TPA, TDNA question Senate's closed sanction meeting

AUSTIN — TPA, Texas Daily Newspaper Association and the joint Legislative Advisory Committee sent a letter Aug. 20 to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst expressing concern about the Texas Senate’s closed meeting to discuss sanctions on the absent Democratic senators.

The associations questioned the legality of the meeting and said it likely violated the Texas Constitution and the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Following is the complete text:

August 20, 2003
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
State Capitol
Austin, TX

VIA FACSIMILE

Dear Lt. Gov. Dewhurst,

The Texas Daily Newspaper Association and the Texas Press Association, along with our member newspapers, are disappointed with your decision last week to hold a closed Senate meeting to discuss sanctions for the missing Democratic senators.

Our concern is that the closed meeting seems to have been in violation of both the Texas Constitution and the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The Texas constitution states: “The sessions of each House shall be open, except the Senate when in executive session.” Last week’s closed meeting was never referred to as an executive session. It was, instead, referred to as a meeting of the Republican caucus of the Senate, with the one remaining Democratic senator invited to attend as a guest. This appears to be an attempt to get around the constitutional provision for open meetings of the Senate. It seems to us, at the very least, to be a violation of the spirit of the Texas Constitution.

Ten years ago, the Legislature made it clear that the Texas Open Meetings Act applies to the Senate and its committees, unless there is a specific constitutional provision that provides for an exception. To our knowledge, no one connected with the Senate has suggested that there was any constitutional exception applicable in last week’s meeting.

The Senate’s legal counsel maintained, and the attorney general concurred, that a majority of those senators still present in Austin had the constitutional authority to impose fines to compel attendance of the absent members. That being the case, it only seems logical that for the purposes of considering sanctions against the 11 senators, the remaining members were acting as the Senate and meeting to discuss any action should fall under constitutional and statutory laws regarding open meetings of the Senate.

Our associations and our newspapers’ editorial boards believe that government works best when meetings of our governmental bodies are open to the public. The writers of our Texas Constitution and the Legislature agreed, putting into constitutional and statutory law requirements that the Senate conduct its business in the full light of day. We would expect our lieutenant governor and other state leaders to honor both the letter AND the spirit of those laws. To do any less is a disservice to the people of Texas.

You have said that you will work to maintain open government and we hope you will do a better job of fulfilling that pledge in the future. We considered the idea of legal action to make this point clear but decided to hold off on that course of action for the present time. We will reconsider that option in the future should this situation arise again.

Thank you for your time:

Sincerely

Wes Turner, TDNA Board President

Donnis Baggett, TDNA/TPA Legislative Chairman

Willis Webb, TPA President