Open meeting? Temple City Hall doors locked during City Council meeting

Temple City Hall has signs on the front door announcing it has reopened to the public.

The building is supposed to be open during City Council meetings, but on Thursday night, any stragglers to the meeting found all entrances locked — an apparent violation of the Texas open meetings law.

City Manager Brynn Myers apologized for the locked doors and said she would rectify the problem since the building automatically locks at certain times.

“It is probably because we are not used to meeting until 8:30 p.m. so we probably have a security (measure),” Myers said Thursday night. “There is a card that you lock and unlock the doors with and we probably have a safety feature where if someone doesn’t lock it by a certain time, (it locks).”

The Texas Open Meetings Act, adopted in 1967 and revised since then, is designed “to make governmental decision-making accessible to the public, according to an Open Meetings Act Handbook by Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The act requires all governmental bodies to be open to the public, except for closed or executive sessions in which officials usually discuss pending legal issues with counsel. Provisions of the act are mandatory.

“Every regular, special, or called meeting of a governmental body shall be open to the public, except as provided by this chapter,” the attorney general’s handbook said.

In March 2020, Gov. Greg Abbott temporarily suspended some provisions of the act during the coronavirus pandemic but those suspensions were lifted Sept. 1, 2021, according to the attorney general’s office.

A Telegram editor arriving at the tail end of the Thursday council meeting discovered the locked doors. The meeting went longer than usual since 16 residents spoke out on a diversity proposal.

Two residents strolling around City Hall asked the editor about public meetings and decided go inside but encountered the building’s locked doors. A Telegram reporter at the meeting later let the trio into the building.

Temple spokeswoman Kiara Nowlin said city staff members ensure that City Hall doors are open during public meetings, including the bimonthly 5 p.m. City Council meetings.

“When a meeting is over, staff usually locks the doors manually,” she said. “For back-up security purposes, the doors are scheduled to automatically lock at 6:30 p.m.”

Nowlin said that if any public meeting is expected to end after 6:30 p.m., “staff will confirm this setting is turned off.”

“Typically, meetings end before 6:30 p.m., so staff lock the doors manually,” she said.

On Thursday, a staff member confirmed the building doors were open prior to the meeting.

“The automatic setting locked the doors at 6:30 p.m.,” Nowlin said. “Moving forward, staff will confirm this setting is turned off if a meeting is expected to end after 6:30 p.m.”

“The city of Temple understands the importance of ensuring the community has access to all public meetings, including City Council meetings….We welcome and encourage the community to attend all public meetings,” she said.