The City of Amarillo has launched the City Council Forum, a tool which can be used by members of Amarillo City Council and top-level staff to publicly discuss city business between council meetings.
The proposal was spearheaded by Councilman Place 4 Les Simpson, who pushed for more transparency regarding planning of the council’s agendas. Earlier this year, as a part of that push, the city began regularly publishing a rolling agenda planner, which includes items expected to be on future agenda items ahead of the full agendas being published.
The forum is allowed under provisions of state law passed in 2013. City staff have noted that there are certain requirements for the board, including:
Governmental body can only have one message board and, and only the government body and authorized staff may post.
The Message board must be prominently displayed on the governmental body's primary Internet web page and no more than one click away from that page.
Communications on the message board must remain online for at least 30 days, and postings must be maintained as public information records for six years after removal.
The governmental body may not vote or take any action by communication on a message board.
The first posts on the forum were made earlier this month by Interim City Manager Andrew Freeman, who posted the agenda for the December 12th meeting and the latest version of the rolling agenda planner earlier this month.
The forum can be accessed at amarillocouncilforum.org. The site is also, as required by state law, linked to the home page of the city website.