Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0727 Page: 1 of 3
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ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS
GREG ABBOTT
July 16, 2009Mr. Duane Waddill
Executive Director
Texas Residential Construction Commission
Post Office Box 13509
Austin, Texas 78711-3509Opinion No. GA-0727
Re: Whether the Texas State Library and
Archives Commission may require a state
agency to create and maintain written minutes of
the agency's public meetings (RQ-0781-GA)Dear Mr. Waddill:
You ask whether the Texas State Library and Archives Commission ("TSLAC") may
"require a state agency to create and maintain written minutes of the agency's open meetings, when
the requirement does not merely implement nor reasonably construe the statute, but effectively
negates the statutory provisions."
The TSLAC rule at issue in your request is contained within the Texas State Records
Retention Schedule and provides for the retention period of state government records.2 See 13 TEX.
ADMIN. CODE 6.10 (2009) (Tex. State Library & Archives Comm'n) (record series item number
1.1.060). With respect to audio and videotapes of an agency's open meetings, the rule sets out a
retention period of ninety days after the "[o]fficial approval of written minutes of the meeting by the
governing body of an agency." Id. The comment accompanying the stated retention period for audio
and videotapes of open meetings cautions:
Minutes of state agencies are permanent records. Audio and
videotapes are not permanent media. State agencies may not retain
audio and videotapes of the meetings of governing bodies in lieu of
written minutes. The proceedings of all meetings of state boards,
committees, commissions, and councils must be reduced to writing.Id.
'Request Letter at 1 (available at http://www.texasattomeygeneral.gov).
2But see TEX. Gov'T CODE ANN. 441.194(a)-(c) (Vernon Supp. 2008) (providing for records of abolished
state agencies).
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0727, text, July 16, 2009; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth275623/m1/1/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.