Relating to the establishment and use of a written electronic communications system accessible to the public by certain municipal entities.

Contracts

• GovTech & IT Vendors: If you provide web hosting or CMS services to municipalities, you must update Master Services Agreements (MSAs). Explicitly exclude liability for TOMA (Texas Open Meetings Act) violations resulting from municipal failure to post, archive, or monitor content.
• Legal Retainers: Update engagement letters with outside land-use counsel. Ensure their scope of work includes monitoring these specific online message boards, not just attending in-person hearings.

Hiring/Training

• Government Affairs Teams: Staff must be retrained to monitor asynchronous digital communications. "Watching the hearing" is no longer sufficient; deliberations will occur online prior to the vote.
• IT/Compliance: No new internal hiring is required, but GovTech vendors must train support staff on the statutory requirement that these boards be accessible within "one click" of the municipality's home page.

Reporting & Record-Keeping

• Litigation Holds: The law requires the municipality to archive these posts, but you cannot rely on their retention schedules for your defense. If you anticipate a zoning dispute or permit denial, you must capture/scrape the message board threads immediately to preserve evidence of potential bias or pre-decisional commitment.
• Sunset Tracking: You must track the authorization date for each board. Authorization expires every two years. Communications made on a board with lapsed authorization are illegal and voidable; you must document these dates to challenge adverse rulings.

Fees & Costs

• No Direct Fees: The bill does not authorize new fees on businesses.
• Indirect Costs: Expect increased labor hours for government affairs/compliance staff due to the expanded scope of required monitoring.