Source: Adobe Firefly.
On December 2, 2024, the Richardson City Council appointed eleven members to a Charter Review Commission, as required by law every ten years to review and suggest changes to Richardson's City Charter. Here, in a series of posts, I am presenting my own suggestions.
Video Record of City Council Meetings
The City Council shall make a video and audio recording of reasonable quality of each regularly scheduled open meeting, including work sessions or special called meetings.
Source: Mark Steger.
This charter amendment is inspired by this blog post: "Dispatch from the Chamber of Secrets" from September, 2021. Like every worksession in which a new Richardson City Council meets to set their goals for the coming term, there is no video record of the meeting. The omissions continue in the current council's term.
State law is very strict in its requirements to make all City Council meetings open to the public. There has to be a published agenda. The public has to be allowed to attend. There has to be published minutes. And, importantly, there has to be an audio and video recording of the meeting. So, how does the Richardson City Council get away with not video recording these goal-setting meetings? State law on this matter (Texas Open Meetings Act, or TOMA) creates an exception that applies to about half of the meetings the Richardson City Council holds. So-called worksessions are NOT included in the law's requirements for video records. This Charter amendment closes that loophole.
Some argue (and by some, of course I mean me) that the biennial goals-setting meetings are the most important meetings of a Council's entire term. That's where the City Council decides what it's going to do the next two years. If the City Council won't video record these meetings voluntarily, the public should put it in the City Charter. It's time to put an end to the chamber of secrets.
"State law draws a line.
But in cracks secrets can hide.
Transparency lost."
—h/t ChatGPT
See also:
Council Recap: Charter Review Commission
City Charter: Single-Member Districts
City Charter: Initiative and Referendum
1 comment:
Agreed.
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