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Athens council limits public comments to designated Public Communications period

City Council of the City of Athens, Texas · February 18, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Council consensus was to restrict public remarks to the Public Communications section and require registration cards before the meeting opens; staff cited Texas Government Code Sec. 551.007 in the discussion.

During the Feb. 18 work session, City Secretary Bonnie Hambrick reviewed the city’s public communications procedures and cited Texas Government Code Sec. 551.007, which allows the governing body to decide when citizens may address the council. Social Media Manager Michael Hannigan clarified that the statute gives the council discretion over the timing of public remarks.

After discussion, the Council reached consensus to permit citizen comments only during the Public Communications section of meetings. Citizens seeking to speak must fill out a registration card and provide it to the City Secretary prior to the opening of the meeting. Council members also agreed that when an agenda item receives no motion or is denied, a council member must make a motion to deny; a denied item is then ineligible to appear on an agenda for 90 days.

The item was brought for guidance and did not result in an ordinance or formal rule change during the session.

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