Resident urges Fort Worth to restore public comment to regular council meetings

Chris Wood, a Fort Worth resident, told the council that separating public-comment sessions from regular City Council meetings has reduced opportunities for residents to address the full elected body.

"According to the first amendment of the constitution, founding fathers established the right for citizens to petition the government for a redress of grievances," Wood said. He described the right to address elected officials as "a fundamental right to free speech" and said that in Fort Worth, the separation of public-comment meetings has produced fewer opportunities for public input.

Wood told the council that scheduled standalone public-comment meetings were canceled repeatedly over the past months: he said a public-comment meeting scheduled for Sept. 24 "was canceled because not enough council members showed up," that there was "not a single public comment meeting" in November, that the December meeting was the only one scheduled and it was canceled, and that for three months earlier this year no comment meeting was scheduled. He said he contacted other mayors who told him that their cities allow citizen comments at regular council meetings.

Wood asked the council to "combine these meetings back together," saying joint meetings help surface issues for future agendas and alert staff to problems.

The transcript records Wood's remarks as public comment; there was no formal council response recorded on this agenda item during the meeting.