Public Presentations Policy

Public participation and comments are always welcome at our City Council and Boards/Commissions Meetings! In order to protect the security of our computer network and also maintain a family-friendly environment, electronic materials must be submitted by noon on the day of the meeting so that we may review them for possible cyber threats and legal obscenity. If you have a presentation, please email Public Presentations. 

Office of the City Secretary
Public Presentations at Council, Board & Commission Meetings

February 2020

1.0

The Rules of Procedure for the City Council and all Boards and Commissions allow Applicants and members of the public to participate in the presentation of items for consideration by each at its respective meetings. All members of the public desiring to address the Council, Board, or Commission must register in order to speak.

Citizen Communications: Members of the public may address the Council, Board, or Commission for any item not listed on the agenda. Speakers must register to speak prior to the call to order. Each person will be given three minutes to speak unless extended. Time cannot be yielded to another speaker.

Preliminary Public Comment: Members of the public may address the Council, Board, or Commission before or during the consideration of a specific item listed on the Agenda. Each person will be given three minutes to speak unless extended. Time cannot be yielded to another speaker.

The Chair may deny or shorten any presentation or citizen communication if it is repetitive of a presentation previously made, disruptive, or disrespectful.

2.0

The City of Cedar Park welcomes public participation and comments at public meetings; however, the City must take reasonable measures to safeguard its technology resources, computer system network, and audio/visual equipment, to promote meeting focus and efficiency, and further to ensure a professional and family-friendly environment.

3.0

This Policy provides the requirements and procedure for presenting electronic and printed materials at public meetings. No electronic or printed material may be presented by an Applicant or member of the public at a meeting except in compliance with this Policy. Outside of Council Meetings, information may be forwarded to the City Council via the Councilmember's email address, which is provided on the City of Cedar Park's website. Outside of Board and Commission meetings, information may be forwarded to the Board or Commission via its staff liaison's email, which is provided on the City of Cedar Park's website.

4.0 Requirements and Procedure

• 4.1 All printed materials to be presented at a public meeting shall be provided to the City Secretary or Staff Liaison prior to the Call to Order. Ten copies should be provided (one for each of the Council/Board/Commission members, City Manager/Staff Liaison, City Attorney, and City Secretary/recording secretary). The City Secretary or Staff Liaison will coordinate the distribution of the presentation materials to the Council, Board, or Commission on the dais. Applicants and members of the public shall not approach the dais to distribute presentation materials.
• 4.2 Requests to use the City's projector for the presentation of printed materials must be made to the City Secretary or Staff Liaison prior to the Call to Order.
• 4.3 All electronic media materials (including but not limited to any device that stores or allows distribution or use of electronic information, including but not limited to audio, video, images, PowerPoint, Prezi, and similar presentations, requiring the use of the City's electronic computer systems or audio/visual equipment) must be emailed to Public Presentations by noon on the day of the meeting.
• 4.4 Any printed materials submitted after the Call to Order and electronic media materials submitted after the noon pre-screening deadline will not be allowed for public presentation.
• 4.5 Information Services Department staff will perform a cybersecurity/corruption pre-screen for all submitted electronic media materials and advise the City Attorney, City Secretary, and Community Affairs Department staff (or Staff Liaison) whether the electronic media materials present any cybersecurity/corruption risk and may be opened, played, viewed, etc. on the City's electronic computer system and/or audio/visual equipment.
• 4.6 The City Attorney or their designee shall review all submitted printed materials and all submitted electronic media materials clearing the cybersecurity/corruption screening for any legally obscene content and advise the City Secretary and Community Affairs Department staff (or Staff Liaison) whether the printed or electronic media materials contain any legally obscene content.
• 4.7 Submitted electronic media materials clearing both the cybersecurity/corruption and legally obscene content pre-screens shall be made available for public presentation at the meeting per the Council, Board, or Commission Rules of Procedure, as applicable.
• 4.8 If a submitted item is determined to present a cybersecurity/corruption risk or contain legally obscene content, the speaker will be notified by email or in person and the presentation materials will not be allowed for public presentation.
• 4.9 Live/Active linking of any presentation and connection with the City's electronic computer system and/or audio/visual equipment will not be allowed.

5.0 Notice Regarding Public Information

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, Chapter 552 of the Texas Government Code, all information that is written, produced, collected, assembled, or maintained by or on behalf of the City of Cedar Park in connection with the transaction of official business is considered public information and may be subject to public disclosure upon request.

6.0 Definitions

• 6.1 Legally Obscene Content: The U.S. Supreme Court established the test that judges and juries use to determine whether the matter is obscene in three major cases: Miller versus California, 413 U.S. 15, 24-25 (1973); Smith versus the United States, 431 U.S. 291, 300-02, 309 (1977); and Pope versus Illinois, 481 U.S. 497, 500-01 (1987). The three-pronged Miller test is as follows:
  1. Whether the average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, finds that the matter, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interests (i.e., an erotic, lascivious, abnormal, unhealthy, degrading, shameful, or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion);
  2. Whether the average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, finds that the matter depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way (i.e., ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, masturbation, excretory functions, lewd exhibition of the genitals, or sadomasochistic sexual abuse); and
  3. Whether a reasonable person finds that the matter, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value
     
     Any material that satisfies this three-pronged test shall be found obscene.