Mayor Mike Moncrief’s favorite term is “the Fort Worth Way.” In general, the mayor uses this vague term to describe Cowtown as a polite city whose officials don’t argue among themselves in public, that’s upfront and honest in its political and business decisions, and that listens to its citizenry in a meaningful and respectful manner. In other words, we aren’t like Dallas.
Of course the cynical among us see the negatives of the mayor’s way. Big political decisions seem to be done behind the scenes with little meaningful public discussion. The mayor warns citizens who address council that they will not be allowed to speak any longer if they disparage council members or the city. He’s been known on more than one occasion to turn off their microphones. And if that is not enough, the mayor really gets pissed off if the city council members argue with one another or even disagree with him.
All of this came to a head at last week’s city council meeting, which was dominated by those seeking some explanation for the Rainbow Lounge raid. But that was just one issue on the agenda. And before the six-hour session was finished, the Fort Worth Way had taken a substantial pounding.
The first battle involved removing council member Kathleen Hicks as mayor pro tem and replacing her with Danny Scarth. The mayor pro tem position is largely ceremonial, so this shouldn’t have been an issue. But Hicks said she was blindsided by the decision, and she claimed the mayor never explained to her why the council needed her to step aside. Maybe it was because Hicks voted against some gas well leases. Maybe it was her penchant for not returning phone calls promptly. Nobody knows, because the mayor did not say.
But Hicks was having none of that. Rather than smile and take her lumps, as the Fort Worth Way indicates she should, she launched into a diatribe in which she defended her record and expressed her anger at the treatment she’d received. As an African-American female, Hicks said she had faced discrimination every day of her life.
Scarth, who is paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair, countered Hicks by claiming he is a victim as well. Couldn’t play football or dance. Some restaurants he likes don’t even have wheelchair access.
The next group claiming victimhood were the gays and lesbians who showed up en masse to get answers from the city on the Rainbow Lounge raid. Fort Worth council meeting agendas always put public comments at the end of the meeting, but some of the protestors didn’t think they should have been made to wait five hours to have their say.
The most vocal were members of Queer LiberAction, a Dallas-based gay and lesbian rights group. They demanded the public comment period be moved up and started shouting “Hear us now.” Soon others were shouting that as well, and Moncrief started banging his gavel and yelling at them to sit down and be quiet. The mayor had police remove six of the gay protestors. (He eventually succumbed to pressure, however, and allowed the Rainbow Lounge comments to be heard about halfway through the meeting.)
If all that commotion wasn’t enough, members of the Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Homelessness had a beef with the city. The staff is recommending that a new program to subsidize housing for the homeless be cut by a third because of budget constraints. The commission wasn’t getting answers behind the scenes from council or staff, so they bypassed the Fort Worth Way and made their anger public.
Minister after minister spoke, some of them angrily accusing the city of picking on the homeless. Many directors of nonprofit agencies that work on homeless issues also objected to the proposed cuts. The chair of the commission, the Rev. Brooks Harrington, read a resolution passed by the commission demanding that the funding be continued.
Whether you think of it in the benign way the mayor applies the term or as a more sinister explanation for how things are done in this town, the “Fort Worth Way” isn’t going away anytime soon. But the July 14 council meeting suggests that there may be some cracks in the façade – and that’s not a bad thing.
It’s all about acting like a big city. Functioning big cities encourage debate and argument, don’t hide those discussions from the public, and listen to the citizens even when they’re angry. Some in Cowtown may not like it – but from here it looks like another sign that the city is growing up.
