Fort Worth City Council speaker rules change this week

New rules to speak during Fort Worth City Council meetings begin Thursday.

In September, the City Council adopted several changes to the rules of procedure covering how the public can address them. The council waited three months to implement the changes to give residents and others time to learn the new procedures.

Residents will still be allowed to speak for three minutes, which has been the case for decades. But now, those wishing to speak must be registered by 5 p.m. the day of the meeting. The next council meeting is Tuesday.

You can register in the city secretary’s office on the third floor of City Hall, 200 Texas St., by calling 817-392-6150, or fill out a speaker card online using the links available on the council agenda. Written comments may be submitted in lieu of speaking at the meeting.

In other changes, a person representing a group of 10 or more people will be given six minutes to speak, down from 10 minutes. When registering, the speaker must provide the names of those in the group and they must be at the meeting.

If there are a lot of speakers on one issue or if the council has a particularly long agenda, the mayor may reduce the time limit to two minutes.

When starting, speakers will only be required to give their city of residence and will not be asked for their address.

The council's rules of procedure began in 1960 and have been amended several times since.

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 8:34 PM with the headline "Fort Worth City Council speaker rules change this week."