The Fort Worth City Council will bring a charter election to voters in May through a formal ordinance expected to pass during Tuesday’s scheduled meeting.

Council pay will top the list of proposed amendments.

Few things stir people up quite like someone’s else’s salary. When it’s an elected government official, the bile boils.

The council is going for something more modest than what it proposed to voters in 2022 — $60,000 for the mayor and $50,000 for the 10 other members of the City Council.

If passed, the new salaries would kick in on Oct. 1, the first day of FY27. The election would coincide with the $840 million bond election, which includes more than $500 million in streets and mobility infrastructure projects. 

City officials are proposing a package of charter amendments that largely aim to modernize Fort Worth’s governing document, streamline internal operations, and better align the charter with how a council–city manager government actually functions today.

In addition to a highly visible item, such as pay, the changes range from more technical revisions that remove procedural hurdles embedded decades ago. Several amendments would eliminate special hearing rights for department directors and council appointees, allow the annual budget to be adopted at the same meeting as a budget hearing, and remove requirements for standalone ordinances for routine administrative actions like grants of privilege or the creation and elimination of city departments.

Each are designed to create more efficiency, clarity of authority, and consistency with state law.

Not on the list is a change in quorum, which at least one councilmember believed was a bad look, considering a request for a pay bump. The number of councilmembers required for a meeting to take place will remain at eight of the 11. The proposal discussed was lowering it to six, similar to the simply majority standards set in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Dallas requires an uber-majority.

Eight is considered a high threshold.

“My only concern is you’re going to be asking people for a raise and then you’re going to tell them we’re going to cut back on the number of people required to hold business,” said Deborah Peoples, the first-term member of the council who represents District 5. “Since I have been on the council, there has never been a time when we have not had a quorum. And I just think the public expects us to be there to take care of business and I’d prefer to leave it like it is now. That’s my two cents.”

And with that, the council had suddenly found a consensus to drop it altogether.

During the era of Bob Bolen 35 years ago, the council was paid something in the neighborhood of $75 a meeting.

Though voters increased pay 20 years ago, Fort Worth still lags way behind its Texas peers in mayor and council pay. Through an election in 2006, the City Council is paid $25,000 each year. The mayor is pulling down $29,000 a year.

The failed 2022 measure in Fort Worth would have tied pay to one-half of the average salary of department and assistant department directors. Numbers at the time translated to roughly $99,000 for the mayor and $76,000 for council members. Those figures would be higher today if the same indexing formula were used. Staff also suggested the possibility of adopting a fixed base salary with an annual adjustment mechanism, indexing pay to an external benchmark such as Tarrant County median household income or allowing the council to set salaries by ordinance but with a defined cap, as the city of Austin does.

Dallas’ mayor and council are both paid $60,000 a year. Voters there last year turned down a charter amendment that would increase the mayor’s pay to $110,000 and the council’s to $90,000. San Antonio’s mayor makes $61,725, while the council earns more than $45,000.

The Austin City Council gave itself a nice raise in 2023, to more than $116,000 for council members and more than $134,000, a 40% increase in pay from 2022 to 2023, according to reports.

Houston is the one exception among the big cities where the mayor is significantly stronger than in the classic council-manager cities. Houston is technically a “strong mayor–council” hybrid, but it still employs an appointed city administrator and extensive professional management functions. Mayor John Whitmire earns more than $236,000 a year. Councilmembers are paid $62,983.

Expected City Charter Propositions

The Fort Worth City Council is expected to pass an ordinance calling for an election to amend the city charter with these proposed changes. Propositions A-F concern the 2026 bond election: 

Proposition G — Mayor and City Council PayRaises the mayor’s salary from $29,000 to $60,000 and council members’ pay from $25,000 to $50,000, replacing prior index-based formulas with fixed dollar amounts. The increase would take effect either immediately after the election or at the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1, depending on Council’s direction.

Proposition H — Department Director HearingsRemoves the charter provision that allows department directors to demand a written statement and a hearing before their removal becomes final, aligning the process with at-will employment under the city manager form of government.

Proposition I — Council Appointee HearingsEliminates special hearing rights for council-appointed officials, including the city manager, city attorney, and city auditor, while retaining the requirement that their removal occur by a public vote of the City Council.

Proposition J — Budget Adoption TimingAllows the City Council to adopt the annual budget at the same meeting as a budget hearing, eliminating the charter requirement for a separate adoption meeting.

Proposition K — Public Utility Annual ReportsRemoves the charter mandate requiring public utilities to submit a dedicated annual report to City Council, citing the availability of regulatory and financial information through other channels.

Proposition L — Grants of PrivilegeEliminates the requirement for a separate ordinance and two-thirds council vote for each grant of street or utility privilege, allowing staff to administratively approve applications that meet standards already adopted in city code.

Proposition M — Creation or Elimination of City DepartmentsRemoves the requirement that the creation or abolition of city departments be accomplished by ordinance, restoring organizational authority to the city manager consistent with the council–manager form of government.

Proposition N — Conforming Changes to State LawUpdates charter language governing council vacancies and election timing to ensure compliance with Texas law, particularly in situations where state election rules limit when a special election may be ordered.