Killeen council to vote on removing non-agenda citizen comments

Killeen Daily Herald
By Kevin Limiti | Herald
January 8, 2024

The Killeen City Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday to remove citizen comments on non-agenda items at the end of the meeting.

This follows an incident at the Dec. 19 council meeting when resident Michael Fornino insulted Mayor Debbie Nash-King by waving a dollar bill and referencing her deceased husband in an offensive way through song.

The citizen comments on non-agenda items were originally supposed to replace citizens’ petitions as a way for residents to speak on issues.

Some city leaders said that citizens’ petitions were causing meetings to be hijacked, causing city council members to spend a lot of time on topics that they weren’t even supposed to be discussing during the meeting.

A day after Fornino’s insults, Nash-King said she was talking with the city’s legal team about the incident, and is considering filing a sexual harassment charge.

She said she heard from several council members after the fact who suggested getting rid of the citizens’ comments at the end of the meeting for non-agenda items.

“It just amazes me the things that come out of his (Fornino’s) mouth that I never would have thought anybody would be so evil spirited that you dislike a person and they don’t have a reason to dislike me,” Nash-King said. “The mayor does not vote. No matter what happens on that dais, it takes four votes from the council to move and put anything in place. I just facilitate the meeting.”

“I won’t allow them to make it a Jerry Springer show,” she said.

The first part of Tuesday’s special meeting is for the City Council to receive legal advice regarding enforcement of decorum.

Mellisa Brown, a former councilwoman, told the Herald Friday that she believed the City Council was trying to punish people by removing the non-agenda comment period.

“When one person says something stupid you don’t take the rights away from everyone,” Brown said, referencing the incident with Fornino.

Freedom of speech versus civility has been a hot topic at the City Council for months.

The special meeting begins at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers in City Hall, 101 N. College St., Killeen. It will be immediately followed by the City Council’s workshop meeting.

For those unable to attend the meeting in person, it will be web streamed live and archived for playback on the city’s website, KilleenTexas.gov. It will also be broadcast live on Spectrum Cable Channel 10.