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  Section 551.075, Government Code, is repealed.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.

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