Phone-in out and other changes for Smith County Commissioner’s Court

TYLER — Smith County Judge Nathaniel Moran told KTBB Thursday, those wishing to make a public comment will no longer be able to do so by the phone. “We really wanted people to come back to court in person, instead of on the phone for public comment. There is something very unique and special about face to face interaction with government. It’s a vital part of open government. We want people to have a participatory role in what we do. But, we feel like if it’s important enough for us to talk about it, we need to do it face to face. Now, that we are kind of coming out of the hardest part of this COVID process we felt like it was a good time to role into a new fiscal year doing this.”

Phone in comments had been allowed to the court over the last several months because of COVID-19. Online public participation forms may still be filled out online at https://www.smith-county.com/government/elected-officials/public-participation-form before the meeting, but the speaker must attend the meeting in-person. As of Thursday, Smith County will no longer post daily NET Health COVID-19 updates on its website and social media pages. Our decision does not in any realm try to negate or minimize the importance of the pandemic or a reaction of the pandemic, but rather it’s really a realistic view of where we are as a county.” Judge Moran went on to say, “We need to focus on the elections in the next month, we have a lot of things that we need to bring to the forefront. All of the information is still there. They can get their medical and health information at NET Health. They can get updates as well, through the county.”

https://www.nethealthcovid19.org/. The page, which includes all of the latest Smith County COVID-19 information, will still be active and can be found under the Fire Marshal’s page, at https://www.smith-county.com/government/departments/corona-virus-information.