(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.

Source Note: The provisions of this §850.103 adopted to be effective April 28, 2010, 35 TexReg 3284; amended to be effective December 7, 2014, 39 TexReg 9535