I somehow remember the mayor mentioning something recently (last few months) about keeping items in order on the city council agenda as much as possible.
Hmmmmmm
So why is it that the Mass Transit Board meeting was changed to an earlier time Tuesday, away from it's posted 1:00pm slot?
It's almost like not even posting the meeting and this is why I say this....
From a reliable source I heard that there were 6 people from our disabled community in wheelchairs arriving to speak out on the $10,000 question on the agenda. There were other disabled people not in wheelchairs waiting to speak, too.
When they arrived for the 1pm meeting they were met with "oh well... we bumped the MTDB meeting up"- giving them NO voice on agenda items!
This subject has been brought up before to City Council and I thought they understood.
One- many in the disabled community rely on taking the bus or LIFT for transportation. So they have to plan ahead of time for travel time and can't really be changed at the last minute because City Council/mayor decides to change the order of items/meetings.
Two- this leaves a huge segment of our community out of the loop and not having the opportunity to voice their opinions and suggestions. The city's website says 1pm- why can't they stick to it? Especially knowing that some in the community may be planning on coming to the meeting and speaking- let alone just coming to hear the meeting. Doesn't the website and the sign-in sheet at city hall mention a 1pm cut-off for speaking at the MTDB meeting?
I find this extremely rude and non-transparent. And dare I say- if this is a calculated move I find it very chickenshit. And unprofessional. And a dereliction of true and honest services. And I can go on and on. I think you get the point, tho.
A little more sensitivity on the part of our elected officials should be demanded.
And an apology at the next city council meeting. But don't just talk the talk... walk the walk. I'm trying to measure our elected officials by their character and they're not helping me any!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Action on agenda items before the posted time is absolutely not acceptable and probably illegal. I'm cynical enough to think it doesn't matter what members of the public say anyway, but they should at least pretend to listen.
ReplyDeleteCouncil meetings in general are poorly run. I think the parliamentarian function should be moved from the mayor to the city attorney.
You are correct, Matthew.
ReplyDeleteI went with just the angle of how it affected the disabled community that had wanted to speak/hear the MTDB- but moving the meeting up without proper 72 hour notice of posting is in direct violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act. For all the public.
According to the pdf file on Greg Abbott's website for the Texas Open Meetings Handbook of frequently asked questions- a posted meeting cannot have the time changed without a public posting according to the guidelines of posting and holding such meeting. The meeting may start later than posted and not be in violation- but it seems earlier IS in violation. This is all in layman's terms- obviously- but the handbook does make it clear.
I don't give much creedence to our current city attorney being able to handle that function as it has been allowed many times at city council meetings to change the time of the MTDB meeting while the city attorney was present and without question or consultation.
Look for further posts from me in the next few days that will expound on city and assistant city attorneys interpretations of certain laws or charters and how it was found that they were incorrect. And I'm just talking about matters that I have been privy to- imagine how many other gray areas have been shaded another color to work in the city's favor!
also,why did the director not post on the mtda agenda the cac's resoluton stating the appointment of an additional member to the Regional Stakeholders Transit Planning Committee, yet they got the $10k ???
ReplyDeletewhat good is the cac if items do not get to the mtdb???
The CAC made a recommendation that this be brought to the MTDB again, for someone to represent the riders,but Sun Metro decided otherwise. So that means CAC full members will have to bring it to their rep or MTDB themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the first item that has been recommended that has not been followed through on.
According to the CAC resolutions the secretary of CAC meetings will be the director of Sun Metro, and even tho there usually is a secretary/admin asst at these meetings in place of the director, whose shoulders does it fall upon?
This month's mtboard meeting was posted on the City web site for 9am and not 1pm as stated. The CAC did even try to make it known that Ms. Roberts would be a logical choice for being the additional member to the Regional Stakeholders Transit Planning committee at their June meeting. Why it was not put on the mtbd agenda, only First Transit/Sun Metro exec's know.
ReplyDelete