McCalpin’s Unofficial Guide to Richardson City Council Meetings
by William "Bill" McCalpin

Part 3
What to Read Before and After Council Meetings

Curiously, Texas state law mandates that very little information about City Council meetings be displayed on the Internet. The Texas Attorney General describes the duties of government in providing the public with access to information in the Texas Public Information Handbook. However, current state law largely requires that information be made available to the public when requested, not placed online or otherwise published without a request.

In terms of City Council meetings, only the Meeting Notice and the Meeting Agenda are required to be published, both in print (and displayed at the government office) and on the Internet. However, the City of Richardson chooses to go well beyond the literal wording of the law, and provides a great deal of information related to City Council meetings online.

During the summer of 2009, the City staff updated the layout of the content on the City’s website. Thus, some items – such as agendas for Council meetings over time – may be divided into multiple locations. This situation should improve over time as the City staff continues to update and improve the website.

Types of documents related to City Council meetings:
Planned City Council meeting dates for 2009 – the list of schedules City Council meetings and worksessions for calendar 2009. Note: all meeting dates are subject to revision by the City Council.

Agendas – the agenda is a list of business items at a proposed meeting. The agenda also serves as the meeting notice. Note: on the web page referenced here, agendas are found in the column headed “Agenda”.

Agenda Packet – the agenda packet is the aggregate of content and supporting information on agenda items provided to the City Council prior to each meeting. Sometimes, this is called the “Thursday folder” or “Thursday packet”, since the City Council members normally receive a white folder containing this information on the Thursday before the next meeting.

If an agenda item is not clear as a line item on the agenda, reading the supporting documentation in the agenda packet can frequently clarify the scope of the item. Note: copies of this information are not handed out at the City Council meetings.

Note that the formal minutes for a City Council meeting can be found in the agenda packet for the following City Council meeting, not with the current meeting.

The agenda packets were placed online starting in July 2009, and can be found on the web page referenced here under the column headed “Packet”.

Handouts – handouts are additional supporting information on an agenda item for a City Council meeting. They are called “handouts” because paper copies of the content used to be distributed to the Council and to the public at the City Council meetings.

However, in early 2010, the decision was made to no longer pass out paper handouts at Council meetings, not only to save the paper, but also because the handouts weren't always finished in time anyway, as the City staff may still be working on the handout until moments before the meeting. Now, all handouts are placed online after the meeting under the column headed “Handouts”.

Actions Taken – ‘Actions Taken’ is a document that is a quick summary of the actions taken at a City Council meeting. The purpose of the Actions Taken document is to provide information about what occurred at a City Council meeting generally on the next day. While the formal Minutes of the City Council meeting contains much more detail about the meeting, the formal Minutes will not be published until the City Council has had a chance to review and approve them, generally at a subsequent City Council meeting two weeks later. Thus, the Actions Taken is not a formal document, but a courtesy provided by the City Secretary.

Actions Taken documents are provided only for City Council meetings (not worksessions), and they appear on the reference web page in the column headed by “Actions”.

Archive – the archived Agendas and Actions Taken for March 2008 through December 2008 can be found on this web page.

In addition to content printed and online about City Council meetings and worksessions, the City also provides audio and video records of meetings.

Audio – Starting in June 2009, the City has posted recordings of formal City Council meetings online so that residents can listen to a meeting at their leisure. Note that the meetings have always been recorded and are kept by the City Secretary as part of the official record, but now this audio recording is available online as well. The audio recording is in “mp3” format.

The Audio records can be found on the reference webpage in the column headed by “Audio”.

Video – Starting in August 2009, the City began live Internet broadcasting of City Council meetings and worksessions. These broadcasts are available online at the City’s web page during the meetings.

After meeting, these broadcasts are available to be seen in streaming video from the webpage where all the other documents can be found; the links are found in the column headed by “Video”.

Note: this part of the City website is under development as more content is added online so some links may change. Go to the City Council webpage and navigate from this link location if the links above do not work properly (currently, start with the “Council Meetings” link).

 

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.