Following a June decision to halt non-agenda public remarks after meetings repeatedly devolved into anti-H-1B visa rallies, the Frisco City Council met Tuesday to evaluate strategies for reinstating open public input under revised guidelines.

During a work session led by newly elected Mayor Mark Hill, council members weighed several proposals to manage non-agenda commentary, which was initially paused due to months of disruptive public sessions. Options under consideration include capping non-agenda comments to a single meeting per month, enforcing advance registration for speakers, reducing individual time limits, and shifting non-agenda topics to dedicated town hall forums.

Balancing Open Governance with Orderly Meetings

Frisco’s governance debate reflects a broader challenge across North Texas municipalities attempting to uphold free speech standards without compromising public safety or administrative efficiency. Recent municipal meetings in neighboring McKinney and Tarrant County also experienced heightened friction. In Frisco, the council chamber attracted national scrutiny as external activists regularly used the public forum to condemn H-1B visa programs and criticize the municipality’s growing South Asian population.

“When you’re a country star, you go to Nashville to try to be famous, and when you are wanting to be in the movies, you go to Hollywood. And lately … if you want to be social media famous, you come to Frisco City Hall,” Council Member Brittany Colberg noted during the session. “Our aim is how do we make sure our residents feel safe, heard, and that their voice matters.”

Evaluating Town Hall Formats and Resident Qualifications

One prominent proposal involves diverting non-agenda public remarks away from regular voting meetings and into separate town hall sessions, mirroring the structure utilized by the Frisco Independent School District.

“We’ve had success with our model in the FISD,” said Mayor Hill, who previously served as president of the school board.

Frisco currently convenes town halls on a quarterly basis. However, Council Member Jared Elad voiced reservations about transferring non-agenda commentary exclusively to those events, warning that a four-month gap between forums might make the council appear distant from constituent concerns.

Council members also addressed speaker eligibility. While Texas state law mandates that public bodies allow any individual—regardless of residency—to comment on specific agenda items, City Attorney Richard Abernathy clarified that the statute does not extend the same protections to non-agenda topics.

“In our opinion, you can regulate the non-agenda speech differently, like in terms of time, than you do for the agenda speech,” Abernathy advised.

To prevent out-of-town influencers from leveraging municipal meetings for viral content, council members floated various control measures:

• Resident Verification: Colberg proposed requiring speakers to show a local utility bill to verify residency or local business ownership, though Abernathy noted that defining residency parameters (such as undeveloped land ownership) could complicate enforcement.
• Livestream Modifications: Council Member Burt Thakur suggested altering camera angles to obscure the official city logo behind non-agenda speakers to deter social media seekers.
• Polling the Public: Thakur recommended surveying local residents directly to gauge community support for different public comment formats.

Time Limits and Next Steps

If non-agenda comments return to regular council meetings, a majority of members favor placing those items at the conclusion of the agenda.

Council members Colberg, Ann Anderson, Laura Rummel, and Angelia Pelham expressed support for reducing individual speaking time from five minutes to three minutes for non-agenda topics, aligning Frisco with neighboring cities like McKinney, Allen, and Plano. Conversely, Thakur and Elad advocated for preserving the original five-minute allowance across all public comments.

The council reached no formal policy decision on Tuesday. Mayor Hill stated that municipal staff and council members will refine these options before presenting a finalized policy for a formal vote.

“The consensus is that we don’t want to do away with it,” Hill said. “My hope for this workshop was to … get some context for the council to do our homework.”