Price treads lightly on City Hall problems
After five years of delivering her State of the City address to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Betsy Price has mastered the form and the forum.
Price is good at assembling good news about city accomplishments. Over the years, she has not been shy about pointing out difficulties, either.
She avoids focusing solely on the past, pointing also to plans for the future.
She did all of that on Tuesday, and the crowd at the Fort Worth Convention Center was enthusiastic about what she said.
This time, she could have been a bit more forthcoming about two serious problems hanging over the city: the ongoing feud over development in the Stockyards and the deep disagreement among City Council members over important proposals in a May 7 city charter election.
Neither issue should be taken lightly.
The mayor and council will have to face them both in coming months. There’s no reason to believe they won’t, but she passed over them quickly in her speech.
The Stockyards feud has been festering for months. A proposed $175 million development has been met with determined opposition from historic preservationists.
The council has started consideration of a local historic district to protect the Stockyards, something long sought by preservationists, but the details have been difficult.
The council members are determined to make all the final decisions about the Stockyards. That’s gallant and right, but it’s like standing between two prizefighters eager to start slugging.
On the May 7 city charter election, the council assembled a task force to propose amendments and called the election on the task force recommendations.
The council is deeply split over a proposal to draw two new council districts and add a new council member from each. That would make it 10 members plus the mayor, who is elected at-large.
The proposal is seen by some as a way to increase Hispanic membership on the council, commensurate with the city’s growth in Hispanic population.
One council faction says all of the city is well represented under the current 8-1 council makeup. A smaller faction disagrees.
The smaller faction also says the two members should be added right away if the charter amendment is approved. The proposal calls for the increase to wait until 2023 so redistricting can be based on the 2020 Census.
Price pointed out that the council members are good at working out problems and disagreements. They’ll need all of that skill they can muster on these problems.
This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Price treads lightly on City Hall problems."