Bill Text: TX SB1613 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Relating to the application of the public meetings and public information laws to public power utilities.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 2)

Status: (Passed) 2011-06-17 - Effective immediately [SB1613 Detail]

Download: Texas-2011-SB1613-Enrolled.html

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S.B. No. 1613

AN ACT
relating to the application of the public meetings and public
information laws to public power utilities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subsection (c), Section 551.086, Government
Code, is amended to read as follows:
(c) This chapter does not require a public power utility
governing body to conduct an open meeting to deliberate, vote, or
take final action on any competitive matter, as that term is defined
by Section 552.133 [in Subsection (b)(3). Before a public power
utility governing body may deliberate, vote, or take final action
on any competitive matter in a closed meeting, the public power
utility governing body must first make a good faith determination,
by majority vote of its members, that the matter is a competitive
matter that satisfies the requirements of Subsection (b)(3). The
vote shall be taken during the closed meeting and be included in the
certified agenda or tape recording of the closed meeting. If a
public power utility governing body fails to determine by that vote
that the matter satisfies the requirements of Subsection (b)(3),
the public power utility governing body may not deliberate or take
any further action on the matter in the closed meeting]. This
section does not limit the right of a public power utility governing
body to hold a closed session under any other exception provided for
in this chapter.
SECTION 2. Section 552.133, Government Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 552.133. EXCEPTION: PUBLIC POWER UTILITY COMPETITIVE
MATTERS. (a) In this section, "public[:
[(1) "Public] power utility" means an entity providing
electric or gas utility services that is subject to the provisions
of this chapter.
(a-1) For purposes of this section, "competitive
[(2) "Public power utility governing body" means the
board of trustees or other applicable governing body, including a
city council, of a public power utility.
[(3) "Competitive] matter" means a utility-related
matter that [the public power utility governing body in good faith
determines by a vote under this section] is related to the public
power utility's competitive activity, including commercial
information, and would, if disclosed, give advantage to competitors
or prospective competitors. The term:
(1) means a matter that is reasonably related to the
following categories of information:
(A) generation unit specific and portfolio fixed
and variable costs, including forecasts of those costs, capital
improvement plans for generation units, and generation unit
operating characteristics and outage scheduling;
(B) bidding and pricing information for
purchased power, generation and fuel, and Electric Reliability
Council of Texas bids, prices, offers, and related services and
strategies;
(C) effective fuel and purchased power
agreements and fuel transportation arrangements and contracts;
(D) risk management information, contracts, and
strategies, including fuel hedging and storage;
(E) plans, studies, proposals, and analyses for
system improvements, additions, or sales, other than transmission
and distribution system improvements inside the service area for
which the public power utility is the sole certificated retail
provider; and
(F) customer billing, contract, and usage
information, electric power pricing information, system load
characteristics, and electric power marketing analyses and
strategies; and
(2) does not [but may not be deemed to] include the
following categories of information:
(A) information relating to the provision of
distribution access service, including the terms and conditions of
the service and the rates charged for the service but not including
information concerning utility-related services or products that
are competitive;
(B) information relating to the provision of
transmission service that is required to be filed with the Public
Utility Commission of Texas, subject to any confidentiality
provided for under the rules of the commission;
(C) information for the distribution system
pertaining to reliability and continuity of service, to the extent
not security-sensitive, that relates to emergency management,
identification of critical loads such as hospitals and police,
records of interruption, and distribution feeder standards;
(D) any substantive rule or tariff of general
applicability regarding rates, service offerings, service
regulation, customer protections, or customer service adopted by
the public power utility as authorized by law;
(E) aggregate information reflecting receipts or
expenditures of funds of the public power utility, of the type that
would be included in audited financial statements;
(F) information relating to equal employment
opportunities for minority groups, as filed with local, state, or
federal agencies;
(G) information relating to the public power
utility's performance in contracting with minority business
entities;
(H) information relating to nuclear
decommissioning trust agreements, of the type required to be
included in audited financial statements;
(I) information relating to the amount and timing
of any transfer to an owning city's general fund;
(J) information relating to environmental
compliance as required to be filed with any local, state, or
national environmental authority, subject to any confidentiality
provided under the rules of those authorities;
(K) names of public officers of the public power
utility and the voting records of those officers for all matters
other than those within the scope of a competitive resolution
provided for by this section;
(L) a description of the public power utility's
central and field organization, including the established places at
which the public may obtain information, submit information and
requests, or obtain decisions and the identification of employees
from whom the public may obtain information, submit information or
requests, or obtain decisions; [or]
(M) information identifying the general course
and method by which the public power utility's functions are
channeled and determined, including the nature and requirements of
all formal and informal policies and procedures;
(N) salaries and total compensation of all
employees of a public power utility; or
(O) information publicly released by the
Electric Reliability Council of Texas in accordance with a law,
rule, or protocol generally applicable to similarly situated market
participants.
(b) Information or records are excepted from the
requirements of Section 552.021 if the information or records are
reasonably related to a competitive matter, as defined in this
section. [Excepted information or records include the text of any
resolution of the public power utility governing body determining
which issues, activities, or matters constitute competitive
matters.] Information or records of a municipally owned utility
that are reasonably related to a competitive matter are not subject
to disclosure under this chapter, whether or not, under the
Utilities Code, the municipally owned utility has adopted customer
choice or serves in a multiply certificated service area. This
section does not limit the right of a public power utility governing
body to withhold from disclosure information deemed to be within
the scope of any other exception provided for in this chapter,
subject to the provisions of this chapter.
(c) [In connection with any request for an opinion of the
attorney general under Section 552.301 with respect to information
alleged to fall under this exception, in rendering a written
opinion under Section 552.306 the attorney general shall find the
requested information to be outside the scope of this exception
only if the attorney general determines, based on the information
provided in connection with the request:
[(1) that the public power utility governing body has
failed to act in good faith in making the determination that the
issue, matter, or activity in question is a competitive matter; or
[(2) that the information or records sought to be
withheld are not reasonably related to a competitive matter.
[(d)] The requirement of Section 552.022 that a category of
information listed under Section 552.022(a) is public information
and not excepted from required disclosure under this chapter unless
expressly confidential under law does not apply to information that
is excepted from required disclosure under this section.
SECTION 3. Subdivision (3), Subsection (b), Section
551.086, Government Code, is repealed.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2011.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1613 passed the Senate on
April 7, 2011, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1613 passed the House on
May 23, 2011, by the following vote: Yeas 142, Nays 0, one
present not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
Approved:
______________________________
Date
______________________________
Governor