75R9656 JD-F                          

         By Wentworth                                           S.B. No. 308

         Substitute the following for S.B. No. 308:

         By Danburg                                         C.S.S.B. No. 308

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the application of the open meetings law to certain

 1-3     meetings at which a governmental body receives information from

 1-4     third persons, including government employees, or deliberates a

 1-5     matter made confidential by law.

 1-6           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-7           SECTION 1.  Section 551.001(4), Government Code, is amended

 1-8     to read as follows:

 1-9                 (4)  "Meeting" means:

1-10                       (A)  a deliberation between a quorum of a

1-11     governmental body, or between a quorum of a governmental body and

1-12     another person, during which public business or public policy over

1-13     which the governmental body has supervision or control is discussed

1-14     or considered or during which the governmental body takes formal

1-15     action; or

1-16                       (B)  if the governmental body has four or more

1-17     members, a gathering conducted by or for which the governmental

1-18     body is responsible, at which a quorum of members of the

1-19     governmental body is present, and at which the members receive

1-20     information from, give information to, ask questions of, or receive

1-21     questions from any third person, including an employee of the

1-22     governmental body, about the public business or public policy over

1-23     which the governmental body has supervision or control.

1-24                 The term does not include the gathering of a quorum of

 2-1     a governmental body at a social function unrelated to the public

 2-2     business that is conducted by the body, or the attendance by a

 2-3     quorum of a governmental body at a regional, state, or national

 2-4     convention or workshop, if formal action is not taken and any

 2-5     discussion of public business is incidental to the social function,

 2-6     convention, or workshop.  The term includes a session of a

 2-7     governmental body.

 2-8           SECTION 2.  Subchapter D, Chapter 551, Government Code, is

 2-9     amended by adding Section 551.0825 to read as follows:

2-10           Sec. 551.0825.  SCHOOL BOARDS; DELIBERATION OF CERTAIN

2-11     CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS.  This chapter does not require a school board

2-12     to conduct an open meeting to deliberate a matter made confidential

2-13     by law.

2-14           SECTION 3.  Section 551.075, Government Code, is repealed.

2-15           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-20     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-21     passage, and it is so enacted.