LlanoWatch.org

eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty
                                                                                            Thomas Jefferson

Mayor Reagor's Practices on Meeting Scheduling

The Mayor schedules Council meetings on Monday at 5:30 and, by minimum law, publishes the agenda and some of the background information, sometimes, on the internet. The result of this practice is that Council members and citizens have just the weekend and Monday to review the information. When contracts, ordinances, and budgets are involved, this is an insufficient amount of time - for citizens and Council members.

It is even worse when the information is not posted at all. This is typical for important issues like the 2013 budget or the golf course outsourcing contract. For example, the 8/30/12 Budget Workshop had no budget data at all on the City website nor was anything posted after the meeting. The Council members, city manager, and mayor spoke of "option 2" and we in the audience had no clue what was in "option 2" or any of the options. Of course because of the Mayor's new procedures for speaking, citizens couldn't ask what "option 2" was because the agenda item discussion had already started. It took a Freedom of Information Act Request to get some of the information but as of 9/4/12, there is still key information outstanding.

Mayor Reagor's Practices on Access to Information

Buried deep inside the City File Repository is a file of "packets". A packet contains the backup information City Council members need to discuss and make decisions on Council meeting agenda items. This is also information needed by Citizens to understand what is going on during council meetings. LlanoWatchers have continually asked the City Manager and Mayor to keep this file current but they have continually failed particularly for important subjects like budgets and contracts. Sometimes information is sent directly to Council members even when available for the packet. Sometimes the information is delivered to Council member's homes or put on their chairs at Council.

The point here is that information is not consistently available to citizens who have the right and duty to review all information. For now, we must send Freedom of Information Act requests with hopes that we used the exact correct terminology and timed the request exactly.

Even Freedom of Information Acts don't always produce information. Many documents have just disappeared. One tactic used is to say "no document is available" when it is in draft form and it stays in draft form until the meeting for a vote. And don't even try to ask a why or how question. You will get a "no document is available" response. After all, it is a Freedom of Document Act right? We shouldn't even have to send these requests. It should be on the City website.

As of 2pm on the afternoon of the 9/4/20 Council Meeting, we citizens have no budget information for tonight's meeting despite Freedom of Information Act requests.

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