or public policy over which the

1-20     governmental body has supervision or control.

1-21                 The term does not include the gathering of a quorum of

1-22     a governmental body at a social function unrelated to the public

1-23     business that is conducted by the body, or the attendance by a

 2-1     quorum of a governmental body at a regional, state, or national

 2-2     convention or workshop, if formal action is not taken and any

 2-3     discussion of public business is incidental to the social function,

 2-4     convention, or workshop.  The term includes a session of a

 2-5     governmental body.

 2-6           SECTION 2.  Section 551.075, Government Code, is repealed.

 2-7           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-12     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-13     passage, and it is so enacted.