Attending City of Austin Public Hearings

The Austin City Hall is located at Cesar Chavez and Second Street. You can find a map of City Hall, driving directions, and parking information at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/cityhall/map.htm. Parking is free to attend a public hearing at a meeting of the City Council or board or commission. Be sure to keep your parking ticket for validation by the Council or Commission liaison, and to leave the parking garage!

Following is some information, some of which is excerpted from City of Austin publications, to help understand how public hearings are conducted.

HOW ARE HEARINGS CONDUCTED?

No item may be considered before its scheduled posting time, but the hearing could begin at the precise time listed on the agenda, or later, often depending on the length of a previous discussion item. Council and Committee agendas are posted at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/agenda/default.htm.

HOW DO I SIGN UP TO SPEAK?

The City Council requires citizens to fill out speaker cards or sign in on lobby computer terminals before speaking, while the Planning Commission requires citizens to sign in on a sheet located near the media seating area, which is near the north side entrance to the Council Chambers. For City Council agenda items citizens can sign up at the computer terminals in the lobby of City Hall any time during the week that the hearing is scheduled.

HOW LONG MAY I SPEAK?

In general, citizens who sign up to speak are limited to three minutes of comments. For City Council hearings an individual's 3 minutes may be donated to a Main Speaker's time; however, the Main Speaker must already be signed up to speak before additional time can be donated to them, and the Donor must be present at the time the Main Speaker is called upon to speak. (If you donate time, be sure you can stay until the case is heard!!!)

All speakers are encouraged to limit their remarks to the item under discussion and to avoid repeating comments made by previous speakers. This enables the hearing body to conduct all public hearings that are scheduled and avoid postponing hearings because of the late hour or the lack of a quorum.