BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 5534

By: Wilson

Intergovernmental Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The bill author has informed the committee that plans are underway in Williamson County to construct a new courthouse and that, for convenience, county officials have requested the ability to post meeting agendas both digitally and physically. C.S.H.B. 5534 seeks to fulfill this request by specifying that the authorization for a county clerk to post notices by electronic display instead of posting a physical document includes county commissioners court meeting agendas.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 5534 amends the Local Government Code to revise the authorization for a county clerk to post an official and legal notice by electronic display instead of posting a physical document by specifying that an official and legal notice includes the agenda for a meeting of the commissioners court.

C.S.H.B. 5534 amends the Government Code to give a county governmental body the option of posting notice of each meeting held by the governmental body on an electronic display as provided by applicable Local Government Code provisions as an alternative to posting notice of each meeting on a bulletin board at a place convenient to the public in the county courthouse for purposes of satisfying the requirements of state open meetings law. This provision applies only to notice that is required to be posted on or after the bill's effective date. Notice that is required to be posted before the bill's effective date is governed by the law in effect at that time, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 5534 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute omits the authorization from the introduced for a county commissioners court to

post an agenda of a commissioners court meeting digitally at the location of the meeting in lieu of posting the agenda on paper. Instead, the substitute includes provisions absent from the introduced that do the following:

·revise the authorization for a county clerk to post an official and legal notice by electronic display instead of posting a physical document by specifying that an official and legal notice includes the agenda for a meeting of the commissioners court;

·give a county governmental body the option of posting notice of each meeting held by the governmental body on an electronic display as provided by applicable Local Government Code provisions as an alternative to posting notice of each meeting on a bulletin board at a place convenient to the public in the county courthouse for purposes of satisfying the requirements of state open meetings law; and

·establish that this option applies only to notice that is required to be posted on or after the substitute's effective date, that notice that is required to be posted before the substitute's effective date is governed by the law in effect at that time, and that that law is continued in effect for that purpose.

The substitute changes the bill's effective date from on passage, or, if the bill did not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2025, as in the introduced, to September 1, 2025.