Tarrant commissioners scale down public comment, briefings with new policy
More than 20 Tarrant residents opposed the decision Republican Commissioners made Tuesday to reduce the amount of public comment time and to make a court agenda creation policy.
With the changes to the rules of decorum, public commenters will no longer have three minutes per item they sign up to speak on. They can only speak once per meeting. Commenters will have up to three minutes to speak, depending on how many people sign up.
The new agenda creation policy includes restrictions on what commissioners can request briefings for. Ongoing law enforcement investigations, active criminal prosecutions and any potential civil litigation against the county or anyone working at or with the county will not be discussed in open session, the policy states.
The changes will be adopted at the next commissioners court meeting March 10.
Republican Commissioners Matt Krause, Manny Ramirez and County Judge Tim O’Hare voted in favor of the changes. Democrat Commissioners Roderick Miles and Alisa Simmons were opposed.
O’Hare said he created the policy after hearing from county employees and residents that meetings needed to be more civil and productive.
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court meetings have been subject to political grandstanding, O’Hare said. These changes should temper that, O’Hare said, but do not mean he does not respect the Constitution.
“Free speech does not mean anyone can cause whatever chaos, say whatever foul-mouth thing, do whatever agitation, do whatever disrupting or campaign at a government business meeting,” O’Hare said. “It has never meant that, nor does it mean you can speak at a business meeting an unlimited amount of time on every issue you choose to do.”
The change includes moving the public comment period to the top of the meeting from the very end, a request Krause and Ramirez both said they have heard over and over.
Other benefits from the public comment changes in the decorum policy include a higher threshold to lower time limit and prioritization of Tarrant County residents over non-residents. Those who are ejected from meetings will now be heard by the civil service commission, Krause said.
Simmons said the changes to what can be briefed on is a direct reaction to her requests for briefings on a slew of topics, including redistricting, jail deaths and civil lawsuits.
Those briefings, Simmons said, are for the education of the public just as much as they are for the court. Many briefings have gone by with almost no new information given.
Most of the speakers said the solution to lengthy meetings is to meet more often, as the commissioners used to, not shortening the number of times public commenters can sign up.