Not Restricting Public Comment

V. Hugh Lewis II/Columnist

The JISD Board of Trustees chose to buck a trend started by County Commissioners Courts across the state that started closing the door on the public’s ability to make public comment at government meetings during last week’s special meeting. 

The Board chose to not restrict individuals to only making public comments on matters that are on the agenda for that meeting. Bravo and Thank You.

The logic behind these restrictions seems sound at first glance: We’ve all seen folks go to the podium and make wild accusations against entities or individuals, or bring up items that have been discussed at previous meetings in the hopes they’ll be readdressed in the future, or just those that come up and make bonkers statements for their three minutes of fame.

But, think about the implications.

If approved, the only way to bring something to a government entities attention would be before a meeting. No longer could one go to the podium, and use their 3-minutes to inform of a situation and ask for it to be put on a future agenda. So, how would one get something on an agenda? 

And, since members of the boards are the only people who are allowed to put something on the agenda, if they don’t think something is worth bringing up to the whole board, then it doesn’t happen. Or the individual has to go to every member of the board and have the discussion. Anyone want to guess what the response will be to that? “Bring it up with the board as a whole.” How’s that supposed to happen?

Unfortunately for members of the public, this is NOT illegal under the Texas Open Meetings Act. TOMA requires entities to allow the public to address them on any subject “on the agenda.” It doesn’t require them to listen to comments not on the agenda.

But is that good for the public?

Yes and no.

Yes because it keeps a meeting focused on the matters at hand for that meeting. It also eliminates the misunderstanding a lot of people have about public comment: they can ask questions of the body and get a response. In truth, individuals can ask questions, but, entities are prohibited from responding other than to clarify a question or direct the individual to the appropriate person to get an answer.

HOWEVER, the Act permits a member of the public or a member of the governmental body to raise a subject that has not been included in the notice for the meeting, but any discussion of the subject must be limited to a proposal to place the subject on the agenda for a future meeting. Section 551.042 of the Act provides for this procedure.

How this can be followed when one is prohibited from speaking on an item not on the agenda has yet to be answered. 

JISD and Commissioners Courts didn’t come up with this idea. So don’t go yelling at our local representatives. I’m sure this was a recommended policy change from an organization they’re a member of and there’s probably some legalese that “validates the recommendation.”

But, silencing the public is never a good thing.  

Again, thankfully JISD chose NOT to implement this policy and will continue to allow the public to bring items to their attention – on the agenda or not.