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Tarrant County commissioners to consider new meeting rules after arrests, bans

A photo of a crowded government meeting room. Several sheriff's deputies in black uniforms follow a man as he's dragged out of the meeting room.
Yfat Yossifor
/
KERA
Tarrant County sheriff's deputies drag Charlie Hermes out of a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, in Fort Worth. He was arrested after shouting at commissioners.

After a series of contentious meetings, Tarrant County commissioners are set to consider new rules about when to expel or ban people.

The proposed policy is on the meeting agenda for commissioners’ 10 a.m. Tuesday meeting. Tensions among members of the public, commissioners and sheriff’s deputies escalated at the commissioners court meeting on Jan. 14, when two people were sent to jail, and another was detained in handcuffs.

The decorum policy has been in the court's plans since last year. Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare enforces meeting rules, and he announced in July he and his colleagues would discuss those rules.

That move came after a KERA News story examined why O’Hare was throwing people out of meetings and the uneven punishments they received. One of the court’s most frequent speakers went eight seconds over his allotted three-minute speaking time and received a year-long ban. He has since been allowed back in.

County Judge Tim O’Hare, a white man with short salt-and-pepper hair and wearing a black suit, looks up frowning from his seat at a dais.
Yfat Yossifor
/
KERA
Judge Tim O’Hare glances up at a disturbance in the audience during the Tarrant County Commissioners Court on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, in Fort Worth.

The new policy proposal would limit when people can sign up to speak and specifies when speaking times can be shortened. It also lays out the circumstances that can get people banned from meetings.

“The intent of these rules is to ensure the safety of the public, the staff, and members of the Court, and to maximize citizen participation, efficiently receive public input, and maintain respectful decorum during each meeting,” the proposed policy states.

Current rules allow people to sign up to speak until the commissioners court meeting start time of 10 a.m., according to the county website. The new policy would eliminate morning sign-ups and require people to submit their public comment forms by 5 p.m. the day before a meeting.

The proposal would also allow the county judge to limit the three-minute speaking time in case a large group of speakers addresses a certain topic. For example, if 20 people signed up for one agenda item, O’Hare could limit their time to two minutes. If 40 people sign up, speakers could get one minute.

“In making such adjustments to speaker time limits, the County Judge shall act in a reasonable and non-discriminatory manner,” the proposed policy states. “If an adjustment is made to speaker time limits, such adjustment shall be applied equally to all speakers on a particular topic regardless of the position taken by the speaker on the topic.”

The county’s current rules, explained on the speaker sign-up sheet, allow the county judge to "impose time limits,” but it doesn't get more specific than that.

If someone doesn’t follow the rules in the proposed policy, they could be kicked out or "temporarily” banned from speaking in person at meetings. The policy does not specify how long that could be. They could also be found in contempt, leading to up to $25 in fines or 24 hours of jail time.

A close-up photo of a man's hands behind his back in handcuffs.
Yfat Yossifor
/
KERA
Tarrant County sheriff's deputies detained CJ Grisham, an attorney, outside a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting on Jan. 14, 2025. Grisham said he carried his gun into the building and was told he could not, before being let go.

The proposed policy also lays out when and how sheriff’s deputies, or bailiffs, can give someone a trespass warning — which bans them from the administration building in downtown Fort Worth where commissioners court meetings are held.

Bailiffs could give someone a trespass warning if they have caused “a continuing series of disruptions” at a single meeting or over several meetings, and if less restrictive punishments haven’t worked. They can also issue a warning if someone causes such a big disturbance “that less restrictive means of correcting the disruption would be futile.”

Under current practice, it’s up to the bailiffs to decide when to give someone a criminal trespass warning, a sheriff’s office spokesperson explained last summer.

The proposed policy would limit any trespass warning bans to 180 days. It also allows people to appeal their warning to the county’s Sexually Oriented Business Board.

The policy proposal doesn’t explain why the board, which hears permit denial appeals from businesses like strip clubs and adult bookstores, would oversee trespass warning appeals.

Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org.

KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.

Miranda Suarez is KERA’s Tarrant County accountability reporter. Before coming to North Texas, she was the Lee Ester News Fellow at Wisconsin Public Radio, where she covered statewide news from the capital city of Madison. Miranda is originally from Massachusetts and started her public radio career at WBUR in Boston.