Fort Worth City Council voted 11-0 to allow additional public comments in meetings, a shift from a change approved in September.

The details

During the Jan. 13 council meeting, the council voted to increase public comment opportunities from 10 to 20 and eliminate designated public comment meetings from the schedule.

In addition, the passage allows for speaking time to be increased back to three minutes. During the Jan. 13 meeting, the public speaking time was two minutes, down from three, which was the standard in 2025.

According to city documents, the original proposed 2026 council meeting schedule included only one single public comment meeting per month and added the possibility of business items being included on those agendas to make more efficient use of staff time and resources.

The resolution proposed a schedule that would include a public comment section on each regularly scheduled business meeting.

How it happened

The change was proposed by Chris Nettles [District 8], Michael Crain [District 3], Deborah Peoples [District 5], Mia Hall [District 6], Carlos Flores [District 1] and Mayor Mattie Parker, according to city documents.

Council voted 7-4 in September for the original changes, which also gave Parker the power to reduce speaking time when there were many speakers signed up. That was the case at the Jan. 13 meeting with more than 20 speakers.

Nettles said it was disheartening to see the speakers’ time cut.

“I was not aware that that was part of the resolution [in September,]” Nettles said. “I think that we all should have our three minutes. I have been on the other side speaking to this council and anytime you speak publicly, your nerves are out of whack. You’re not sure what to say, but you want to get your point across. I will always support having three minutes to speak again.”

Notable quote

District 4 Council Member Charlie Lauersdorf spoke about the importance of public comment.

“We see some new faces every now and then and I think we can all agree that sometimes we do hear some pretty bad ideas or some pretty outlandish comments, or even rude or derogatory comments,” he said. “I think sometimes those good ideas get lost in there. But I think it’s important that we can discuss them. But I don’t know what happened to being able to agree to disagree; do it civilly and be kind about it. I hope as we move forward, we can get back to handling city business; things that we actually had the ability to affect here at the city level.”

What else?

There is a change for the executive session and work session start time compared to previous standards, which were noon for the executive session and 1 p.m. for the work session. The meetings will now start at. 1 p.m. for executive session and 2 p.m. for work sessions, which allows time for council members to take part in luncheon meetings or industry groups meetings, according to city documents.

Items worth mentioning

The council’s altered schedule now will feature meetings during the day and night.

Day council meetings, starting at 10 a.m.

Jan. 27Feb. 24March 31April 28June 23Aug. 25Sept. 29Oct. 27Nov. 17Night council meetings, starting at 6 p.m.Feb. 10March 10April 14May 12June 9Aug. 11Sept. 15Oct. 13Nov. 10Dec. 8Work session and executive session meetings, 1 p.m. for executive session and 2 p.m. for work sessionJan. 27Feb. 3 and 24March 3 and 31April 7 and 28May 5June 2 and 23Aug. 4 and 25Sept. 1 and 29Oct. 20 and 27Nov. 17*Dec. 1*The Nov. 17 meeting will start at 9 a.m. with an executive session, according to city documents.