The Eagle Pass City Council on June 24 approved a resolution directing the city manager to implement measures intended to increase public transparency, including a ClearGov budget portal and a centralized CivicPlus agenda and meeting portal, and to extend public review periods ahead of second readings.

Council moved the transparency resolution as a package of items designed to make budgets, projects and meeting records easier for residents to access and to formalize follow-up on public comments. Supporters said the work is already under way and that software acquisitions will go live around the FY2026 budget and in late summer for agenda access.

City staff demonstrated the budget portal ClearGov during the meeting, showing modules that will let residents view funds, department expenditures, revenue sources, historical budgets and project-level information. "This is a very robust program that will be available to the citizens very soon," Staff member Felix Castillo told the council while showing screenshots of the ClearGov interface.

Castillo said the portal will include a comments box on each page so citizens can submit questions tied to the specific fund or project and that those entries will be routed to the city secretary for follow-up. On timing, he said the portal is expected to go live for the FY2026 budget cycle after council workshops and once a proposed budget is ready.

Separately, staff said the city is implementing an agenda and meeting-management portal (CivicPlus) to centralize agendas, approved minutes and video recordings. Staff member Erica Rodriguez described staff training and said the portal will allow item-level video linking — for example, a resident could jump directly to the video for agenda item 8 — and estimated a public roll-out in late August to September after director-level testing.

Council members and staff also noted a statutory change to public-agenda posting requirements. A staff speaker said the legislative session changed the law: instead of a 72-hour rule, agendas must be posted three business days before meetings beginning Sept. 1. That change was described as shifting the deadline from Friday to Wednesday and giving residents extra time to review and pose questions.

The resolution passed unanimously. Council and staff said they will continue testing the software internally before public roll-out and will return with any needed adjustments to comment routing and response workflows.

The council-directed steps now include finishing the ClearGov content for FY2026, completing staff training on CivicPlus and formally updating the city’s public-review calendar to reflect the new three-business-day posting requirement.