To comply with new law, cities start posting meeting agendas online

EDINBURG, TEXAS (ValleyCentral) — A new law that requires city, county and school district officials to post meeting agendas online is starting to show results.

State Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, authored House Bill 3340, which became law on Sept. 1.

The law requires any local government that maintains a website to post agendas online — not just on the bulletin board outside city hall or the school district administration building.

“The reality is: It’s just good business for government to be transparent,” Canales said.

Hidalgo County, the city of McAllen and many other local governments already posted meeting agendas online. In several small towns, however, the new law made a big difference.

La Villa started posting agendas for City Commission meetings online. Progreso added the Board of Aldermen meeting agendas to the “Community Calendar” section of the city website. And Escobares, which doesn’t maintain a website and isn’t required to comply with the law, plans to start posting meeting agendas on the city’s Facebook page.

Not all local governments immediately complied with the law.

The city of Edcouch hasn’t posted a meeting agenda on Edcouch.org — the city’s official website — since April 2023.

At some point after Sept. 1, 2023, when the law took effect, the city of Edcouch added a big red banner to Edcouch.org with the message: “Currently Under Maintenance.” The city also updated Edcouch.org with information about a public hearing.

Edcouch, though, never uploaded meeting agendas, even though the city apparently had the ability to update the website.

Canales followed up with Edcouch in February.

“Concerned community members have reached out to my office claiming that the City of Edcouch is not in compliance with the requirements of House Bill 3440,” according to a letter from Canales to Edcouch City Manager Victor Hugo De La Cruz, “and have asked my office to work with the city to help ensure your residents receive the benefits of these new requirements.”

De La Cruz and Mayor Virginio “Virgil” Gonzalez said Edcouch had problems with the website, but the city plans to comply with the law.

“If all else fails, we’ll have the agenda posted on our Facebook page,” De La Cruz said.