Correction: The City Attorney was listed on the agenda and anticipated to be present in the meeting. But, since the Mayor did not poll the virtual attendees, it is unclear as to whether the City Attorney was actually present at the meeting. This element has been removed for clarity.

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The upcoming meeting is a “Do-Over” of the meeting originally held October 18th, 2022. In fact, the agenda appears to be a “carbon-copy” of the previously-held meeting.

Why? 

• Because the meeting was held improperly on numerous counts.
• To begin with, there was no quorum present in the room. This is a well-understood legal requirement of the Texas Open Meetings Law for any “open meeting” held in the State of Texas.
• Other members of city council attended and participated “virtually” without  proper legal notice on the agenda.
• The faces of those members attending virtually were not visible to the public.
• When voting, it was not clear which of the online members were actually voting.
• The city made no recording of the meeting.

Questions that most likely won’t be answered by the Mayor or the City Council because they are embedded in the “Consent Agenda”

• What are all of the reasons that the property tax increase has to be ratified?
• Why won’t the city council fully discuss the LJA GIS Mapping Project prior to considering and voting on it?
• Why won’t the city council fully discuss the Nixle Notification System prior to considering and voting on it?
• Why won’t the city council fully discuss Archive Social prior to considering and voting on it?

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Here is the notice of the meeting:

The City Council will meet on Tuesday, November 1, 2022 to consider the following agenda items.

As with all public meetings in the State of Texas, the public is encouraged to attend as well as engage in the “Public Comments” time regardless of where they live or whether the item is on the agenda.

Note that if an item is on the agenda, the City Council is allowed to engage in discussion about the item even during the Public Comment period.

Here is a link to the actual meeting agenda on the City website.

Here is a link to the City website – “Meetings and Agendas” page.