SB1504

The authority’s directors may use telephone conference, videoconference or similar technology for an open or closed meeting, including establishing a quorum (enough members to conduct business) and voting. The enacted conditions are:

• The presiding director must be physically present at the meeting location open to the public identified in the notice, during the open portions.
• The public at that location must be able to see and hear the participating directors during portions required to be open.
• A remotely participating director counts as absent during any portion when audio or video communication with that director is lost or disconnected.
• The normal notice requirements for other board meetings also apply.

The statute names telephone conferencing but still imposes its video-and-audio condition; it should not be summarized as unconditional permission for an audio-only public meeting. The public access specified here is at the noticed meeting location, not a guaranteed right to participate from home. Final law.

The introduced and Senate-passed approach instead specified a toll-free public number, free feed-access information, instructions for remote public speaking, electronic agenda packets when such materials were prepared, and a public recording retained for at least one year. The House committee substitute removed those proposed provisions and added the physical-presence, public audio/video and disconnected-director rules. Its operative text matches the final law. Those proposed remote-access and recording requirements are not in the enacted bill. That does not eliminate requirements imposed by other laws. Introduced; Senate committee; Senate-passed; House substitute; Final law.

No floor amendments are listed. The history records Senate concurrence in the House changes; the House committee substitute’s provisions survived. Version index; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

The board gains scheduling and remote-attendance flexibility. Directors and staff must maintain the required public location and working audio/video connection; a lost connection affects whether that director counts as present. Members of the public retain the specified in-person access to open portions, but the bill does not promise remote public testimony or that meetings will actually become less frequent. It applies to this authority’s board, not every Texas public body. Final law.

Both the March 28 introduced-version and May 20 House-substitute fiscal notes anticipate no state fiscal implication and no significant local-government fiscal implication. They do not quantify travel savings or technology costs, and the act supplies no appropriation. Original fiscal note; House-substitute fiscal note; Final law.