City Council meetings are on the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m.
Meetings are held in the City Council Chambers, located at 501 S. Main Street, Seadrift, TX 77983.
Requests to add an agenda item must be received on or before the last Wednesday of the month at 12PM. A Request Form must be filled out for each agenda item. Form will be available for download below.
Agenda are posted on the Public Notice Bulletin Board outside City Hall. Agendas are posted 72 hours before any scheduled meeting. Posted agendas are available for view/download below.
Minutes from the previous month's meeting will be available for view/download below.
Requests to add an agenda item must be recieved on the last Wednesday of the month at 12 PM. If the holiday falls on this date, the deadline will be the business day before the holiday. Each item you are requesting will need its own request form.
MULTIPLE REQUESTS PER FORM WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
Individuals wishing to speak during Citizen Comments must sign up before the meeting. Comment forms can be found at Seadrift City Hall, before the meeting in the Council Chambers, or on the City’s website at https://seadrifttx.org/minutes-and-agendas. Comment forms must be turned in and received by City Staff, before the Call to Order at the Council Meeting.
When does the public have the right to address a governmental body on items on the agenda of an open meeting?
Some commentators suggested that House Bill 2840 allows a citizen to address a governmental body throughout a meeting on agenda items before a vote, not only in the time designated by the city. That’s incorrect. Government Code Section 551.007(b) provides that “A governmental body shall allow each member of the public who desires to address the body regarding an item on an agenda for an open meeting of the body to address the body regarding the item at the meeting before or during the body’s consideration of the item.” TEX. GOV’T CODE § 551.007(b) (emphasis added).
The legislature typically uses the word “or” as a disjunctive. See Spradlin v. Jim Walter Homes, Inc., 34 S.W.3d 578, 581 (Tex. 2000). “It separates words or phrases in the alternate relationship, indicating that either of the separated words or phrases may be employed without the other.” Jones v. State, 175 S.W.3d 927, 932 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2005, no pet.) (citing Perez v. State, 11 S.W.3d 218, 225 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000)). The legislature’s use of the disjunctive here evidences its intent to allow the governmental body to decide at which point in the meeting a member of the public addresses them.
The attorney general has opined that Section 551.007(b) does not grant a member of the public the right to address a governmental body both before and during the governmental body’s consideration of an item. Tex. Att’y Gen. Op. No. KP-0300 (2020)(“A governmental body may satisfy subsection 551.007(b)’s requirements by holding a single public comment period at the beginning of an open meeting to address all items on the agenda.”) Moreover, a member of the public has no right under Section 551.007(b) to address a governmental body after the body’s consideration of an item. See also TEX. GOV’T CODE § 551.007(c) (authorizing the governmental body to adopt “rules concerning the public’s right to speak at an open meeting”), TEX. LOC. GOV’T CODE § 22.038(c) (“The governing body shall determine the rules of its proceedings”), Tex. Att’y Gen. Op. No. DM-473 (1998) (concluding a home rule city is authorized to adopt reasonable rules of procedure for meetings).
The legislative history of House Bill 2840 explains why a governmental body may limit a member of the public to one of the two options: “It has been suggested that the practice of the governing bodies of certain political subdivisions to provide for public input and comment only at the conclusion of a meeting of the governing body makes it too difficult for the public to properly weigh in on decisions being made because they are forced to wait through the entire meeting to provide an opinion on any subject matter being addressed at the meeting.” See Senate Business & Commerce Comm., Bill Analysis, H.B. 2840, Senate Research Center, May 15, 2019.
Additional information available in the pdf below labeled 2020 November TOMA-Legal Staff. Document provided by TML Legal Department.
If you would like copies of any previous meeting's Agenda or Minutes, please begin by filling out an Open Records Request form (linked below).
You can contact the City Secretary by the following:
Due to file size limit restrictions, some minutes may not be available.