By Wolens                                              H.B. No. 156
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                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.
 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 a which a quorum of members of the
1-19     governmental body is present;
1-20                             (iii)  that has been called by that
1-21     governmental body; and
 2-1                             (iv)  at which the members receive
 2-2     information from, give information to, ask questions of, or receive
 2-3     questions from any third person, including an employee of the
 2-4     governmental body, about the public business or public policy over
 2-5     which the governmental body has supervision or control.
 2-6                       The term does not include the gathering of a
 2-7     quorum of a governmental body at a social function unrelated to the
 2-8     public business that is conducted by the body, or the attendance by
 2-9     a quorum of a governmental body at a regional, state, or national
2-10     convention or workshop, if formal action is not taken and any
2-11     discussion of public business is incidental to the social function,
2-12     convention, or workshop.  The term includes a session of a
2-13     governmental body.
2-14           SECTION 2.  Subchapter A, Chapter 551, Government Code, is
2-15     amended by adding Section 551.005 to read as follows:
2-16           Sec. 551.005.  RECEIVING INFORMATION IN GATHERING OF LESS
2-17     THAN A QUORUM.  This chapter does not prohibit a member or group of
2-18     members of a governing board of an institution of higher education
2-19     that schedules fewer than five regularly held meetings in a
2-20     calendar year from gathering in numbers less than a quorum for the
2-21     purpose of receiving information from or asking questions of any
2-22     third person, including an employee of the governmental body.
2-23           SECTION 3.  Section 551.075, Government Code, is repealed.
2-24           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-25     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-4     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-5     passage, and it is so enacted.