By: Phelan H.B. No. 3402
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to changing the criminal offense of conspiracy to
circumvent the open meetings law.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1.
Section 551.143(a), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 551.143. PROHIBITED SERIES OF COMMUNICATIONS
[CONSPIRACY TO CIRCUMVENT CHAPTER]; OFFENSE; PENALTY. (a) A
member [or group of members] of a governmental body commits an
offense if:
(1) the member [or group of members] knowingly engages
in at least one among a series of communications that each occur
outside of an open meeting concerning any public business of the
governmental body where individual communications are among fewer
than a quorum of members; and [conspires to circumvent this chapter
by meeting in numbers less than a quorum for the purpose of secret
deliberations in violation of this chapter]
(2) the member knew at the time the member engaged in
the series of communications that the series:
(A) involved or would involve a quorum and,
(B) would constitute a deliberation in violation
of this chapter if the series of communications had occurred in a
single instance among every member involved in the series.
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
before that date.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2019.