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 and topics to be considered in accordance with §2306.032 and §2306.0661(f) 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 Governing Board 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. The Board may consider the staff's presentation for purposes of this rule to be staff's written presentation in the Board's meeting book and posted on the Department's website.
   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) Reasonable limits. 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) Topics. The Department shall consider the following topics in relation to a proposed housing development:

   1. (1) the developer market study;
   2. (2) the location;
   3. (3) the compliance history of the developer;
   4. (4) the financial feasibility;
   5. (5) the appropriateness of the development's size and configuration in relation to the housing needs of the community in which the development is located;
   6. (6) the development's proximity to other low income housing developments;
   7. (7) the availability of adequate public facilities and services;
   8. (8) the anticipated impact on local school districts;
   9. (9) zoning and other land use considerations;
   10. (10) any matter considered by the Board to be relevant to the approval decision and in furtherance of the Department's purposes and the policies of Chapter 2306, Texas Government Code; or
   11. (11) other good cause as determined by the Board.

6. (f) Inquiry made at meeting (§551.042, Texas Government Code). 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.
7. (g) 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; amended to be effective March 21, 2004, 29 TexReg 2640; amended to be effective August 8, 2004, 29 TexReg 7302.