One day before Fort Worth City Council will vote on hiring a new city manager, council members Chris Nettles and Jared Williams have called on their colleagues to delay the vote and restart the hiring process.
Nettles has been an outspoken critic of the hiring process since it began, describing it as “baked and unfair” and calling for public engagement opportunities before a hire is made. Both he and Williams have said the process was rushed, and that one candidate was “cherry-picked” for the role.
City Council is set to vote Dec. 10 on hiring former Deputy City Manager Jay Chapa for the position of city manager. If hired, he will succeed City Manager David Cooke, who announced in July that he will retire in February 2025 after more than a decade in the role. The meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the old City Hall building at 200 Texas St.
To voice their concerns with the process, Nettles and Williams conducted a Dec. 9 press conference with various Fort Worth faith leaders at the new City Hall building at 100 Fort Worth Trail.
Williams told the Report after the press conference that an offer letter was extended to Chapa on Dec. 4 and that Chapa has signed the offer. The city announced that Chapa was the lone finalist for the position Dec. 5.
“There was an offer letter already sent with negotiated salary and benefits,” Williams said. “We haven’t as a council discussed salary, we haven’t discussed a start date, we haven’t discussed an offer letter — but it was signed underneath the city shield by our mayor.”
Neither Mayor Mattie Parker nor her spokesperson returned a request for comment by the time of publication. Reyne Telles, the city’s chief communications officer, did not return a request for comment.
Parker told the Report last week that Nettles is “dead wrong” in his stance on the hiring process. She added that she has full confidence in how the process was conducted, describing the national search as “flawless.”
Council members call to restart the hiring process
Last week, City Council members conducted closed-door interviews with Chapa and four other candidates during an executive session meeting Dec. 3.
Williams said it was his and Nettles’ understanding after the executive session meeting that there would be at least a month before the council voted on a hire. The Dec. 10 meeting is the last time City Council members will meet before going on break for the holidays. Their first meeting after the holiday break will be Jan. 14.
“The intention was not to have a vote this week. There were a number of things that were made clear as a body, and for some reason, we’ve deviated from what we talked about last Tuesday,” Williams said.
He said he’s “still trying to figure out” how the city manager vote made it onto Tuesday’s meeting agenda, but noted that both the mayor and city manager have the authority to make weekly decisions about what gets placed on council agendas.
Nettles pointed out that the city has historically hosted public engagement efforts for other city staff positions of lesser importance than city manager, such as the library director and director of the Office of the Police Oversight Monitor. He and Williams have advocated for similar public input opportunities for the city manager hire.
“Since we were denied, we stand with our community together to say we’re going to come to City Council, we’re going to state our position, and we’re going to ask this mayor and council to please halt the vote so that we can allow community input,” Nettles said. “I believe it’s a simple ask, and I think we have to do it.”
Williams said it’s not too late for council members to seek public input. He and Nettles will continue to advocate until the vote to delay it and allow residents and community members to have an opportunity to weigh in.
“We need to take the time that we need to rebuild the trust that we so quickly lost in a split, rash decision that was predetermined,” Williams said. “The people of Fort Worth deserve this.”
Faith leaders say lack of transparency will have lasting effects
During the press conference, several faith leaders spoke about the importance of transparency and the opportunity for community members to have input during the city manager hiring process.
Pastor Michael Bell of Greater St. Stephen First Church-Baptist, who is also a spokesperson for the Tarrant County Local Organizing Committee, said the decision to vote on hiring Chapa so soon “sidesteps the established precedent for hiring a new city manager.” He added that a more transparent hiring process would have ensured any candidate’s legitimacy, bolstered City Council’s credibility and served the best interests of the Fort Worth community.
“It’s unfortunate that we had to call this press conference, because any concern that community stakeholders have as it relates to the hiring of the city manager for Fort Worth, Texas, would have been allayed if a viable process inclusive of community input and participation had been articulated and delineated by the Fort Worth City Council,” Bell said.
Bell and other faith leaders emphasized their concerns are with the hiring process, not with Chapa as a candidate. He noted that he knows and respects Chapa.
Michelle Green-Ford, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, said she’s confused why she and other business leaders haven’t been allowed input on the city manager hiring process. She said the chamber has a great working relationship with the city, but she hasn’t received any communication from city leadership on the position — and that concerns her.
“This impacts our businesses greatly, yeah, so I just see the long-term impact of not getting the feedback, not getting the input, not getting just the assurance that we’ve done our due diligence,” Green-Ford said.
Pastor Kenneth Jones Jr. of Como First Missionary Baptist Church said council’s decision not to host public engagement efforts will have a lasting impact on the relationship between Fort Worth residents and officials.
“There will never be public trust between city government and community when the process for hiring our leading public officials is not transparent,” Jones said.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org or @bycecilialenzen.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.