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Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, Bud Kennedy column: At Fort Worth City Hall, a 'public meeting' without the public
Jul 17, 2009 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
City Hall talks a lot about treating folks the "Fort Worth way."
But apparently that doesn't apply when you go to City Hall.
At one of the most tumultuous City Council meetings in years, more than 100 residents had to stand outside this week while city administrators and council aides took needed seats in the chamber.
If you wanted to come in person and watch the council debate homelessness services, the Rainbow Lounge investigation or whether to elect a new mayor pro tem, you had to come early.
Rows of seats in both the pre-meeting briefing and the regular meeting were filled by city employees who could have watched just as easily from their desk computers.
Gosh. I always thought public meetings were meant for the public.
Apparently, Fort Worth now has so many administrators, information officers and council aides that there isn't as much room for the public.
At the afternoon briefing, in a smaller chamber, for all the administrators and aides, residents almost can't find a seat anymore. This week, people lined both sides of the hallway straining to hear the council at work.
At night, marshals blocked the chamber doors about 15 minutes before the 7 o'clock meeting, when about 250 seats and standing-room spaces along walls were filled.
I'm going to guess that about 30 administrators and aides were inside while more than 100 residents were outside, milling around City Hall or watching on monitors in the lobby.
(Of course, two more seats quickly came available when protesters were ejected for complaining about their place on the agenda. They wanted to have the discussion of the June 28 Rainbow Lounge police visit moved ahead of the homelessness services discussion and the election of Mayor Pro Tem Danny Scarth, all topics for resident discussion on what would obviously be a long night.)
Not too many years ago, the city had only a few administrators in the meeting and only one public information officer. Most administrators and council aides stayed on the job, watching the cable TV feed from their desks while they did other work or fielded calls and e-mails.
On a crowded meeting day, that cleared space for the public.
On other days, it kept City Hall workers serving the public.
In fact, I remember when the Tarrant County Commissioners Court had a stern rule against county employees sitting in meetings, even when the crowd was light.
"If you're sitting in here, then you're not doing your job for the people," one commissioner said.
Come to think of it, the county judge and commissioners still get by with only about 10 top-level administrators and one public information officer.
Maybe we need more of the Tarrant County way of thinking down at Fort Worth City Hall.
Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7538 Twitter @budkennedy
To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper,
go to http://www.dfw.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
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