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Grand Prairie staff: state law now requires meeting notices three business days before meetings
Summary
City staff told the Grand Prairie City Council that a change adopted during the recent legislative session requires municipal meetings to be posted three full business days before the scheduled meeting, affecting timelines for agenda drafting and review.
City staff told the Grand Prairie City Council that a change during the legislative session requires meeting notices to be posted three full business days before a scheduled meeting.
At a council meeting opening, a staff member identified as Lisa told council members, “we are now required to post those notices 3 business days, before the scheduled date of the meeting.” Lisa said that for a regular Tuesday council meeting the earliest required posting will effectively be the Wednesday of the prior week and that holidays do not count as business days.
The change, described in the meeting as coming from “HB 15 22,” will alter the council’s internal calendar for agenda review and legal review. Lisa alerted council members that staff will circulate draft agendas earlier in the process: drafts will be provided to council for endorsement about a week and a half before the council meeting and staff will sometimes post earlier than the minimum when items are ready.
Council members and staff discussed practical scheduling effects, including that in weeks with Monday holidays the posting day shifts and that staff will sometimes post on the earliest permissible evening (Wednesday night in nonholiday weeks) to meet the requirement. Lisa warned the change “puts considerably more pressure on staff to bring items to you because of the preparation that is required of it and the review process that begins with our legal department,” and said agendas may be smaller while the new timeline settles in.
No formal vote or change to local code was recorded during the discussion; the presenters described the change as a statewide legislative requirement affecting municipal practice.
