Tarrant County’s governing body will continue meeting once monthly despite calls from residents to increase the frequency of meetings.
The commissioners court is scheduled to meet 14 times from October to September of next year, with one meeting per month planned and additional sessions in August and September to accommodate budget planning. Commissioners approved the schedule 4-0 during their July 14 meeting, with Commissioner Alisa Simmons absent.
“It is ridiculous that a county this size has one meeting per month,” Fort Worth resident Linda Hanratty told commissioners. “If we were Loving County, that might make sense, but not Tarrant County. Please give us back our voice.”
Of Texas’ five largest counties, Tarrant’s commissioners court is the only one that meets monthly. Dallas, Harris, Bexar and Travis each meet at least twice per month.
Hanratty and nearly a dozen other residents urged commissioners to reject the proposed schedule and revert to twice-monthly meetings. They argued that one meeting per month is not sufficient time and opportunity for residents to address their elected commissioners in a public forum, or for commissioners to spend adequate time deliberating county business.
Commissioners did not comment on the schedule before voting to adopt it Tuesday.
They adopted the once-monthly schedule in August of last year, arguing that cutting back from the twice-monthly schedule would give county staff more time to prepare meeting agendas and discussion topics. The court’s two Democratic commissioners, Simmons and Roderick Miles, voted against the change at the time; their GOP colleagues — County Judge Tim O’Hare and commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez — were in favor.
The residents’ demand to increase meeting frequency follows months of contentious commissioners court meetings that have seen speakers physically removed, arrested and criminally charged for clapping, swearing or shouting. One speaker was removed from Tuesday’s meeting after continuing to speak when his allotted time ran out, and another was removed for clapping.
“We elected you, and we pay for you,” speaker Ambika Sharma told commissioners, arguing in favor of more meetings. “We are your employers. You are our employee.”
Over the past year, commissioners court meetings have at times extended for hours, as commissioners heard testimonies from dozens of speakers on issues ranging from deaths in the county to the sheriff’s partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In February, commissioners voted 3-2 to limit the time each individual gets to speak, as well as how much time they dedicate to hearing from the public. They also empowered O’Hare to reduce the speakers’ time when more than 30 people are registered to talk — an authority he has since used at several meetings.
Speakers criticized the changes to the meeting schedule and speaking limits as an attempt to silence public criticism and exclude residents from government decision-making.
“It is blatantly obvious that you are terrified of your citizens,” speaker Merl Glasscock told commissioners Tuesday. “How frail can a public official get?”
Under Texas law, county commissioners courts must designate a day of the week to meet each month. However, if court business does not require a monthly meeting, commissioners may meet once per quarter, according to state government code.
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court met weekly until Dec. 2023, when they began meeting on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. That change came as O’Hare, Ramirez and Simmons were each ending their first year in office.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
