Court Opinion

ID: 9646885
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:14:55.106021+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:59:24.770496
License: Public Domain

DOGGETT, Justice,
dissenting.
The court proceeds on the erroneous notion that the greater the potential interest of a citizen in a proposed governmental action the less notice that must be provided. It reasons that the notice need not be drafted to attract the attention of those with the greatest interest in attending the meeting. In a declaration reflecting the most peculiar logic, the court writes: “The intended beneficiaries of [this openness] are not individual citizens, such as the particular landowners affected by this condemnation, but members of the interested public.” Maj.Op. at 765.
Today the court retreats from its prior commitment to openness with a pronouncement that notice must be given to the public, but not enough notice so that any individual member can necessarily know what is happening. Requiring that notice be designed only for those who otherwise share little interest in a proposed governmental action defeats the Act’s purpose. In Cox Enterprises, Inc. v. Board of Trustees, 706 S.W.2d 956, 960 (Tex.1986), we held that the Open Meetings Act “requires a full disclosure of the subject matter of the meetings.” “Full and adequate notice,” id. at 959, involves specifically disclosing the subjects to be discussed in a manner that is reasonably calculated to be informative concerning the public interest. Those with a direct interest in the proceedings are certainly a part of the general public to whom notice should be directed.
The Open Meetings Act is grounded on the principle that democracy thrives when citizens monitor their government’s workings and participate in their governance. See Acker v. Texas Water Comm’n, 790 S.W.2d 299, 300 (Tex.1990) (finding that both the decisions of governmental officials and the underlying reasoning “must be discussed openly before the public rather than secretly behind closed doors”); Riggs, The Texas Open Meetings Act: The Tough Questions, 53 Tex.B.J. 123, 126 (1990) (“The Open Meetings Act ... maintains that a democratic form of government requires an informed electorate.”). By concluding that partial notice is sufficient notice, the court strikes a decided new preference for government in the shade rather than in the sunshine.
The court's conclusion that the City was doing so much at one meeting that effective notice of each proposed action would have “overwhelm[ed] readers” and have been “even less informative,” Maj.Op. at 766, casts a chilling shadow over the concept of public notice. Apparently today’s message is that a busy bureaucracy that generates a long agenda can forget meaningful involvement of the taxpayer who foots the bill for its operation. I reject such elitist thinking and the statutory misconstruction upon which it relies.
Public participation is more likely and the quality of participation is improved if those with the greatest interest in a subject are notified in a meaningful way. Deficient notice can bar the public just as effectively as a bolt on the meeting place door.
I dissent from the retrenchment from *783Acker and Cox that the court now signals.1
GAMMAGE, J., joins in this opinion.

. Because what was posted was insufficient, it is not necessary to reach the issue of where it was posted.