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From the TPA Confidential Bulletin — A publication of the Texas Press Association
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February 1999 — Court puts teeth into open meetings law
Q: My local school board has a practice of holding unannounced closed meetings of all board members every Thursday afternoon before the regular meeting of the board that night. I am told that the president of the school board insists that the trustees all get together to discuss and plan how they will handle the evening meeting. This is so blatant, but my newspaper cannot afford a lawsuit to stop them. What can I do?
A: Consider bringing criminal charges against the school board president with your local county attorney. The Texas Open Meetings Act provides for criminal penalties for those who call closed meetings in violation of the act.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals confirmed that government officials can be held criminally responsible for their involvement in the holding of a closed meeting that is not permitted under the Texas Open Meetings Act even if the official does not know that the closed meeting violates the act.
The court, in Tovar v. State, 978 S.W.2d 584 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998), held that the Texas Open Meetings Act promotes public welfare and places a duty on members of governmental bodies to hold open meetings and a duty to find an applicable exception if they want to hold a closed meeting.
(The court upheld the conviction of former Somerset school board president Joseph Tovar, who was convicted of misdemeanor charges involving official misconduct. A jury found him guilty of knowingly calling and participating in a special closed meeting in 1994 that violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. He was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $500 for each of the two indictments. That sentence was later suspended and he was placed on community supervision for six months. Tovar appealed, stating he did not know the meeting was a violation of the law.)
The Texas Open Meetings Act has always had criminal provisions, but the Court of Criminal Appeals has now put some teeth into those rules.
This new ruling makes a prosecution much easier, so you should go to your local county attorney's office and see if you can convince them to pursue the case.
If that fails, consider calling the Attorney General's office for help.