Hawk Cove, Texas, October 20, 2026. Meetings keep getting tidier. The agenda for tonight’s regular session numbers its first four items: call to order, roll call, invocation and pledge. Then comes an unnumbered heading, “PUBLIC COMMENTS,” with the rule: “PUBLIC COMMENT — POSTED AGENDA NUMBERED ITEMS ONLY.”
The agenda explains: “Members of the public may address the City Council regarding items specifically listed by number on this agenda. Speakers are limited to three (3) minutes and must identify and remain on the posted agenda numbered item being addressed. Comments concerning matters not listed on the agenda are not permitted during this period. Speakers who do not remain on the posted agenda numbered item may be ruled out of order by the Presiding Officer” (agenda).
How it used to read
An earlier 2026 agenda page we hold, from about June, had it as item number 5: “5. PUBLIC COMMENTS. Members of the public may address the City Council regarding any item listed on this agenda” (agenda page). “Any item listed” has become “items specifically listed by number,” and public comment itself is no longer one of them. If anyone wishes to comment on the public comment rule, it is not a numbered item.
The rule was read aloud at the start of public comment tonight, and two members of the public spoke (meeting video).
Everyone is held to it
Staying on the numbered item is a shared value. Later in the meeting, during an item on statutory requirements for the budget and tax rate, the Mayor was told, “Mayor, you’re off agenda.” The Mayor replied, “I am not off agenda,” and was told, “You seem to be on a rant about the roads right now” (meeting video). Under the City Administrator’s ordinance, keeping order is part of the job: the Administrator is to “Assist in expediting Council business by ensuring that the Council’s discussion is limited to, and focused on, items posted on the agenda or on items that should be posted on future agendas” (Ord. No. 2023-05-31.1, §8(D)).
At the September 22 session, the Mayor described the Council’s rules of order this way: “These safeguards exist not to silence debate, but to assure that debate remains fair, productive, and worthy of the public trust” (September 22, 2026, 0:04:08). We agree, and we hope to hear it discussed someday, under a numbered item.