| (a) The Appointed Board, through the appropriate committee,
shall review all requests for advisory opinions.
(b) Upon receipt of a request for an advisory opinion,
the Executive Director will date stamp the request, issue an Advisory
Opinion Request (AOR) tracking number, and make a preliminary determination
on the TBPG's jurisdiction regarding the request.
(c) The Executive Director will review the request
to determine if the request can be answered by reference to the plain
language of a statute or a TBPG rule, or if the request has already
been answered by the Appointed Board.
(d) If the Executive Director determines the TBPG has
no jurisdiction or the request can be answered by reference to a statute,
TBPG rule, or previous opinion, the Executive Director shall prepare
a written response for the appropriate committee addressed to the
person making the request that cites the jurisdictional authority,
the language of the statute or rule, or the prior determination.
(e) The appropriate committee shall review all requests
for advisory opinions and may:
(1) approve jurisdiction and reference responses, as
applicable, and report a summary of these actions to the Appointed
Board for ratification; or
(2) determine the request warrants an advisory opinion
and proceed with developing an advisory opinion.
(f) If a request warrants an advisory opinion, the
appropriate committee shall determine if further information is needed
to draft an advisory opinion. If additional information is needed,
the committee shall determine what information is needed and instruct
the Executive Director to obtain expert resources, hold stakeholder
meetings, or perform other research and investigation as necessary
to provide the information required to draft an advisory opinion and
report back to the committee.
(g) If during the process, the committee determines
that the request is one the Appointed Board cannot answer, then the
committee shall have the Executive Director provide written notification
to the person making the request of the reason the request will not
be answered and this response shall be ratified by the Appointed Board.
(h) When sufficient information exists, the appropriate
committee shall draft an advisory opinion and schedule the draft advisory
opinion for review by the Appointed Board for approval for posting
on the agency website and in the Texas Register for
comments.
(i) Draft opinions shall be posted for at least 30
days and any interested person may submit written comments concerning
an advisory opinion request. Comments submitted should reference the
AOR number.
(j) Upon completion of the comment period, the appropriate
committee shall consider any comments made and draft a final opinion
recommendation to be presented for review and adoption by the Appointed
Board.
(k) The Appointed Board shall review and adopt the
advisory opinion or determine if further revisions are required and
refer the request back to the appropriate committee with guidance
on proceeding with completing the request.
(l) Each final advisory opinion adopted by the Appointed
Board shall be published in summary form in the
Texas Register.
(m) To reconsider or revise an issued advisory opinion,
the Appointed Board shall process the reconsideration or revision
as a new request and follow the process as set forth in this section.
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