by As information about how the city could assist small companies begins to surface, members of the Fort Worth City Council will decide on August 5 what will happen to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
A resolution to suspend the city’s diversity and inclusion department’s operations, financial incentives for women- and minority-owned companies, and other programs aimed at addressing racial, ethnic, or gender inequities will be put to a vote by the council.
As the Trump administration looks to cut off DEI initiatives from government funding, the suspension would help safeguard the $277.1 million Fort Worth receives from the federal government. The duration of the suspension has not been disclosed by the city administration.
In June, City Manager Jay Chapa stated that his office is developing new, more comprehensive incentives to assist small companies in lessening the potential effects of the DEI suspension.
The City of Fort Worth Small Business Development Program was described on a page on the city’s website on July 29. The program’s objectives included increasing possibilities for local business owners, especially in the areas of certification, procurement, and capital access.
According to the page, which has since been removed, the initiative draws on community input and current collaborations while still complying with federal funding standards.
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The city will not release information about the new program until after council members have been briefed on it during a work session on August 5 at 10 a.m., according to an email from Sana Syed, the city’s acting chief communications officer. The same day, at 6 p.m., council members convene to vote on the DEI suspension.
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Anyone can sign up to speak on an agenda item and address council members at their meeting at 6 p.m. According to the city’s website, people can do this by registering online, giving the city secretary’s office a call at 817-392-6150, or completing a speaker registration form in person at City Hall no later than two hours before to the commencement of the meeting.
The page explained how the city will use small businesses and establish rules for including small businesses in public contracts by switching to a best value procurement procedure on September 1. The page states that would comprise:
- a 5% bid preference on contracts under $100,000.
- a 30% target for small business inclusion in contracts over $100,000.
- unspecified inclusion of small businesses in development projects.
“To work together, share resources, and increase opportunities for local businesses, leaders from the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, and Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce signed a memorandum of understanding with the city,” the page said. In June, the Hispanic and Black chambers promised to support the city manager’s office in creating the small business program.
Requests for response from chamber representatives were not immediately answered by the Fort Worth Report.
On June 24, council members were scheduled to cast their votes on the city’s DEI initiatives. In an effort to dissuade them from passing the resolution, a group of Democratic community leaders have since taken to social media.
People are encouraged to write letters to Chapa, Mayor Mattie Parker, City Attorney Leann Guzman, and members of the City Council requesting that DEI remain in Fort Worth. The online petition is sponsored by the organizers of 817Pod, a weekly podcast that focuses on Fort Worth politics, culture, and development. According to the petition, more than 5,200 letters had been sent as of July 31.
817Pod published a series of daily social media posts outlining 20 reasons for Fort Worth to retain DEI in partnership with Tarrant4Change, a progressive activist group that focuses on equity and inclusion, and Chris and Mendi Tackett, an activist couple that opposes Christian nationalism in Tarrant County. The series’ twentieth post, which was released on July 30, cautioned against the precedent that a DEI suspension may create.
The piece claims that the covert destruction of diversity, equity, and inclusion under federal pressure is not just disheartening, but also recognizable. Regimes eroding equity under the pretense of impartiality and utilizing compliance to stifle growth are not new.
In June, Chapat informed council members that the suspension is required to safeguard the $277.1 million in multiyear federal assistance that Fort Worth receives. At least ten city agencies, including police, fire and emergency management, neighborhood services, transportation, and public works, are partially funded by the funds.
President Donald Trump directed his administration to halt all DEI-related regulations, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in January when he issued an executive order to end excessive and wasteful government DEI spending and programs.
Although Trump’s directive does not specifically mandate that local governments end their own programs, it may have an effect on whether or not these organizations are able to keep receiving federal funding.
In June, Chapa informed the council that he was unsure if Fort Worth had been directly notified by the federal government that the city needed to discontinue DEI initiatives or face losing federal funding.
Although Fort Worth seems to have been the first city in North Texas to contemplate ending its DEI programs, Dallas quickly followed.
Members of the Dallas City Council gave their city manager instructions to assess DEI initiatives and make sure federal directives were being followed in late June. KERA News says the findings will be briefed by Aug. 20.
At a private meeting in May, Fort Worth council members started talking about the funding danger. On June 17, they had their first public debate during a work session.
Following a heated discussion on the value of DEI programs and the potential effects of halting them on the city’s links with communities of color, the June 24 vote was postponed.
The majority of the Democratic council members opposed the suspension and wanted to stand up to Trump, therefore the conversation was mainly partisan. Parker and other Republican council members either stayed mute during the discussion or stated they weren’t prepared to jeopardize millions of federal dollars.
Chapa was informed by a number of Democratic council members that while they recognized the importance of safeguarding federal dollars, they felt uneasy about the suspension of incentives for women- and minority-owned firms unless they saw clear plans to continue supporting Fort Worth’s small businesses.
The resolution’s opponents claimed that if they could first see a comprehensive plan for ongoing support of small, local firms, they would be more receptive to it.
Chapa has stated that the five employees of the diversity and inclusion department will not be let go if the council accepts the motion on Tuesday. He hasn’t explained how the suspension would affect the diversity and inclusion department’s voluntary advisory commissions, like the Human Relations Commission and the Mayor’s Committee on Persons with Disabilities.
Cecilia Lenzen works for the Fort Worth Report as a government accountability reporter. Reach her at fortworthreport.org/cecilia.lenzen.
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