“Their job is to hear from their citizens. That’s the way the system works and the fact that they have it pretty much shut down and a hands up, don’t come and bother us with your problems, Issue disturbs me. It doesn’t seem right.”

KBTX News 3 at Ten

KBTX
By Donnie Tuggle
Published: Jan. 22, 2024 at 9:30 PM GMT-7

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) -Residents are raising concerns about procedures during city council meetings in Bryan. They say a policy restricting visitors’ comments on non-agenda items prevents them from sharing concerns and holding city leaders publicly accountable. The city says because council meetings are to conduct business and not a general meeting of the public, they have the right to limit what can be discussed on non-agenda items. But residents disagree and don’t think it’s right.

Former Bryan City Councilman Al Saenz and Brazos County resident Karen Hall argue that the policy keeps residents from sharing their concerns in a public forum and limits accountability.

“My concern is that the access and the distance between a city council member and the constituents has widened,” said Saenz. “An issue may arise that the city has not taken on and perceived to be a problem, but the citizens have.”

Another issue raised by residents is the lack of individual contact information for each council member. Although the city’s website provides an email for the council at large, there is no posted email or phone number for the mayor or any specific council members.

“It’s their job description to listen to us. And the fact that they have put the walls up in a big stop sign is frustrating. And I want to see if I can’t change it,” Hall added.

City leaders also point to decorum issues during meetings as the reason behind the changes. In a video obtained by KBTX last year from a disrupted council meeting where a speaker signed as “John Doe” used profanity and displayed materials the city called graphic. In the video, you could see the speaker holding what appears to be a book, and the city blurred a portion of the screen and muted the microphone.

“That is not appropriate here. We’re not going to have that kind of language here. It’s not appropriate. Ok, that’s enough. Please escort him out,” said Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez.

In an interview from last year, Mayor Pro Tem James Edge says limiting comments to agenda items only keeps the business meeting on track, and he stands with the mayor on the decision that was made.

“The idea of dragging out a city council meeting from the perspective of someone that is just wanting to grandstand or somebody that might be wanting to just make a political speech or a speech on something that has nothing to do with city business, the mayor has made the determination that he didn’t think that was appropriate at this time,” said Edge.

Despite the city’s concerns, residents say there are options like passing an ordinance that outlines decorum when signing up to speak.

“The first thing is that since the individual who caused all the disruption signed or put his name down as John Doe, there’s no place to sign on the form that you fill out. Have a signature line and a statement below that says, ‘I certify that the above information is accurate.’ Hopefully, that will make it a legal document, which then there are penalties for misinformed information on the legal document,” said Hall.

“The second solution is that they pass an ordinance, which they can do in one meeting, for a decorum for speakers, and then a statement below that stating that failure to follow could result in your removal from the council chambers, and you check an ‘I agree’ box.”

Hall, who wrote an op-ed in the Bryan-College Station Eagle, outlined other suggestions for the city.

“I’d like to see them work with the Texas legislature, put some teeth into the Open Meetings Act. You could not do what that individual did in a court of law. That’s contempt of court. The county commissioners are covered under the same thing. They can have that; why can’t we have a contempt of counsel, and the police could then remove them,” Hall added.

Saenz and Hall say it’s something that seems to work in other cities and counties.

“College Station is quite comfortable with hearing citizens for three minutes on any topic. Whereas here in the city of Bryan, it’s almost as if they’re reluctant to really hear the concerns of the citizens that come before council,” said Saenz.

“College Station is open to anyone; visitors from anywhere who want to bring something before the council. The other thing College Station does, if you bring an issue, they may say, ‘Well, we’re going to forward that to the city manager.’ They can’t have a discussion because it’s not a discussion time. But the problem, you could let the individual know that the problem’s going to be looked at. Very helpful. The county commissioners have the same policy,” said Hall.

Saenz believes that the “hear citizens” portion of the meeting could have reduced some of the issues that the city has seen in recent months.

“For example, if they had put the barriers that are now on Texas Avenue before the citizens on some kind of questionnaire, it probably would’ve been denied and rejected by the citizens because they would’ve seen that you’re dividing the city from almost east to west or, as I told a friend about it earlier, it’s almost like an iron curtain down Texas Avenue,” said Saenz.

Hall and Saenz say the ultimate solution is to open the meeting up for everyone, not just to attend but to participate.

“The solution to hearing or getting your interest, concerns to the city council, mayor, and staff? It’s just to open it up to he council. Let the citizens speak on what they want to speak about, and just let the chips fall where they may because if it’s a valid concern, it will be picked up. If it’s not, it’ll fall by the wayside,” said Saenz. “I don’t think we should fear as a community, as a city, as citizens of this great city, but which could be greater. We shouldn’t be concerned about hearing citizens or what concerns them because the city should be abreast of many of those issues anyway and should actually lead to rectifying some of the issues or problems that they see within the community.”

“I am puzzled by the reluctance to do something to try to improve and to open this back up. These are good people; they really are. And I don’t have a good handle on the resistance to just hearing from their citizens,” said Hall. “It’s a democracy, and I think Winston Churchill has a great quote. Democracy is not a good form of government. It just happens to be better than all the rest. This is a democracy. Their job is to hear from their citizens. That’s the way the system works.”

The city of Bryan released the following statement:

“The purpose of a City Council Meeting, or the meeting of other public boards such as the Planning & Zoning Commission, is to conduct the immediate business of that body – it is a business meeting of that body, not a meeting of the general public. Because it is a public body, members of the public rightly must be allowed to observe the business being conducted. The Texas Open Meetings Act ensures the public’s opportunity to observe the conduct of the business. However, the Open Meetings Act only allows a governing body to conduct business on matters about which it has given the public 72 hours written notice, and it must stay on topic. If someone at “citizen comments” or “hear citizens” brings up an off-topic matter, it cannot be dealt with in that meeting.”