Fort Worth City Council considers adding proposed changes to city charter onto May election ballot

Fort Worth City Council discussed moving forward with placing two potential changes to the city charter on the May ballot.

The discussions were held during the Jan. 18 council work session. The charter sets out certain rules and procedures for how the city operates. Any changes to the document must be approved by voters.

The first proposal deals with how salaries of the mayor and City Council are calculated. Four methods were originally proposed, but the first three options–setting a specific rate, setting an annual rate per ordinance, and setting an annual salary by ordinance with a cap–are off the table.

However, the city is exploring a fourth option where the mayor would receive 150% of the average salary of city employees and council members would receive 125%. But the council wants to tweak that option to find a different way of presenting it to voters, according to the discussion. A final version must be completed by Feb. 8.

“We can go back with option 4, see what there is, the preference to finding a direct parallel instead of going with a percentage,” said Denis McElroy, senior assistant city attorney for the city of Fort Worth.

The second proposed change to the charter dealt with extending council terms from two years to three years and staggering when those terms would expire. The council chose not to proceed with either of those changes.

The third and final proposal involves technical amendments. One involves whether natural landmarks are necessary when the boundaries of council districts are redrawn due to population data from the census. The other asks whether the charter should be amended to delete the right of city appointees and employees to a public hearing before the council to discuss their removal.