The City Council operates under a fairly strict set of rules regarding what they can or can’t do at any given meeting. This behavior is governed by the State of Texas’ Open Meetings Act. The short version is: They can only discuss or act upon items that are listed in the meeting agenda that is published 72 or more hours prior to the start of said meeting. This is meant to ensure that the public is duly notified about what topics are going to be covered and to prevent the council from taking action without providing the opportunity for citizen oversight.

This agenda is prepared by the city staff, with the final responsibility for the agenda items resting on the city manger.

Until recently, each City Council meeting contained a standing agenda item for “Future Agenda Consideration” — each council member would be asked in turn if there were any items that they would like to discuss at the following meeting. If a majority of the other council members felt that they did not want to see a proposed item at the next meeting, they could vote to dismiss the request and the proposed item would simply go away.

Now, I don’t think that the city manager was legally bound to honor the request for the future agenda item, but considering that the body requesting the topic is the same body that does his annual review and has the power to fire him, I reckon that agenda items officially requested by the council as a body found their way into the next meeting with stunning regularity.

That brings me to the topic at hand.

A few months ago, a new city manager was hired. Once he got spun up on the whos, wheres, and whyfores of city business, he began to implement some changes to the way city council agendas were built. He did an admirable job of streamlining the flow of the agenda, resulting in much shorter, and presumably more efficient, meetings.

One of items that is now missing from the regular agenda, however, is the one for “Future Agenda Consideration”

Unless I’m missing something (and please let me know if I am,) this is a troubling development that is not getting nearly the attention it deserves.

My reasoning goes like this:

An individual council member has no authority. The council as a body is limited to acting on items on the agenda. The city manager controls the agenda. Therefore, the city manager (a city employee) controls the city council (his boss.)

Not their votes, of course. Just what they are allowed to vote on.

Imagine if you will this scenario:

Councilman: “Mr. Manager, I have some concerns and I’d like to discuss your job performance. Please make an agenda item to discuss these issues at the next city council meeting.”

City Manager: “No.”

Councilman: “Um, ok.”

Am I missing something, or is this A Bad Thing(tm)?

As I do every morning, I fired up the computer over my coffee analog and checked the forum before work today. We’re in the process of conducting a healthy citizen’s debate on the proposed changes to the way our trash pickup is handled when one of our users, Glodowg, said:

“As the city attorney so nicely pointed out at the Council Meeting in March. The City Council does not need to have the citizen’s approval to change trash services.”

I thought this was worth blogging about because it reflects an attitude that has become far too prevalent at all levels of government.

The city attorney is, of course, absolutely right. The city council certainly doesn’t need (and shouldn’t have) every decision they make subject to citizen approval. That’s part of the process — we elect them and extend to them our trust to make decisions in a manner consistent with our values and needs.

Unfortunately, and at all levels, this is often taken too far. It’s a fine line to walk, to be sure, but I think that when the elected fail to hear the will of the people, or worse, ignore it, it becomes a clear breach of this extended trust.

We put people in office to work for us.

I know that if I did things that weren’t in line with my boss’ expectations I would expect to be fired.

If the People feel that our government is not working for us, they will certainly be fired at the earliest electoral opportunity.

Brave new world

We live in a new world — a world that puts two very powerful tools in the hands of each of us. Those tools are information and the means to be heard.

The internet has brought about a massive societal change. More than ever, the common person has the ability to publish their thoughts, feelings, knowledge, insight, and opinions and have them read.

Gone are the days when, for example, the Anna City Council presides over virtually empty chambers when only a couple of hardcore citizens are in attendance. Gone are the days of the government operating in a black hole.

The past year has brought about not only an increased level of awareness and interest in city business, measured in attendance at Council meetings, but also a platform for those people to report to a wider audience actions taken or proposed that they feel the citizens might have an interest in.

In the past two weeks the Anna Texas Online Forum has received 3,014 visits. Those visitors have viewed 59,231 pages. They spend on average 18 minutes perusing the site.

The People are talking.

The People are watching.

Please join us
For the Political Rally for
Anna City Council Candidates

Darren R. Driskell
Seat 4
&
Jeff Caponera
Seat 6

Friday March 28, 2008
7:30pm
Circle V Restaurant
12546 State Highway 121 N
Anna, TX 75409
(972) 924-2202

Come meet Darren & Jeff and have an opportunity to hear about their view on issues.

To preview information visit:
www.VoteForDriskell.us
or
www.CaponeraCampaign.com