City cancels tonight’s meeting, plans to reschedule meeting to get public input on senior center, animal shelter, pool
City of Breckenridge officials canceled a special meeting scheduled for tonight, Tuesday, May 19, after being told by the Texas Attorney General’s Office that their planned meeting format wasn’t acceptable. The meeting’s agenda focused on the futures of several City departments, including the senior citizens center, the animal shelter, the swimming pool and the cemetery office.
According to Interim City Manager Heather Robertson-Caraway, the Texas Attorney General’s office said that the meeting can’t be held via the Zoom teleconferencing service unless the meeting is totally virtual, meaning that the City Commissioners also have to participate in the meeting remotely. The meeting was originally scheduled to have the commissioners and city officials meet as usual at the City Commission office but to require any others to participate through video or audio, due to the COVID-19 situation.
“Our attorney disagrees, based on the governor’s executive order, but the Attorney General said that if we’re going to do it virtual, the commissioners would need to be virtual, and we’ve got commissioners that aren’t going to be up with doing that,” she said. “So, we’ve canceled it, and we’re going to try to reschedule it at a bigger location where we don’t have to worry about doing it by Zoom, everyone can attend that wants to.”
Robertson-Caraway and co-Interim City Manager Houston Satterwhite said the meeting will be rescheduled before the June 2 regular City Commission meeting. They are considering having the meeting next Tuesday, May 26, at the National Theatre, but that has not been confirmed yet.
In the meantime, the City officials continue to seek input from local citizens on feasible ideas for continuing to provide specific services to the community while dealing with budget shortfalls. Ideas and suggestions may be shared with Robertson-Caraway by email at hrobertson@breckenridgetx.gov or by phone at 254-559-8287.
To read about the proposals that the City staff has suggested, click the following link to download the agenda for the canceled meeting: 05-19-20 CC Special Meeting Agenda & Packet . The proposals for the senior citizens center, the animal shelter and the cemetery office are on Page 13; the recommendations for the swimming pool are on Pages 6 and 7.
For more details on the situation, click here to read the previous Breckenridge Texan article.
Story by Tony Pilkington and Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan
Cutline, top photo: The Breckenridge Aquatic Center is one of the topics the City Commission will discuss at a rescheduled meeting, time and date to be announced as soon as they are confirmed. The meeting will also focus on the departments that operate the senior citizens center, the animal shelter and the cemetery office. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
