Should the Lubbock City Council Allow Citizen Comments to be Aired Over Channel 2? [POLL]

Some Lubbock citizens are not happy with the Lubbock City Council's decision to stop airing the citizen comments period of the meeting on Channel 2. At Thursday's council meeting citizens spoke out against the decision. Some have claimed the City is trying to censor what really goes on at City Hall. Mayor Glen Robertson defended the council's decision according to KFYO News.

Lubbock Mayor Glen Robertson responded on that decision after the meeting, saying “There was an old resolution out that citizen comments would not be televised…We want more involvement with the citizens, but it’s being used as a platform for people to make political attacks…we’ve lost all civility.”

Robertson continued, saying “It’s not our job as a city to provide a platform for people to air their thoughts and opinions to the rest of the citizens. We’re here to conduct business first. It was really starting to become a distraction. It was starting to slow down our business decisions, and I just felt like it was time to try not televising those. Hopefully we can get back to the point where we’ve got citizens coming to share issues and concerns with us rather than make personal attacks and political statements.”

In order to return the citizen comment portion of the meeting to Channel 2, a council member would need to offer a resolution to return it to their airwaves, and it would require the approval of two-thirds of the Council.

Robertson said that this is a trial period to “see if it will tone down the rhetoric.”

Citizen comments will still be included in the minutes of the meeting, but the City has no legal requirement to televise that particular portion of the meeting, according to Amy Sims, an assistant City attorney.

What do you think about the latest controversy from City Hall? Let us know in today's KFYO Poll of the Day.