Dr. Kimberly Agoro urges Fort Worth to budget $100,000 for assessor to review code enforcement cases

Dr. Kimberly Agoro told the Fort Worth City Council during the special-called public hearing on the FY2026 budget that the city should allocate $100,000 to hire or fund a degreed engineer or qualified assessor to review code enforcement violations.

"It is incumbent upon the city to make sure that when its citizens are faced with citations, accusations, and daunting court visits that can make them lose their hard-won properties, we, the city, are doing our best to help them and not place the burden of proof on them," Dr. Agoro said. She described instances in which private engineers she retained found assessments to be incorrect and said those costs are not affordable for most residents.

Agoro asked the council to "just take a look in the budget and find a $100,000 somewhere" among what she described as the city's broader expenditures, and she asked the council to honor Mayor Maddie Parker's prior statement that city policy should not promote "code enforced gentrification." The transcript records Agoro's request and her appeal to protect homeowners; it does not show any immediate council response or an allocation decision on the request.

Her remarks were made as part of public comment during the budget hearing; no motion or formal direction to staff to allocate funds was recorded in the meeting transcript.