Fort Worth to study term limits, salaries, size of City Council

Everything from term limits to a salary increase is on the table for Fort Worth City Council members as they look to amend the city’s charter to better reflect the city’s growth.

On Tuesday, City Council members directed staff to put together an 11-member advisory committee to begin considering pay raises for council members and the mayor, and whether the size of the council should be increased from eight members to 10.

The committee will also explore increasing the length of two-year terms in office, but also limiting the number of terms a council member can serve. It will also look at staggering terms so all council seats are not up for election at the same time.

In December, the committee will report back to the council with its findings. In January, the council could call an election for May 7 to amend the city charter.

The move comes a decade after voters approved increasing council member pay to $25,000, up from $75 if they attended a meeting, and the mayor to $29,999.

In November, Dallas voters approved paying its council members $60,000, up from $37,500, and bumping the mayor’s salary to $80,000 from $60,000 annually.

Most of the council supports increasing their pay as well as increasing their numbers. But, most said they didn’t want the size to increase until 2021, after the 2020 census. Increasing the size of the council will require redrawing district boundaries and the census numbers would be used in that process.

Members underpaid?

Councilman Sal Espino said Fort Worth council members are underpaid compared to other cities of comparable size. He also advocated for the larger council saying that the number of council members has not increased as the population has, nor does the council reflect the city’s diversity.

“Guess what, Fort Worth is a big city,” Espino said. “This is an important issue of governance.”

Councilwoman Gyna Bivens said she thinks the compensation is fair, but predicts that the size of the council one day could be as large as Dallas, which has 14 members.

Councilman W.B. “Zim” Zimmerman said limiting terms does have “unintended consequences,” in that they restrict members from serving as heads of regional boards, such as the Regional Transportation Council, because it takes time to work through the ranks of those organizations.

“The constituents, if they’re unhappy with me, they’ll vote me out of office,” Zimmerman said.

Several public meetings on the issues will be scheduled in October and November and again in January.

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Fort Worth to study term limits, salaries, size of City Council."