The City Council in Bridge City discussed the procedure for allowing citizens to have items put on the council’s agenda during a workshop Tuesday. New procedures for getting items on the agenda will be prepared for approval by the council, hopefully, before the next meeting.
The topic came to a head at a previous City Council meeting two weeks ago when Joseph Hannan complained that it was too difficult for citizens to get a topic on the agenda, and they are limited to only the three minutes allowed for citizens’ comments to voice complaints against Bridge City. The workshop lasted over 30 minutes and delayed the start of the regular meeting of the council.
At the end of the regular meeting the City Council requested Mayor David Rutledge and City Attorney Paul Fukuda to work up a policy for allowing citizens’ requests to be put on future agendas. Rutledge expressed the council’s desire to give the citizens a better opportunity to share their opinions. “We want everybody to be treated equally, we’re trying to get our procedure in line with that thought in mind,” Rutledge said. The mayor and the city attorney hope to have their new policy and procedure ready by the next City Council meeting on May 1.
During the time for citizen comments the council heard from two persons. One was complaining about drainage in his neighborhood and the other was thankful for work done by the city on his property.
Kenneth Prosperie came to the meeting and sat in the front row with a piece of tape over his mouth with Bridge City written on it symbolizing a similar notion that the city does not want to hear complaints from its citizens. Prosperie reminded the City Council that the drainage on Sunnyside where he lives is very poor and needs the city’s attention.
Mark Philpott thanked City Manager Jerry Jones and the Bridge City Water Department to repair a sinkhole on his property. Philpott said he greatly appreciated the concentrated effort to repair the problem.
The City Council did approve keeping the same tax exemptions as last year. The homestead will remain 20 percent and senior citizens and disabled citizens will still have a $22,000 exemption.
No names were submitted to be alternate members of the City Board of Adjustments. A couple of council members indicated they had asked other people to be possible appointees, but were turned down in each case. In other business the City Council voted to suspend the rates proposed by Centerpoint’s Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program or GRIP.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
Just to be sure people understand, the purpose of public meetings is to allow communication between elected members (city council, school board, etc). It is, literally, illegal for them to communicate between each other outside the open meeting with a few exceptions.
Most councils like to hear from citizens and provide times for that input, but citizens are free to contact their council members outside the meeting when they wish… but council members are not free contact each other.
You will notice that council is prohibited, by law, from talking about subjects citizens bring up in council. It’s not that they don’t want to talk about those things, the law does not allow it.
These laws (search for Texas Open Meetings laws) are important to everyone. We shouldn’t confuse, or water down, the purpose of the meetings. They are to allow council members to conduct business of the city, in the open.