By Gallego                                             H.B. No. 599
         76R3723 JRD-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the application of the open meetings law to district
 1-3     judges performing management or administrative functions.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 551.001(3), Government Code, is amended
 1-6     to read as follows:
 1-7                 (3)  "Governmental body" means:
 1-8                       (A)  a board, commission, department, committee,
 1-9     or agency within the executive or legislative branch of state
1-10     government that is directed by one or more elected or appointed
1-11     members;
1-12                       (B)  a county commissioners court in the state;
1-13                       (C)  a municipal governing body in the state;
1-14                       (D)  a deliberative body that has rulemaking or
1-15     quasi-judicial power and that is classified as a department,
1-16     agency, or political subdivision of a county or municipality;
1-17                       (E)  a school district board of trustees;
1-18                       (F)  a county board of school trustees;
1-19                       (G)  a county board of education;
1-20                       (H)  the governing board of a special district
1-21     created by law; [and]
1-22                       (I)  a nonprofit corporation organized under
1-23     Chapter 67, Water Code [76, Acts of the 43rd Legislature, 1st
1-24     Called Session, 1933 (Article 1434a, Vernon's Texas Civil
 2-1     Statutes)], that provides a water supply or wastewater service, or
 2-2     both, and is exempt from ad valorem taxation under Section 11.30,
 2-3     Tax Code; and
 2-4                       (J)  a district judge or a gathering of district
 2-5     judges performing the judge's or judges' management or
 2-6     administrative functions.
 2-7           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-8           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.