Attorney General
Description of Attorney
General submissions. Under provisions set
out in the Texas Constitution, the Texas Government Code, Title
4, sec.402.042 and numerous statutes, the attorney general
is authorized to write advisory opinions for state and local
officials. These advisory opinions are requested by agencies
or officials when they are confronted with unique or unusually
difficult legal questions. The attorney general also determines,
under authority of the Texas Open Records Act, whether information
requested for release from governmental agencies maybe held from
public disclosure. Requests for opinions, opinions, and open
record decisions are summarized for publication in the Texas
Register. The Attorney General responds to many requests
for opinions and open records decisions with letter opinions.
A letter opinion has the same force and effect as a formal Attorney
General Opinion, and represents the opinion of the Attorney General
unless and until it is modified or overruled by a subsequent
letter opinion, a formal Attorney General Opinion, or a decision
of a court of record.
Opinion Withdrawal
DM-17. The Attorney
General of Texas is withdrawing
Attorney General Opinion DM-17
(1991) and seeking additional
input from interested parties
regarding the issues addressed
in that opinion. In Attorney
General Opinion DM-17, the
Attorney General concluded as
follows.
The board of Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority is not
participating in a meeting subject to the Open Meetings Act,
Texas Civil Statutes, Article 6252-17, if it met in a closed
session to receive information and ask questions of staff and
companies that responded to its request for proposals for a proposed
rail system and did not engage in any discussion of any matter
of public business among board members. Section 2(r) of the Open
Meetings Act does not authorize the board to hold a closed meeting
to engage in a discussion among board members about the proposals.
Notice of this opinion appeared in 16 TexReg 2564 (1991).
A new opinion will either affirm or overrule Attorney General
Opinion DM-17. Therefore, Attorney General Opinion DM-17 will
no longer have any precedential value.
The Attorney General encourages any interested party to submit
comments to Madeleine B. Johnson, Chair, Opinion Committee, Office
of the Attorney General, P.O. Box 12548, Austin, Texas 78711-2548.
Comments will be accepted for 30 days after publication of this
notice in the Texas Register.
TRD-9212751