Now that Tarrant County commissioners only meet once a month, local progressive groups decided to hold their own version of a public comment session Tuesday night.
Tarrant County Commissioners Court meetings give members of the public a few minutes to give their opinion on county business. For controversial issues, like deaths in the county jail or eliminating the county rental assistance department, public comment can stretch meetings by hours.
In August, the court’s Republican majority voted to reduce their meeting schedule. Republican County Judge Tim O'Hare said it would give county staff more time to research issues that could come up at meetings. Tarrant4Change and Justice Network of Tarrant County responded Tuesday by hosting the People’s Commissioners Court, a community meeting for people to talk about county issues and figure out ways to sway conservative commissioners.
"The people have a right to be able to stand in front of their representation and tell them their concerns,” Tarrant4Change co-founder Alexander Montalvo said.
Tarrant County residents losing that opportunity “is a deterioration of our democracy," he said.
About 40 people gathered in a Fort Worth coworking space for the first People’s Commissioners Court in a planned monthly series.
Fort Worth native Evan Carouthers said he’s concerned about threats to free speech – and limiting public comment time feels like one of those threats.
“If anything, what we need is an increase in the amount of speaking time that the people have,” he said.
Many of the people who attended Tuesday’s meeting also go to every commissioners court meeting, usually to bring up concerns about conditions in the county jail. Deaths in custody have cost the county millions of dollars in lawsuit payouts, and two jailers were indicted for murder after the asphyxiation death of Anthony Johnson Jr. last year.
Joe Palmer often goes to commissioners court and speaks about Mason Yancy, who also died in the jail last year. Palmer said they were friends.
There should be 20 people at every meeting to talk about jail deaths, and 20 more on every other important issue, Palmer said Tuesday.
"The way the democratic system is supposed to work is, the minority gets heard,” he said. “The majority gets its way, okay, but the minority gets heard."
The Democrats are a minority on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, with two out of five members. That number could dwindle further next year after an unusual mid-decade redistricting effort made Commissioner Alisa Simmons’ precinct more conservative.
Simmons attended the People’s Commissioners Court meeting. She’d like to return to holding commissioners court meetings twice a month, with occasional evening meetings to accommodate people who can’t show up during the usual 10 a.m. time slot on Tuesdays, she said.
"Limiting people participating was the point – the point of all this," she said.
Soon, there will be fewer opportunities to address the Fort Worth City Council, too. A majority of council members voted to hold 10 public comment meetings instead of 15, according to the Fort Worth Report.
“If there are true issues that need to be resolved and you need to reach us, [we’re] very accessible, all of us are,” Council member Michael Crain said.
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