Hey, Wait a Minute!

As expected, the Texas Senate has acted to close the loophole created by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, who found the criminal provisions of the Open Meetings Law unconstitutional. However, SB 1640 (by Senator Kirk Watson, former Mayor of the City of Austin) would do more than that.

SB 1640 (link here https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86R/billtext/pdf/SB01640E.pdf#navpanes=0 ), would also define "deliberation" as a written exchange between members. Now perhaps the key here is the word "exchange." Would a memo from the City Manager to the Mayor and Council be a deliberation? An exchange? And would that memo, even if published on the City's website, be a criminal violation of the Open Meetings Act?

I think that a more clear understanding of a "written exchange" is called for here.