The bill gives all Texas citizens access to the meetings of local government entities, city commissions and school boards when the cities or school districts meet certain size requirements, namely cities with a population of 50,000 or more and school districts with 10,000 or more students.
City governments are given some leeway in cases of "catastrophe" or "technical breakdown," but still required to make the video available in a "timely manner."
When we shared our concern with the Texas Office of Attorney General that the City of Brownsville would fail to include the Public Comment portion of the meeting in their video, we were informed that they did not have that option. "If its part of the meeting, it must be in the video," the office attorney informed us.
The video for the 1/5/16 City Commission meeting is now available on the City of Brownsville website. It does NOT include Agenda item #11, that is Public Comment as required by Texas law. The video goes mute at the 26:21 mark, showing only a "Public Comment" notice, then resumes at 29:32, that is 3 minutes, 11 seconds later. Evidently, only one person signed up and participated in the agenda item.
The City of Brownsville seems to be in clear violation of Texas law.
That is probably addressed in the "rules of conduct" or whatever they were calling it. You remember, it was the first thing the mayor was going to do after he took office for his first term.
ReplyDeleteLegal? What do you expect from Mark "It's legal!" Sossi?
ReplyDeleteGraduate from this circle-jerk & put your money where your mouth is, JIm. A blog post and a half-assed collect call to the AG's office won't force the CoB to change their ways. A lawsuit is in order.
ReplyDeleteFuck you Jim.....you retard!
ReplyDeleteYes, Duardo, I finally published one of your comments. The hundreds of obscene epithets directed at my wife and son found their way into the spam bin, where Google can access your IP address if they are so inclined.
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