Resident urges council to remove consent item revising public information policy; council agrees to pull K4

At the July 7 Farmers Branch City Council study session, resident Barbara Currier addressed item K4, Resolution 2026-093, which revises the city's policy on responses to repetitive Public Information Act requests and contains a provision that would allow future revisions to be implemented by staff without formal council action.

"What I'm concerned about is the last sentence of section 1, which states that future revisions to said policy may be adopted and implemented by city staff without the need for further formal council action unless otherwise required by law," Currier said, asking that the council remove K4 from the consent agenda to allow council discussion and give the public an opportunity to comment.

Currier asked the council to consider an amendment striking that last sentence so changes affecting the city's implementation of the Public Information Act would come before the full council. "To remove the opportunity for public input to changes to our city's implementation of the Public Information Act is, well, ironic," she said.

Following the public comment, Councilman Neal asked the mayor to pull item K4 from the consent agenda to the regular agenda for additional questions and because of the recent public comment. The mayor agreed and announced that K4 would be moved to the regular agenda as item M5.

No formal vote on the resolution occurred at the study session; the item will return for discussion during the regular portion of the meeting.

Authorities, clarifying details and next steps: Resolution 2026-093 was specified by the speaker as the item of concern; Councilman Neal made the request to pull the item, and the mayor consented to moving the item to the regular agenda for fuller council consideration.