By:  Patterson                               S.B. No. 1714

         97S0851/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the definition of governmental body for the purposes of

 1-2     the public information law.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subdivision (1), Section 552.003, Government

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

 1-6                 (1)  "Governmental body":

 1-7                       (A)  means:

 1-8                             (i)  a board, commission, department,

 1-9     committee, institution, agency, or office that is within or is

1-10     created by the executive or legislative branch of state government

1-11     and that is directed by one or more elected or appointed members;

1-12                             (ii)  a county commissioners court in the

1-13     state;

1-14                             (iii)  a municipal governing body in the

1-15     state;

1-16                             (iv)  a deliberative body that has

1-17     rulemaking or quasi-judicial power and that is classified as a

1-18     department, agency, or political subdivision of a county or

1-19     municipality;

1-20                             (v)  a school district board of trustees;

1-21                             (vi)  a county board of school trustees;

1-22                             (vii)  a county board of education;

1-23                             (viii)  a charter school;

 2-1                             (ix) [(viii)]  the governing board of a

 2-2     special district;

 2-3                             (x) [(ix)]  the governing body of a

 2-4     nonprofit corporation organized under Chapter 76, Acts of the 43rd

 2-5     Legislature, 1st Called Session, 1933 (Article 1434a, Vernon's

 2-6     Texas Civil Statutes), that provides a water supply or wastewater

 2-7     service, or both, and is exempt from ad valorem taxation under

 2-8     Section 11.30, Tax Code; and

 2-9                             (xi) [(x)]  the part, section, or portion

2-10     of an organization, corporation, commission, committee,

2-11     institution, or agency that spends or that is supported in whole or

2-12     in part by public funds; and

2-13                       (B)  does not include the judiciary.

2-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

2-15           SECTION 3.  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.