1-1 By: Wentworth S.B. No. 308 1-2 (In the Senate - Filed January 27, 1997; January 29, 1997, 1-3 read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs; 1-4 March 10, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 10, 1-5 Nays 2; March 10, 1997, sent to printer.) 1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-7 AN ACT 1-8 relating to the application of the open meetings law to certain 1-9 meetings of governmental bodies. 1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-11 SECTION 1. Subdivision (4), Section 551.001, Government 1-12 Code, is amended to read as follows: 1-13 (4) "Meeting" means: 1-14 (A) a deliberation between a quorum of a 1-15 governmental body, or between a quorum of a governmental body and 1-16 another person, during which public business or public policy over 1-17 which the governmental body has supervision or control is discussed 1-18 or considered or during which the governmental body takes formal 1-19 action; or 1-20 (B) if the governmental body has four or more 1-21 members, a gathering at which a quorum of members of the 1-22 governmental body is present and at which the members receive 1-23 information from, give information to, ask questions of, or receive 1-24 questions from any third person, including an employee of the 1-25 governmental body, about the public business or public policy over 1-26 which the governmental body has supervision or control. 1-27 The term does not include the gathering of a quorum of 1-28 a governmental body at a social function unrelated to the public 1-29 business that is conducted by the body, or the attendance by a 1-30 quorum of a governmental body at a regional, state, or national 1-31 convention or workshop, if formal action is not taken and any 1-32 discussion of public business is incidental to the social function, 1-33 convention, or workshop. The term includes a session of a 1-34 governmental body. 1-35 SECTION 2. Section 551.075, Government Code, is repealed. 1-36 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the 1-37 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-38 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-39 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-40 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 1-41 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 1-42 passage, and it is so enacted. 1-43 * * * * *