When A Meeting Is Public

In Texas, every regular, special or called meeting of a governmental body is open to the public, except as the open meetings chapter itself provides.

• §Gov't Code 551.002

Notice of a meeting is posted in a place readily accessible to the general public at all times, for at least three business days before the scheduled date of the meeting, except where other sections of the chapter provide otherwise.

• §Gov't Code 551.043

• Where the chapter requires or allows notice on the Internet, a good faith attempt to keep it posted online for the whole period meets the always accessible requirement.
• A physical posting the chapter requires still has to be made, and that copy then has to be readily accessible during normal business hours.
• Notice of a meeting at which the body will discuss or adopt its budget includes a physical copy of the proposed budget, unless it is clearly accessible on the body's home page.
• That budget notice also includes a taxpayer impact statement comparing the property tax bill on the median valued homestead this fiscal year with an estimate for the next.

• §Gov't Code 551.043

The exceptions that allow a closed meeting, the shorter notice the chapter allows in an emergency, and what happens to an action taken in violation are in other sections of the chapter and are not reproduced here. Whether a particular gathering was a meeting of a governmental body is a question for a court and for a licensed Texas attorney.

• §Gov't Code 551.002
• §Gov't Code 551.043