McCalpin’s Unofficial Guide to Richardson City Council Meetings
by William "Bill" McCalpin
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I have a problem – what are the steps I should take?
Q: I can’t attend Council meetings – how can I see/hear what is happening?
Q: Why aren’t all City Council meetings open to the public?
Q: How Can I find the Minutes of Council Meetings?
Q: I have a problem – what are the steps I should take?
For most problems, Richardson residents are encouraged to take the following actions in this order:
1. address the issue with City staff
2. address the issue with a Council member
3. address the issue at a Council meeting
From a common sense perspective, the City Council will expect citizens to try to work with City staff first concerning an issue. While any citizen has the right to address any issue at any open Council meeting, if the citizen goes straight to the Council meeting to lodge a compliant, at the least, the Council will be unable to do anything about the problem at that meeting in any case, and at worst, the Council might think less of the complaint if the citizen did not pursue the normal channels first.
If citizens have a complaint and have tried to work with City staff but are not satisfied, they should then take the complaint and the history of the problem as well as the history of contacts with City staff and approach one of the Council members. Note that while Richardson elects four Council members from districts and three Council members at large, all citizens in Richardson vote for all Council members; thus, there is no reason that a citizen cannot approach any Council member. As a matter of courtesy and good sense, the citizen should not approach more than one Council member without informing all members contacted, lest two Council members put in redundant effort into resolving a problem. Please note that most Council members are employed at other, full-time jobs, and perform their Council duties as they have time; therefore, being mindful of their time is a courtesy.
Only if the citizen gets no satisfaction from either the City staff and one or more Council members should the citizen speak at the Council meeting. This advice should not be interpreted as a prohibition against the right of the citizen to speak at a City Council meeting; rather, it is an admonition to recognize that human nature will react better to a complaint that goes through channels rather than a tirade “out of the blue” at a Council meeting that the Council and staff are totally unprepared for.
City Staff
The contact information (names, telephone numbers, and email addresses) for the senior management of various departments within the City government can be found here.
Telephone numbers and other contact information for all City departments can be found here. Note that this same webpage provides the ability to send an email to the City; please click on the link at “If you have any comments or suggestions, ....”
City Council members
The contact information for each of the City Council members can be found at here. Please note that emails sent to City Council members using their *@cor.gov addresses are reviewed by City staff members first (to allow them to screen the email for spam and to allow them to get a head start on issues that the Council member may ask about), so no private communications to a Council member should be made using these email addresses.
City Council Meetings
The public is permitted to speak on nearly any topic at every open meeting of the City Council, in a section called the “Visitor’s Section”. Please see the Visitor’s Section for the rules governing this agenda item at all Council meetings.
Q: I Can’t Attend Council Meetings; How Can I See/Hear What is Happening?
The audio tapes of formal Council Meetings have always been available after the meeting through a Freedom of Information request to the City Secretary.
Starting in June 2009, the audio tapes made by the City Secretary of formal Council meetings were made available online for citizens to download and listen to. Currently, these recordings are in “MP3” format and can be replayed by a wide variety of audio players. Note that currently, these audio records are not “streaming”; this means that the entire session must be downloaded before starting to play the audio. However, this also means that citizens can download the MP3 files to their PC or a variety of devices like an iPod for replay at a later time.
In August 2009, the City began making streaming video recordings of the formal City Council meetings and worksessions. Both the current and the archived videos are available at the City’s website.
Q: Why Aren’t All City Council Meetings Open to the Public?
State law (see the Texas Attorney General’s Open Meetings Handbook) permits municipal governments to hold meetings closed to the public, for a limited set of reasons:
· consideration of specific personnel matters;
· certain consultations with its attorney;
· discussions about the value or transfer of real property;
· discussions about security personnel, security devices, or a security audit;
· discussions about a prospective gift or donation to the city;
· discussions by a governing body of potential items on tests that the governing body conducts for purposes of licensing individuals to engage in an activity;
· discussions of certain economic development matters;
· discussions of certain competitive matters relating to a city-owned electric or gas utility for which the city council is the governing body; and
· certain information relating to the subject of emergencies and disasters.
Note the City Councils may choose to conduct meetings on such subjects open in any case; that is, they are not required to close the meeting by the Open Meeting statute (but other state statutes might). However, because these subjects often deal with personnel issues or with competitive issues that could cost the taxpayer money, the Richardson City Council – like most City Councils in the area – chooses to discuss such issues in closed session.
Note that just like open meetings, closed meetings (usually called “executive session”) must be announced at least 72 hours in advance, and the subject of the meeting must be posted. For example, the following is typical for how the executive session is listed in the City Council agenda:
EXECUTIVE SESSION
In compliance with Section 551.074 and Section 551.087 of the Texas Government Code, Council will convene into a closed session to discuss the following:
· Personnel
Boards and Commissions
City Plan Commission
Civil Service Board
North Texas Municipal Water District
Methodist Richardson Hospital Authority Board
· Deliberation Regarding Economic Development Negotiations
Commercial Development – Collins Blvd./Alma Rd. Area
Commercial Development – Campbell Rd./Plano Rd. Area
· Council will reconvene into open session, and take action, if any, on matters discussed in executive session.
Note that the Council must always convene in open session – even if there is no other business than that in the executive session – to announce that it is going into executive session (so that the public can see who is in attendance), and then the Council may reconvene into open session after the end of executive session in order to make any decisions as warranted by the executive session. This means that any members of the public who want to attend all open City Council meetings must wait nearby while the executive session takes place, then rejoin the Council after the executive session is ended.
Q: How Can I find the Minutes of Council Meetings?
The Minutes of a Council Meeting can generally be found in the Agenda Packet for the NEXT meeting. Thus, the minutes for the Council Meeting on July 13, 2009, can be found in the Agenda Packet for the subsequent meeting held on July 27, 2009.
NOTE: the Minutes found in the Agenda Packet are the Minutes as drafted by the City Secretary during the meeting. On rare occasions, Council members ask for changes in the Minutes before they are approved; thus, there is the small chance that the next meeting will contain a reference to changes in the Minutes for two meetings before.
For the Minutes of meetings prior to this date, you will need to file a Freedom of Information request with the City Secretary (currently Pam Schmidt )
Editorial Note: McCalpin's Unofficial Guide expresses no opinion on issues or candidates – it is purely information for all residents. All of the information expressed in McCalpin's Unofficial Guide is purely the opinion of the author. The Richardson Echo publishes this as a service but does not endorse nor refute its contents.