Nondisclosure of criminal history: The tsunami of drug convictions across all socioeconomic groups makes a law like this almost an eventuality. This bill is limited to nonviolent first offenders who keep their noses clean for a defined period afterward.  I don’t want TPA to support it, but I don’t want TPA to oppose it either. 

Companion to SB 499 by Zaffirini

Go See Author - He agreed to change "or" to "AND."

Monitor. If bill gets hearing, file a card of support

Good newspaper notice language introduced. We might consider moving to 2+ if the bill gets a hearing. 

Companion HB 2371

Increases penalty for images/video distributed with intent to alter an election outcome

Reid’s comments: “There does not appear to be any requirement for public notice of a municipal fee, so SB 767 would not directly displace any existing notice requirements.  There are, of course, newspaper notice requirements for a municipal budget hearing. The bill does not affect those, and actually uses that deadline as the statutory deadline for when email notice must be provided. See proposed Sec. 110.002(d)(3)(A). As Donnis pointed out, the real threat here is that the bill is amended to displace public notice, or that these email notices become commonplace and eventually replace public notice. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on this one. It might be worth reaching out to Senator Parker too, if you all have an existing relationship with him or think that would be productive.”

Committee sub replaces the 18 point type requirement with simply boldface or underline.

This bill would increase access to public information by eliminating some of the privileges that currently allow for withholding. The “basic information” piece would make clear that basic information about an incident (which the press has a right to) is not limited to just arrests and crimes, but would apply to incidents that don’t necessarily result in an arrest. The last section regarding “video” would ensure that audio recordings aren’t subject to the stricter standards for releasing body cams.

Companion is HB 3334 by Canales.

Targets sexual materials materials to minors on the Internet. Current language excludes news gathering organizations. Similar to HB 3570 and HB 3585.

Substitute retains exception for news gathering organizations

Need to monitor, includes a committee substitute

Companion is HB 1609 by Hugh Shine

Creates new notice

Companion is HB 4940

Allows port authorities/nav. districts to dispose of slivers of land from survey discrepancies without notice requirements. Perez friendly, don't endanger relationship. Probably not a bill to engage on due to its very limited scale, but definitely need to monitor. 

Contains newspaper notice - monitor

Contains new newspaper notice language. Watch for amendments

Companion is HB 2805

Home address confidentiality - child abduction

This sets up a public database, but “deidentifies suspects on the database. Companion is HB 2043 by Bowers.

3/23 Met with folks from the Bail Project and the Texas ACLU. They explained that this bill will be useful for investigative reporters who are doing statistical analyses of bail practices, and that the aggregated “deidentified” data doesn’t endanger public access to identities of suspects through the usual normal channels.

We do not need to take a position

Contains newspaper notice - monitor

Need to visit with Middleton. This bill would establish an investigator general for education, but any document the I.G. investigates is not to be released under the PIA - so that would include a document that would otherwise be readily available to the public, such as a budget, a checkbook register, etc.

3/21: met with legislative director - explained error, he will get it fixed. 

Contains newspaper notice - monitor

Companion SB 2107 by Nichols

Reid's comments: "The bill doesn’t outright harm any of the existing public notice requirements in the Water Code. Those are all left intact. The internet posting looks like it’s designed to supplement the public notice, with a requirement that the newspaper notice include a link to the online materials. That said, it’s obviously a move in the direction of online posting (on a governmental site), which could endanger newspaper notice in the future. The bill could also be amended, relatively easily, to dispense with newspaper notice and replace it with online posting. So I think it’s worth keeping an eye on."

Adds a public notice - watch for amendments

Companion bill is HB 1185