CP-004: Establishing New Policies and Amending or Rescinding Existing Policies

The purpose of this policy is to establish requirements and best practices for the development, review, approval, and revision of all Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW) Commission policies.

Policies state the Commission’s intent or position on a given subject and provide a basis for consistent decision-making and resource allocation. Commission policies are approved by vote of the TPW Commissioners.

Establishing New and Amending Existing Policies

Requests for development or revisions of Commission policies may be initiated by any TPWD employee with approval of their Division Director. Prior to submission to the Commission Chair, policies are reviewed and approved by TPWD General Counsel, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the Executive Director, in accordance with TPWD Policy on Developing and Revising Policies, Procedures, Plans, and Manuals (PD-04-01) and the Procedure on Developing and Revising Policies, Procedures, Plans, and Manuals (PD-04-01A).

All actions of the Commission that establish policy should be incorporated into a statement of policy enacted by a motion of approval at a Commission meeting.

An existing policy should be amended by appropriate motion of approval by the Commission. All amended policies published must show the date the amended policy is effective. Revisions involving only minor edits to an existing Commission policy may forego Division Director review but must receive final approval by the Executive Director before submission to the Chair. The term “minor edits” means document revisions that are incidental in nature, such as minor content rearrangement, formatting changes, or correcting misspellings, grammatical errors, or outdated links. The Chair may approve minor edits without a motion of approval and vote of the Commission.

The Policy Branch of the Support Resources Division is responsible for coordinating the development or revision of Commission policies.

Rescinding Existing Policy

An existing policy should be rescinded by appropriate motion of approval by the Commission as of the date of such action or at an established future date, but the effective date cannot be made retroactive.

Document Identification

TPW Commission policies use a systematic series of numbers and letters to identify and differentiate each policy. The Policy Branch and Legal Division staff, in consultation with the Executive Office, are responsible for assigning a title and document identifier at the time of approval.