To my knowledge the laws controlling government agendas in Texas are pretty specific about when and where they must be published, but do not address much about the content of agendas. The only local exception to this that I am aware of is the City of El Paso ordinance number 16806 that is quite specific about the backup material that must be provided when an item is placed on the agenda.
I thought it would be interesting to see how much information our local government agendas give us citizens and to assign a grade to them.
Many of the agendas tell us that there will be discussion and action on various topics but fail to give us any of the backup documents that the voting group gets to see. Most of the items on agendas are put there by the paid staff. Generally they want their governing board to approve a recommendation. That means that back up materials (bid analyses, proposed contracts …) are given to each of the voting members before the discussion.
The public generally does not get to see the backup materials before the vote, even though it should. If the XYZ school district administrators want their board to approve a policy to paint all second graders green, the item would typically be placed on the agenda as “Consider and take possible action relative to certain students”. If as a citizen you think that painting all second graders green is not a good idea, you have no way of knowing what they are considering until after they have already done it. So much for public input.
I did a brief review of some of our local government agendas available on the web to see what I would find. I only looked at one agenda each, so the one I looked at might be an exception. Maybe I should consider this grade like a 6 weeks grade, not the final score.
The grades are my opinion:
- F Anthony Independent School District. This agenda is a model for brevity and obscurity. While they appear to be using the same software that the Canutillo district uses, they do not provide any backup information even though they could.
- A Canutillo Independent School District. The agenda tells us what they will consider and includes a link to an “Agenda Packet” that seems to give us the information that the board is to look at.
- D City of El Paso Texas. Their agenda includes backup information for most items and in all fairness when compared to the other entities in this list it is the best. The problem is that they are violating a very specific ordinance that requires them to post more information than they are.
- B- El Paso County. It looks as though they have a policy of presenting backup material on the web site, but they appear to be conveniently inconsistent. A previously postponed mandatory presentation from the CEO of the El Paso County Hospital District (University Medical Center) included backup material that was simply a four point listing (Strategic Plan, Leadership Development, Operations Improvement, Financial Update) of what was to be presented. There were no details.
- D El Paso County Community College District. The agenda gives us a pretty complete idea of what action is being considered (including names and dollar amounts) but none of the analysis or competitive data that the staff used to make their recommendation.
- F El Paso County Hospital District (aka University Medical Center). Horrible. First it is hard to find the agendas. Once you do find them it appears that they only post agendas for meetings yet to be held. I could not find past agendas. There are no backup materials. The agenda wording is very vague.
- F Socorro Independent School District. The agenda tells us very little. Among other items they consider awarding competitive contracts without telling us who they suggest should win the award. How can a competitor tell his side of the story when he does not know what he is up against?
- D Ysleta Independent School District. The agenda gives us a pretty complete idea of what action is being considered (including names and dollar amounts) but none of the analysis or competitive data that the staff used to make their recommendation.
The only web site that I could find that to allows us citizens to do key word searches is the one for the City of El Paso. They all should.
We should each contact our elected representatives at these organizations and tell them that we want to see everything that they see when considering agenda items except for those things that are properly handled in executive session.
We deserve better.
elpasospeak 