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Committee recommends changes to municipal court code, including new civil and technology fees
Summary
Staff told the Government Affairs Committee that proposed revisions to Chapter 10 (courts) would align city code with state law, remove outdated references and add two $5 civil fees and a boot-fee increase from $50 to $75; the committee voted to recommend the changes to City Council.
City staff presented proposed revisions to Chapter 10 of the Fort Worth City Code covering courts and the parking bureau and asked the committee to recommend the ordinance to full City Council. William Rumley summarized organizational changes (removing the ad hoc municipal court advisory committee and routing certain appointments to council), operational updates and staff-initiated fee adjustments.
Rumley described three fee-related proposals: a $5 civil security fee, a $5 civil technology fee (both intended to offset costs now charged to the general fund) and an increase in the boot fee from $50 to $75, noting the boot fee had not been raised since 1988. "We're recommending to add these two fees," Rumley said, and estimated roughly $150,000 per year in additional civil-fee collections with about $5,000 in increased revenue from the boot-fee change.
The changes also align local language with state law (transcript references to Texas local government code and related sections) and include operational cleanup (removing the court reporter position in favor of digital recordings and updating position titles). Rumley said the $25 appeal fee language was removed to reflect current practice and that the $10 nonrefundable administrative appeal fee would be eliminated.
The committee discussed transparency in the judicial-appointment process and asked staff to clarify how selection panels are composed; staff said the panel membership would be disclosed when recommendations are presented. The committee then voted to recommend the Chapter 10 ordinance to the full City Council.
