The HonorableGeorge Rodriguez,Jr. Opinion No. H- 816

El Paso CountyAttorney Room 201, City-CountyBuilding Re: Whether prelimEl Paso, Texas 79901 inary and negotiating sessions of a city and police association under the Fire and Police Employees RelationsAct are open to the public.
**,Dear** Mr. Rodriguez:
You have requestedour opinion on a number of questions regarding collectivebargainingbetween 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 MeetingsAct, article 6252-17; 2. whether the internal deliberations of a city's negotiating team relating to the collectivebargainingprocess 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 bargainingprocess are open to the public;

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4. whether the internaldeliberations of a municipal police officers association relating to the collectivebargaining process are open to the public; and
5. whether the **actual** bargaining sessions between a police officers associationand a city are open to the public. Article 5154c-1,V.T.C.S., RelationsAct, provides: the Fire and Police Employee

All deliberationspertaining to collective bargaining between an associationand a public employer or any deliberation,bya .quorumof members of,an association authorized to,bargain collectivelyor by a member of a public employer authorized to bargain collectively shallbe open to the public:and in compliancewith the Acts of the State of Texas. sec. 7(e)~. .: ;, 'Association,"

is defined as
any organization of any kind, or any agency or employee representationcommittee or plan, in which firefightersand/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 firefightersand/or policemen. Sec. 3(4). The Open Meetings Act is'applicableto "every
. . . meeting or session of,every~governmentalbody..

. . .'IV.T.C.S. art. 6252-17, S ,2(a). "Governmentalbody" is defined by the '~~ Act as

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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 CommissionersCourt and city council in the state, and every deliberative body having rule-making or quasi-judicial power and classified as a department, agency, or political subdivisionof 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 "governmentalbody." 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 internaldeliberationsof a city's negotiating team and its conferenceswith the mayor or city council relative to collectivebargaining are open to the public. We believe, however, that there is an important limitationupon 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 attorneyclient 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 legalmatters with its attorney when it desires legal advice with regard to pending or contemplated litigation, settlement offers, and similarmatters where an attorney's duty to his client, pursuant to the Rules and Canons of the State Bar of Texas, would clearly conflictwith that Article. Id. at 9, 10. -

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The year following the issuanceof Attorney General Opinion M-1261, the Legislature, in amending the Open Meetings Act, adoptedvirtuallyverbatim the above quoted language from the Opinion. V.T.C.S. art. 6252-17, 5 Z(e).
We believe that this limitedprivilege is equally applicable to the openmeeting provisions of article 5154c-1. In our opinion, whenever a city's collectivebargaining team seeks the advice of counsel during its internaldeliberations or during itspreliminarydiscussionswith elected city officials,portions of those deliberationsor discussions are excepted from the openmeeting provisions of section 7(e) when such counsel participate and when the duty of the attorney to his clientpursuant to the Rule6 and Canons of the State Bar of Texas conflictwith the concept of a public meeting. The same kind of attorney-clientprivilegemust also be accorded a police officers association. We note, however,' that the internaldeliberationsof such an associationare not required to be open in any event when a quorum of members is not present.
Your final question is whether the.actualbargaining sessionsbetween a police officers association and a city are open to the public. The attorney-clientprivilege 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. Sincewe have discovered no exception to the clear language of the statute, it is our opinion that the actual bargaining sessionsbetween 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 associationare not subject to the Open Meetings Act. The internal deliberations of a city's collective bargaining team and its preliminary discussionswith elected city officials are open to the public, but sometimesmay be closed if

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counsel participate. The internal deliberationsof the collectivebargaining team of a municipal police officers associationare open to the public if a quorum of members is present, but sometimesmay be closed if counsel participate. The actual bargaining sessions between a city and a police officers association are open to the public.

APPROVED: Very truly yours,

Opinion Committee jwb

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