Voters would decide whether to double pay for the mayor and City Council members. Council pay has not increased since 2006 and lags behind other major Texas cities.<\/p>\n
FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 Fort Worth city leaders are considering whether to ask voters to approve pay raises for the mayor and City Council members, a move supporters say is long overdue but critics question amid other city needs.<\/p>\n
City Council members are scheduled to vote next Tuesday on whether to place the issue on the May special election ballot. If approved, voters would decide whether to double council and mayoral pay.<\/p>\n
Currently, Fort Worth council members earn $25,000 a year. The mayor earns $29,000. Council members say the pay has not increased in two decades, despite the city\u2019s rapid growth and expanding workload.<\/p>\n
\u201cFort Worth is behind on a lot of issues,\u201d said Councilmember Chris Nettles. \u201cThis has not been increased since 2006.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Pro Tem Carlos Flores said the salary does not reflect the time commitment required of council members.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo do it right, it is a full-time job,\u201d Flores said.<\/p>\n
Many council members maintain other full-time jobs to supplement their income. Councilmember Elizabeth Beck said the low pay makes it difficult for some residents to serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a single mom, I have to work a full-time job on top of my city council job because $25,000 is not a sustainable salary,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n
Fort Worth\u2019s salaries lag behind those in other major Texas cities. In Dallas, the mayor and council members both earn substantially more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dallas pays its mayor about $80,000 and council members about $60,000 a year under its current charter.<\/p>\n
In Austin, the mayor and council members also receive significantly higher pay. According to the city\u2019s most recent charter figures, Austin\u2019s mayor earns about $135,000 and council members about $117,000 per year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re asking is not even that,\u201d Flores said.<\/p>\n
Still, some residents have questioned the timing of the proposal, arguing the city should focus on unresolved issues before discussing pay increases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re addressing city issues every single day,\u201d Nettles said.<\/p>\n
Mayor Mattie Parker said she supports the proposed PAY increases, saying in a statement to WFAA:<\/p>\n
\u201cMy council colleagues and I have long discussed the opportunity to modernize our city\u2019s charter to update administrative processes and better align with changes to state law, as well as advance small pay increases for councilmembers as several have requested. I will continue to gladly serve as mayor no matter the salary. My focus is on a successful 2026 bond election in May to ensure we\u2019re planning and prioritizing city services, infrastructure and green space effectively to match the tremendous growth Fort Worth continues to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the council votes to move forward next week, the pay raise proposal would appear on the May ballot, giving Fort Worth voters the final say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters would decide whether to double pay for the mayor and City Council members. Council pay has not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-153323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}