Texas Attorney General Opinion: DM-95 Page: 2 of 6
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Honorable Gary Watkins - Page 2
is to afford each member of the body an opportunity to be
present and to impart to his associates the benefit of his
experience, counsel, and judgment, and to bring to bear upon
them the weight of his argument on the matter to be decided by
the Board, in order that the decision, when finally promulgated,
may be the composite judgment of the body as a whole.
Id at 77. Presumably, when a group of people act in concert, some meeting of the
minds has occurred to make that action possible. With respect to actions taken by
governmental bodies, it is the process by which this meeting of the minds occurs that
the act is intended to open to public scrutiny. Cox Enters. Inc. v. Board of Trustees of
Austin Indep. School Dist., 706 S.W.2d 956, 960 (Tex. 1986) (the act is intended to
safeguard the public's interest in knowing the workings of its governmental bodies).
While we are unable to anticipate every possible fact situation that might
occur, we think an action taken by a quorum of a governmental body on a matter of
public policy of concern to that governmental entity is not merely the action of each
member of a group of individuals, but is an action of the governmental body. When
a majority of a governmental body acts on a matter of public policy under its
jurisdiction, even in a way that is not binding upon the governmental entity served
by the body, the policy enunciated by the Texas Supreme Court in Webster suggests
that such action must be taken by the governmental body as a whole, subject to the
laws, including the Open Meetings Act, governing the behavior of the governmental
body. Therefore, for purposes of this discussion, a letter signed by a quorum of a
governmental body, concerning public business or public policy over which the
governmental body has control or supervision, would normally be an official action
of the signatory members subject to the requirements of the act.
To accomplish its end, the act requires that every meeting of a governmental
body, with certain narrowly drawn exceptions, be open to the public and that the
public be given notice of meetings. V.T.C.S. art. 6252-17, 2, 3A. "Meeting," for
purposes of the act, is defined as
any deliberation between a quorum of members of a
governmental body, or between a quorum of members of a
governmental body and any other person, at which any public
business or public policy over which the governmental body has
supervision or control is discussed or considered, or at which any
formal action is taken....p. 479
(DM-95)
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: DM-95, text, March 4, 1992; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth273904/m1/2/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.