1. (a) Purpose. The purpose of this section is to establish procedures for hearing public comments on issues being presented at meetings open to the public held by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs in accordance with §2306.032 of the Texas Government Code.

2. (b) Definitions. The following words and terms, when used in this section, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

   1. (1) Board - The board of directors of the Department.
   2. (2) Department - The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
   3. (3) Meeting - A deliberation between a quorum of the board of the Department, or between a quorum of the board of the Department and another person, as defined under § 551.001(4) of the Texas Government Code.
   4. (4) Open Meetings Act - Chapter 551, Texas Government Code.

3. (c) Procedures.

   1. (1) Members of the public may give testimony at the beginning of a board meeting.
   2. (2) Members of the public may also give testimony on any agenda item of a board meeting after the presentation made by department staff and motions made by the board.
   3. (3) The Department shall provide witness affirmation forms at each board meeting for the public to complete in order to give public testimony.

4. (d) The Department may set reasonable limits on the number, frequency and length of presentations before it but may not unfairly discriminate among speakers for or against a particular point of view.

   1. (1) The board may consider the following when limiting the amount of time and the frequency each member of the public is allowed to provide testimony:

      1. (A) the number of witness affirmations received;
      2. (B) the number of agenda items to be heard; and
      3. (C) the time duration for the meeting.
   2. (2) If the board limits the number of presentations, the board will limit the number of presentations equally among those speakers that are for a particular point of view and those speakers that are against a particular point of view, if practical.

5. (e) Members of the public may raise a subject that has not been included in the notice for the meeting; however, any discussion of the subject by the board must be limited to a proposal to place the subject on the agenda for a future meeting.

   1. (1) The notice requirements under the Open Meetings Act do not apply to:

      1. (A) a statement of specific factual information given in response to the inquiry; or
      2. (B) a recitation of existing policy in response to the inquiry.
   2. (2) Any deliberation of or decision about the subject of the inquiry shall be limited to a proposal to place the subject on the agenda for a subsequent meeting.
6. (f) This rule does not entitle a member of the public to choose the items to be discussed.

Source Note:The provisions of this §1.10 adopted to be effective March 31, 2002, 27 TexReg 2221.