Charter review could reshape FW council

Fort Worth City Council members on Tuesday are expected to name a city charter review committee that will consider key political changes: adding two more council seats, making council terms longer than the current two years, raising the pay for council members and the mayor and setting term limits.

Three of those four things are worth considering. The 11-member committee is expected to hold public meetings and report its findings to the council in December.

Term limits should be taken off the table. As Councilman W.B. “Zim” Zimmerman told his fellow council members last week, “The constituents, if they’re unhappy with me, they’ll vote me out of office.”

The poster children for that are former District 4 Councilman Danny Scarth, who served nine years, and the man who defeated him in the May election, Councilman Cary Moon.

Earlier, the two people who best demonstrated how terms should be limited were former District 5 Councilman Frank Moss, whose two stints on the council totaled 12 years, and Councilwoman Gyna Bivens, who beat Moss in 2013 and was re-elected this year.

By far, most people who are elected to the council serve honorably. But the election system clearly functions well when voters decide to make a change. Campaigns to elect new people clearly work.

Beyond that, people who want to continue their service and whose district voters want them to stay in office should not be told that they can’t simply because the clock has run out.

At least initially, adding two council seats and giving members and the mayor a pay raise look like good ideas.

The eight-member council is elected from single-member districts (the mayor is elected citywide), and their number has not increased with Fort Worth’s fast-growing population. It’s likely that Hispanic neighborhoods will seek greater representation.

It’s been 10 years since council pay was set at $25,000 and the mayor’s at $29,999. Dallas council members get $60,000 and the mayor $80,000.

We’re anxious to hear the pros and cons of extending council terms beyond two years, a proposal that includes putting them on staggered election cycles. The advisory committee will have to tell Fort Worth why that’s a good idea.

This story was originally published July 24, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Charter review could reshape FW council."