How to show up in Galveston County
Surveillance is approved by people who hold public meetings any resident can attend. This page lists the bodies that do that in Galveston County, what we have confirmed about attending each one, and where each publishes its agendas.
We do not publish meeting dates. A schedule we cannot check often enough would eventually send someone to the wrong place on the wrong night. Each body below links to wherever it publishes its own agendas and schedule, and that is the copy to trust.
Countywide
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Galveston County Commissioners Court
Watch this oneEvery county surveillance purchase on this county's pages was approved here, and every one of them sat inside the consent block, the batch of items the Court disposes of in a single motion. The plate reader contracts, the covert trackers, the pole cameras and the phone extraction software all passed that way, none of them pulled out for discussion. The items a member did pull, across three years of minutes, were a constable's drone warranty and three pieces of Operation Lone Star business.
- When
- Twice a month on Mondays at 9:30 a.m. The regular meeting sits at the courthouse in Galveston and a special meeting about a fortnight later sits at the Calder annex in League City. Holiday weeks move the date, so check the agenda page rather than assuming a given Monday.
- Where
- Galveston County Courthouse, 722 Moody (21st Street), Galveston, TX 77550, for regular meetings. Special meetings are at the Calder annex, 174 Calder Road, Room 100, League City, TX 77573. Which building a given meeting uses is printed at the top of its agenda.
- Remote
- Not established. No remote attendance or live stream is named on the agendas or in the minutes we read.
- Public comment
- Public Comment is a standing item on every agenda, taken after the invocation and before the consent agenda, and the minutes name the residents who speak. No sign-up procedure, time limit or registration deadline is printed on the agendas we read, so ask the County Judge's office at 409-766-2244 before you go.
- Written comment
- Not addressed on the agendas or in the minutes we read.
- Who to ask
- Galveston County Judge's office, 722 Moody, Galveston, TX 77550, 409-766-2244. A person needing an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act is asked on every agenda to contact that office at least three days before the meeting. (checked )
Agendas and minutes are published for every meeting from August 2023 and the minutes are the useful document: each records who was present, then every item in order with its text and the names of the documents filed with it, then the motions with the mover, the seconder and the ayes and nays by name. The consent block is approved in one motion that names the items being held out of it, so the exceptions are where the disagreement is. The portal's index of items reaches back to 1995 and the documents filed beneath those older items can be opened individually, but the meeting agendas and minutes themselves begin in 2023. We read the 106 sets of minutes published for August 2023 to September 2026.
Confirmed ·
What this list does not cover yet
These are the bodies we have confirmed, not every body in the county. Galveston County has other commissions and committees, and other school and special districts, that we have not documented yet. Several of the county's own committees publish on the same county portal linked above.
Before you go, and after
Civic action
Read what is already on the record for Galveston County first. A resident who has read the contract changes the room.
What is documented in Galveston County →Personal protection
Knowing which systems operate near you also tells you where your own choices still matter.
EFF Surveillance Self-Defense ↗