Coppell council to ask Texas Municipal League to push state clarifications on citizen comments, e-bikes and budget notice timing

In a work session before its Aug. 26 regular meeting, the Coppell City Council reviewed three proposed resolutions it plans to submit to the Texas Municipal League asking the League to sponsor state-level changes on citizen-comment rules, e-bike classification and the timing of required budget notices.

"The first one is to let the state codify the language for the citizen's comments," Mayor said during the work session, describing the first draft resolution as a proposal to put city-level public-comment rules into state statute. The council discussed the benefit of uniform statewide language to reduce liability and avoid a patchwork of different city rules.

On the second item, councilmembers and staff described complaints about electric bicycles and asked the League to urge the state to reconsider how e-bikes are classified. "We should be able to regulate them separate from bikes," one councilmember said, and other members indicated they supported clarifying that e-bikes are a different class of vehicle from traditional bicycles.

The third proposed resolution would ask the state to change the timing for the required interim budget notice that cities must publish prior to budget adoption. Under current rules the notice is published 30 days before adopting the budget; staff asked the League to consider a 21-day deadline so cities could publish numbers based on certified appraisal values from the appraisal district rather than preliminary estimates. "We don't have the official approved appraisal numbers from the CAD, so the numbers that we have are basically just the best guess," the presenting official said. Another councilmember raised a simpler alternative—asking the appraisal district to publish certified values earlier—but staff cautioned that appraisal schedules are controlled at the state/appraisal-district level and that a single, clear request to move the city notice from 30 to 21 days is the administratively simpler ask.

City staff said the three requests would be submitted as three separate resolutions to the Texas Municipal League by the Sept. 15 deadline; those resolutions would be heard at the League’s business meeting during its annual conference, where mayors are the voting members. The presenter said this is the first year the city has compiled and submitted resolutions for TML consideration and described the work as proactive.

Council members discussed minor edits and suggested confirming whether TML already carries similar resolutions; staff said they would check existing League policy files before formal submission. A councilmember also asked to include a request to allow online publication of the budget notice in addition to the required publication in the local official register (“Rambler”); staff said the appraisal district and state processes are working toward greater online transparency and that they would verify whether TML already supports such language.

The matter was presented as an informational preview; the council will be asked to vote on three separate resolutions at a subsequent meeting prior to the Sept. 15 submission deadline.