In March, the Plano City Council voted to limit general public comments to a single meeting per month. This is a departure from the status quo, in which the public was heard at every meeting.
Under the new rules, that limited public‑interest period will be moved to the end of the meeting. Activists, who have encountered similar changes around the state, view this timing as a tactic to drive down participation.
Plano’s policy shift comes as citizens have become more agitated and are speaking out against EPIC City, sometimes called The Meadow, which is a proposed exclusive Muslim community in Collin and Hunt counties.
Public meetings and attempted hearings tied to EPIC City have drawn large crowds and emotional testimony. A Plano‑area hearing scheduled for last week was abruptly canceled after a property owner withdrew permission, leaving residents who came to speak angry and confused.
Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued over the project’s governance structure, accused its backers of skirting state law through an “unlawfully constituted” municipal utility district, and urged county leaders to block further approvals.
Plano isn’t alone in implementing policy shifts that appear aimed at reducing public participation. Across Texas, city councils, counties, and school districts have rolled out aggressive time limitations on public comment.
In Austin, residents were eventually limited to a minute or two total to speak on multiple items, prompting litigation from Save Our Springs Alliance. A Travis County judge ordered the city to restore three minutes of testimony per agenda item.
Houston, meanwhile, has consolidated most public testimony into a dedicated Tuesday public session and reserves the right to set one, two, or three-minute limits depending on the length of the agenda.
The trend toward tighter control over the public does not stop at city halls.
At last week’s Houston ISD school board meeting, each speaker was given just one minute to address trustees on hot‑button issues, including sexually explicit and profane content in school library books.
Parents and conservative activists lined up to speak, including Bonnie Wallace, the Texas and Legislative Liaison for Recover America, who tried to read aloud from an explicit passage in the fantasy novel “A Court of Silver Flames,” only to be escorted from the room by police.
Have you encountered similar limitations in testifying? Let us know at tips@texasscorecard.com.
