Summary: Find Comments during Public Comments; Comments during a Public Hearing; Willow Park Comment Form; Your Comments; Willow Park Civics Research and Sources. "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Latest Update: posted 22 January 2024
Speak up. How to speak at a City of Willow Park official meeting.
Index: Comments during Public Comments; Comments during a Public Hearing; Willow Park Comment Form; Your Comments; Willow Park Civics Research and Sources
Any Citizen may speak during a general Public Comment agenda item or during a Public Hearing agenda item. You do not have to be a Willow Park citizen.
NOTE: if you are not a Willow Park Citizen you may have your speaking time decreased.
A general Public Comment is about a Citizen concern or question that is NOT on the current City Meeting Agenda. Public Comments are usually the first item on the agenda. City officials on the dais are not allow to comment or address your concerns or questions, except to recommend they be added to a future meeting agenda.
During a Public Hearing, your comments must be about a specific agenda item. A Public Hearing is usually the agenda item just before the agenda item during which the City Governing Body will consider and take action
• Note: If you speak more than once during a City Meeting, be prepared to have your speaking time reduced.
• Note: You will be commenting before any details about the agenda item are introduced - beyond information on the agenda AND before the City Governing Body gives details and asks their own questions. You will not have a chance to ask follow-up questions.
A City of Willow Park Public Comments Form, must be completed and submitted, to the City Secretary, five (5) minutes before the Council convenes.
1. Please complete this form and submit it to the City Secretary prior to opening of the Council Meeting.
2. Speakers will be called in the order the forms are submitted.
3. Public comment is limited to three (3) minutes per speaker.
4. No speaker may convey or donate his or her time to another speaker.
S. Comments shall be courteous and respectful at all times. Speakers making personal, unfounded, profane or slanderous remarks may be removed from the room.
6. No person may use public comment for the purpose of campaign or advertisement.
7. This is NOT a question and answer time and Council can not engage in conversation with the public.
8. The presiding officer has the responsibility for enforcing these rules.
Your Comments
• You will be asked to first state your name and address before you speak.
• It's a good idea to have copies of your comments or notes to distribute to everyone on the dais, to the local newspaper representatives and to your attending neighbors.
• If you speak more than once during a City meeting be prepared to have your speaking time reduced.
Willow Park Civics Research and Sources
• Willow Park Civics > Resources > Sunshine Laws: Records and Open Meetings Act, House Bill 2840...
• The Public Comment instructions at the beginning of any City Meeting Agenda.
PUBLIC COMMENTS (Limited to three minutes per person)
Residents may address the Council regarding an item that is not listed on the agenda. Residents must complete a speaker form and turn it in to the City Secretary five (5) minutes before the start of the meeting.
The Rules of Procedure states that comments are to be limited to three (3)
minutes. The Texas Open Meetings Act provides the following:
A. If, at a meeting of a governmental body, a member of the public or of the governmental body inquiries about a subject for which notice has not been given as required by this subchapter, the notice provisions of this subchapter do not apply to:
(1) A statement of specific factual information given in response to the inquiry; or
(2) A recitation of existing policy in response to the inquiry.
B. Any deliberation of or decision about the subject of the inquiry shall be limited to a proposal to place the subject on the agenda for a subsequent meeting.
• Government Code > Title 5. Open Government; Ethics > Subtitle A. Open Government > Chapter 551. Open Meetings > Subchapter A. General Provisions
• Public Participation During Open Meetings, Texas Attorney General Office
• Texas Open Meetings Act Laws Made Easy, Texas Municipal League TML
When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.
Audrey Geraldine Lorde
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