The Honorable George Rodriguez, Jr. Opinion No. H- 816 

El Paso County Attorney 

Room 201, City-County Building Re: Whether prelimEl 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., 

Relations Act, provides: 

the Fire and Police Employee 

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 deliberative 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 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 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 association are open to the public. 

APPROVED: 

Very truly yours, 

Opinion Committee 

jwb 

p. 3450