Fort Worth City Council members committed to better monitor their spending, instructing city staff to hold them accountable to an uncertain annual budget for city-related travel.
The council discussed how to regulate travel on the taxpayer’s dime during a work session meeting Nov. 4. The 30-minute discussion grew tense as council members demanded clarity on spending limits from city management and questioned the necessity of various excursions outside of the city.
City Manager Jay Chapa, who oversees Fort Worth’s $3 billion budget, initially said he wasn’t sure how much is allotted to each of the council members for travel. As the discussion went on, he said the current travel budget is an average of the spending reported in past years, meaning each council member gets roughly $16,000 per year for trips.
The lack of specificity on their budget prompted concern from some council members, who said Fort Worth residents deserve transparency in how their taxpayer dollars are spent.
“We are not transparent about our travel here on council,” said council member Elizabeth Beck. “I (want) a clear budget and us to be held accountable to that budget.”
The discussion on council travel spending came about two months after city officials told the Fort Worth Report they couldn’t release public information detailing travel expenses because of discrepancies in how those expenses had been documented. Spending documents since reviewed by the Report detailed international delegations to Fort Worth’s diplomatic sister cities, travel for municipal conferences and executive seminars, and one council member’s trip to Washington D.C. to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
Noting that he wasn’t employed with the city during the past three years, Chapa said standard practice at City Hall has been that council members may choose what trips to participate in at their own discretion. As long as expenses stayed within their allotted budgets, city management would approve reimbursements for travel, he said.
“There’s not a specific policy that says you can only go here or there. It’s really more up to the City Council member and their discretion,” said Chapa, who started as city manager in January. He worked for the city for more than 25 years before leaving in 2022 to launch a consulting firm.
Council member Alan Blaylock noted that council travel includes trips to represent the city in an official capacity or for professional training and development to enable them to better serve the city as council members.
“Both of those are very valid activities — we’re not talking boondoggles here. I don’t want that to be the perception of the public,” he said.
In recent weeks, city staff reviewed “multiple cost centers, expenditure accounts and thousands of transaction records” to ensure all expenses were properly accounted for, according to a staff report dated Nov. 4.
City officials released reconciled spending information to the Fort Worth Report on Oct. 7. The report to council members Tuesday noted that discrepancies identified in that information, including at least one trip a council member said they did not take, had been corrected.
Mayor Mattie Parker and 10 sitting council members, plus two council members who left office earlier this year, spent about $267,000 on city-related travel during the last three fiscal years, according to the staff report. Fort Worth’s fiscal years start Oct. 1 and end Sept. 30.
City staff have clarified “key definitions, responsibilities, requirements, and lines of accountability,” in policies regulating council travel, according to the report. City staff did not immediately respond to the Fort Worth Report’s request for copies of those updated policies Tuesday afternoon.
“The city manager’s office is enhancing internal processes to ensure consistent, accurate
recording and tracking of travel expenditures,” the staff report states. “Financial management services will support these improvements by providing training as necessary.”
After traveling, council members have 10 days to submit expense reports for reimbursement, according to a summary of the policies included in the staff report. After that, city staff have five days to process those requests and ensure all required documentation is available. Then, council members will receive reimbursement on their next available paycheck, according to the report.
Council member Mia Hall, who took office earlier this year, suggested implementing a policy that members must regularly and publicly disclose their trips and insights garnered during their travel. Beck suggested that the council be required to disclose all their city-funded travel during council meetings.
Beck and council member Macy Hill were the most vocal in calling for more transparency and accountability in travel spending during Tuesday’s meeting. Hill said she feels “no judgment” toward her colleagues and their spending, but she wants to be sure they’re being responsible stewards of public dollars.
Hill reported spending less than $600 on travel since taking office in 2023. She noted that she does her job as a council member “without having to spend a whole lot of money,” and she expects her colleagues to do so as well.
“We just need to be respectful of who we serve every day,” Hill said. “No one should enjoy the ride (on) the taxpayer dime. Truly, that’s the bottom line.”
She and Beck urged staff to more clearly outline spending policies and practice diligence in ensuring council members follow such policies. Beck said every city department has a budget, and City Council should be no different.
“I’m asking you, as city manager, to make sure that you hold us accountable to our budgets the same way that we hold our department directors accountable to theirs,” Beck said.
Chapa said he doesn’t have a problem following Beck’s proposal, but he stressed that it’s also up to each council member to hold themselves accountable to ensure travel directly relates to city business and stays within budgets.
Beck said it’s clear that “maybe some discretion isn’t where it needs to be.” It’s up to city management to regulate spending when council members “can’t self-regulate,” she said.
During the meeting, Beck directly criticized council member Michael Crain, whose expenses accounted for about 31% of the council’s total spending over the three years discussed. She questioned the necessity of his taxpayer-funded trip to attend Trump’s inauguration, for which he reported spending about $1,500.
Crain did not comment during the discussion about council travel Tuesday. He did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
In a statement to the Fort Worth Report last month, Crain said, “I take my stewardship of taxpayer dollars seriously, and as such, every trip is carefully vetted and approved by the city manager and chief of staff.”
Parker said she regrets that city leadership didn’t better prepare for changes in staffing she indicated may have contributed to the discrepancies. She explained that two former employees in her office handled expense reporting and tracking.
After one of those employees died and the other retired, a “huge void” was left behind, Parker said.
She referenced recent reporting on Austin City Council spending, which she said is “really different than what we’re experiencing here in Fort Worth.” The Austin American-Statesman reported last week that council members repeatedly made taxpayer-funded donations to advocacy organizations, nonprofits and other groups.
Parker said she supports a “healthy discussion” around the Fort Worth council’s travel budget and best practices for spending dollars moving forward.
“We’re still in a really great place and position as a city, and we want to keep it that way and have good light on the community,” Parker said. “And maybe just let’s tweak things a bit and be a little more transparent with each other.”
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.
Related
Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.
Republish This Story
Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details.