76R6015 JD-D                           
         By Wolens, Maxey                                       H.B. No. 156
         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 156:
         By Wolens                                          C.S.H.B. No. 156
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the application of the open meetings law to certain
 1-3     gatherings at which a governmental body receives information from
 1-4     third persons, including government employees.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 551.001(4), Government Code, is amended
 1-7     to read as follows:
 1-8                 (4)  "Meeting" means:
 1-9                       (A)  a deliberation between a quorum of a
1-10     governmental body, or between a quorum of a governmental body and
1-11     another person, during which public business or public policy over
1-12     which the governmental body has supervision or control is discussed
1-13     or considered or during which the governmental body takes formal
1-14     action; or
1-15                       (B)  a gathering:
1-16                             (i)  that is conducted by the governmental
1-17     body or for which the governmental body is responsible;
1-18                             (ii)  at which a quorum of members of the
1-19     governmental body is present;
1-20                             (iii)  that has been called by the
1-21     governmental body; and
1-22                             (iv)  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
 2-1     governmental body, about the public business or public policy over
 2-2     which the governmental body has supervision or control.
 2-3                 The term does not include the gathering of a quorum of
 2-4     a governmental body at a social function unrelated to the public
 2-5     business that is conducted by the body, or the attendance by a
 2-6     quorum of a governmental body at a regional, state, or national
 2-7     convention or workshop, if formal action is not taken and any
 2-8     discussion of public business is incidental to the social function,
 2-9     convention, or workshop.  The term includes a session of a
2-10     governmental body.
2-11           SECTION 2.  Section 551.075, Government Code, is repealed.
2-12           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-18     passage, and it is so enacted.