Fort Worth Says No Again To City Council Pay Raises. What Can Be Learned From Other Cities?

Arlington TX

08 May, 2022

7:28 PM

Description

By Rachel Behrndt, Fort Worth Report May 8, 2022 Voters denied a raise for Fort Worth City Council members Saturday, once again signaling a hesitancy to enshrine higher council pay in the city's charter. The raise was recommended in 2015 by the city's charter review task force. Voters defeated the recommended pay hike in 2016, despite other controversial measures passing. The measure this year met similar resistance, failing with 52.40%of the vote. Council members will continue to receive $25,000 while the mayor will earn $29,000 annually. Being a council member has become a full-time job, the task force argued, and a higher rate of pay would attract a more diverse pool of candidates. Assistant City Manager Fernando Costa led the task force. Fort Worth has a council-manager form of government, meaning the elected officials provide general oversight, hire and fire the city manager and set the government. Traditionally, these have been part-time positions, but proponents of the raises say this isn't the case in a large city. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.