Killeen City Council votes to remove citizen petitions, makes adjustments to meeting procedures

KWTX
By Madison Herber
Published: Nov. 30, 2023 at 9:44 PM GMT-7

KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) - The next Killeen City Council meeting will run a bit differently after a heated exchange and some confusion at the last meeting.

Members voted to prevent residents from voicing their concerns about issues that are not on the agenda at the beginning of the meeting.

That process is called a citizens petition.

In a 6-1 vote Tuesday night, members decided to remove the petitions and make some adjustments to how they run their meetings.

Councilmember-at-Large Riakos Adams was the one to vote against this, he says he felt they needed to look at the bigger picture.

“Now, we are going to have to make sure we don’t have long agendas either so my concern was more about procedure,” Councilmember Adams explains.

The decision did spark outrage among some citizens. One saying, “constituents will lose their ability to speak on any given topic.”

District One Councilwoman Jessica Gonzalez says the last they want is to silence people with concerns, they were just looking for ways to streamline the process.

“I do think it’s important that our meetings are running smoothly and efficiently and that we’ve actually heard the grievances of our citizens,” Gonzalez says.

Councilman Gonzalez adds that he is looking for ways to make the meetings more accessible for citizens under these new changes.

“I am thinking about a proposal to add to this where citizens can do it virtually,” he says.

And those who voted for the removal say the floor is still open to you, if you still around for the whole meeting.

“If during presentation there’s a question they had that wasn’t answered or it sparked another question, they’ll have an opportunity at the end of the meeting to ask the question now,” Gonzalez explains.