The Honorable George Rodriguez, Jr. Opinion No. H- 816
El Paso County Attorney
Room 201, City-County Building Re: Whether prelim-
El Paso, Texas 79901 inary and negotiating
sessions of a city
and police association
under the Fire and
Police Employees
Relations Act are
open to the public.
,Dear Mr. Rodriguez:
You have requested our opinion on a number of questions
regarding collective bargaining between a city and municipal
police officers association. Specifically, you ask:
1. Whether a meeting of a municipal
police officers association at which
a quorum is present is subject to the
Open Meetings Act, article 6252-17;
2. whether the internal deliberations
of a city's negotiating team relating
to the collective bargaining process
are open to the public;
3. whether meetings between a city's
negotiating team and its mayor and/or
city council relating to the collective
bargaining process are open to the
public;
p. 3446
The Honorable George Rodriguez, Jr. - page 2 (H-816)
4. whether the internal deliberations
of a municipal police officers association
relating to the collective bargaining
process are open to the public; and
5. whether the actual bargaining sessions
between a police officers association and
a city are open to the public.
Article 5154c-1, V.T.C.S., the Fire and Police Employee
Relations Act, provides:
All deliberations pertaining to collective
bargaining between an association and a
public employer or any deliberation,by a
.quorum of members of,an association
authorized to,bargain collectively or
by a member of a public employer authorized
to bargain collectively shall be open to
the public:and in compliance with the Acts
of the State of Texas. sec. 7(e)~. .: ;,
'Association,"is defined as
any organization of any kind, or any agency
or employee representation committee or
plan , in which firefighters and/or police-~~'~
men participate and which exists~for the
purpose, in whole or in part, of‘dealing
with one or more employers, whether public
or private, concerning grievances, labor
disputes, wages',rates of pay, hours,of
employment, or conditions of work affecting
firefighters and/or policemen. Sec. 3(4).
The Open Meetings Act is'applicable to "every . . .
meeting or session of,every~governmental body.. . . .'I V.T.C.S.
art. 6252-17, S ,2(a). "Governmental body" is defined by the '~~
Act as
p. 3447
The Honorable George Rodriguez, Jr, - page 3 (H-816)
any board, commission, department, committee,
or agency within the executive or legislative
department of the state, which is under the
direction of one or more elected or appointed
members; and every Commissioners Court and
city council in the state, and every deliber-
ative body having rule-making or quasi-judicial
power and classified as a department, agency,
or political subdivision of a county or city;
and the board of trustees of every school
district, and every county board of education;
and the governing board of every special
district heretofore or hereafter created by
law. Sec. l(c).
In our opinion, a municipal police officers association, as
a type of 'association" described in article 5154c-1, is not
a "governmental body." Thus, the Open Meetings Act, as such,
is not applicable to its deliberations.
As to your second and third questions, article 5154c-1
would seem to require that the internal deliberations of a
city's negotiating team and its conferences with the mayor
or city council relative to collective bargaining are open
to the public. We believe, however, that there is an important
limitation upon section 7(e). In Attorney General Opinion
M-1261 (1972), this Office grafted a limited attorney-client
privilege upon the Open Meetings Act, although the Act at
that time did not contain an express exception for attorney-
client conferences. The Opinion held that
a public body governed by Article 6252-17
may only validly claim the attorney-client
privilege and hold a closed session to
discuss legal matters with its attorney
when it desires legal advice with regard
to pending or contemplated litigation,
settlement offers, and similar matters
where an attorney's duty to his client,
pursuant to the Rules and Canons of the
State Bar of Texas, would clearly
conflict with that Article. -Id. at 9, 10.
p. 3448
The Honorable George Rodriguez, Jr. - page 4 (~-816)
The year following the issuance of Attorney General Opinion
M-1261, the Legislature, in amending the Open Meetings Act,
adopted virtually verbatim the above quoted language from
the Opinion. V.T.C.S. art. 6252-17, 5 Z(e).
We believe that this limited privilege is equally
applicable to the open meeting provisions of article 5154c-1.
In our opinion, whenever a city's collective bargaining team
seeks the advice of counsel during its internal deliberations
or during its preliminary discussions with elected city
officials, portions of those deliberations or discussions
are excepted from the open meeting provisions of section 7(e)
when such counsel participate and when the duty of the
attorney to his client pursuant to the Rule6 and Canons of
the State Bar of Texas conflict with the concept of a public
meeting.
The same kind of attorney-client privilege must also be
accorded a police officers association. We note, however,'
that the internal deliberations of such an association are
not required to be open in any event when a quorum of members
is not present.
Your final question is whether the.actual bargaining
sessions between a police officers association and a city are
open to the public. The attorney-client privilege cannot be
construed to apply to these sessions, since the confidentiality
which provides the basis for the privilege is necessarily
absent in such an adversary situation. Since we have discovered
no exception to the clear language of the statute, it is our
opinion that the actual bargaining sessions between a city
and a police officers association are open to the public by
virtue of section 7(e) of article 5154c-1.
SUMMARY
Meetings of a municipal police officers
association are not subject to the Open
Meetings Act. The internal deliberations
of a city's collective bargaining team
and its preliminary discussions with
elected city officials are open to the
public, but sometimes may be closed if
p. 3449
The Honorable George Rodriguez, Jr. - page 5 (H-816)
counsel participate. The internal
deliberations of the collective bargaining
team of a municipal police officers
association are open to the public if a
quorum of members is present, but
sometimes may be closed if counsel
participate. The actual bargaining sessions
between a city and a police officers associ-
ation are open to the public.
Very truly yours,
APPROVED:
Opinion Committee
jwb
p. 3450