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Attorney General staff reviews Texas Open Meetings Act with Anna Charter Review Commission
Summary
Jenny Holschert of the Texas Attorney General's Office gave the commission a one-hour primer on the Open Meetings Act, covering notice requirements, closed-session rules, penalties and recent legislative changes; staff clarified training and documentation requirements for local officials.
Jenny Holschert, division chief of opinions at the Office of the Attorney General, gave a one-hour presentation to the Anna Charter Review Commission on the Texas Open Meetings Act on May 14, 2025. She summarized who the law covers, notice and posting requirements, when closed sessions are allowed and the civil and criminal penalties for violations.
Holschert told the commission that the Open Meetings Act "requires each elected or appointed public official of a governmental body that is subject to the act to take a training course addressing the member's responsibilities under the act," and reviewed common pitfalls such as insufficient agenda descriptions and improper use of emergency meeting exceptions.
She described the general 72-hour notice requirement for regular meetings, exceptions for statewide bodies and emergencies, and the statutory obligation to identify the legal basis for any closed session when convened in open session. Holschert cited court rulings to illustrate consequences when notice is inadequate, including a court case that awarded an employee 17 months' back pay after a board attempted to take action without proper notice.
Holschert also walked the commission through recent legislative changes that affect local bodies, including the requirement for local governments to provide public comment (cited in the presentation as "House Bill 28 40") and changes to emergency meeting notice windows (described in the presentation as "Senate bill 4 94"). She summarized revisions to criminal prohibitions on serial communications among officials and described the circumstances in which criminal or civil liability can attach.
She closed by telling commissioners how to document completion of the required training: the Attorney General's website issues completion certificates and she provided the access code the office uses in the training (TXOMA873) and the office's open-government hotline number (877-673-6839).
The commission viewed the attorney general's training video as part of the meeting agenda. No formal action was taken on the training itself; the session was informational and intended to satisfy statutory training obligations for appointed officials.
