Fort Worth city leaders recorded more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded travel between October 1, 2024, and August 2026, though the figures are not a complete accounting of the city’s travel costs. The trips ranged from Indonesia and Japan to Washington for President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration. Mayor Mattie Parker also traveled to Dublin in August, where she watched TCU take on North Carolina at the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
The figures come from records obtained through a public records request by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The paper reported that the records exclude reimbursements, canceled trips and other changes added to spending reports after the records were pulled. They also include professional conferences and training, not only international trips. A city spokesperson told the paper Parker's Ireland trip cost $5,950.58.
Council member Michael Crain topped the list with more than $36,000 in recorded travel expenses, according to the Star-Telegram's review. His trips included Sister Cities visits to Indonesia and Japan, domestic travel to Austin, Washington, D.C., Florida, Utah and other areas, and attendance at Trump's inauguration. A separate Fort Worth Report review covering a different time period found Crain spent about $56,000 over two fiscal years, the highest amount of any council member each year, including $11,570 for a five-day Harvard Kennedy School leadership program and roughly $5,300 for airfare to Tokyo.
A Wide Gap Between Councilmembers
Not every council member's travel bill looked the same. Martinez recorded roughly $14,900 in travel spending in the Star-Telegram's records, including Sister Cities travel, while the Fort Worth Report's separate two-year accounting put her total at almost $26,000, including a roughly $6,500 trip to Bandung, Indonesia, and conference costs of about $2,800 in Las Vegas and $2,700 in Washington, D.C. Macy Hill, by contrast, recorded no travel spending at all in the records obtained by the Star-Telegram.
Crain defended the travel as valuable to the city. He said he regards it as useful professional education and would be concerned if officials reported no work travel at all, adding that the trips can provide useful knowledge and experience for Fort Worth. Martinez offered a similar view, saying national and international trips can provide educational opportunities and future economic prospects for the city.
Other council members pushed back hard. Charles Lauersdorf said he questions the value of taxpayer-funded travel and training during a tight budget year. Hill said she has difficulty justifying travel at taxpayers' expense and believes no one should enjoy serving on city council at the public's cost, while also arguing officials can learn from other cities without international and nationwide trips. Beck said she has serious concerns about colleagues' travel expenses and the reasons given for charging them to the city, and argued Fort Worth should better define what qualifies as city business. Chris Jamieson had no comment for the story, offered through a representative.
Sister Cities and a Shifting Budget Picture
Fort Worth has partnered with Sister Cities since the 1980s and now counts eight sister cities, a program the city says facilitates international relations and trips that can include meetings with companies, public officials and national leaders. Those Sister Cities trips are paid from the city manager's budget rather than individual council travel accounts, and Fort Worth is changing how that spending is displayed in budget records going forward.
Carlos Flores said travel can help leaders understand local issues and share Fort Worth's work when trips are purposefully selected. Deborah Peoples and Mia Hall said responsible travel can bring the city fresh ideas and perspectives, and Chris Nettles said city leaders must learn beyond Fort Worth's borders to do their jobs well.
The debate is unfolding against a tightening city budget. Fort Worth navigated a $94 million budget gap before passing a $3.33 billion budget for 2027, and the city council approved that budget along with a property tax rate increase in September. Crain, Lauersdorf, Hill and Jamieson all voted against the proposed tax rate even as the broader budget passed, a split Beck called “virtue signaling” — approving the spending plan while rejecting the tax rate needed to fund it.
Fort Worth has revised its travel policy, according to city communications director Dianna Giordano, to streamline trip reporting and add transparency measures. The city also plans to reduce council travel spending in fiscal year 2027, allocating $7,700 for that purpose, though Giordano did not specify whether that figure applies per council district. Under the city's code, officials' travel must be reasonably necessary, authorized, related to city business and documented, with the Fort Worth City Code directing the city manager to set reimbursement procedures that require basic expense documentation, including receipts.
What the budget and rules clarify
The city plans to allocate $7,700 for council travel in fiscal year 2027, but communications director Dianna Giordano did not specify whether that amount applies per district. The city’s revised policy is intended to streamline reporting and add transparency; under city code, travel must be reasonably necessary, authorized, related to city business and documented, while the city manager sets reimbursement procedures requiring basic expense documentation, including receipts. The Business Press reported that the approved tax rate for tax year 2026 was $0.70565 per $100 of valuation, up 3.565 cents from the current rate of $0.6700.
Past reviews also found problems with how travel was tracked. In its review of fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the Fort Worth Report said city staff found some expenses had been incorrectly coded or charged to the wrong accounts, creating discrepancies between council district-office reports and finance department records.
Travel spending has drawn scrutiny in earlier reviews, too. In October, the Fort Worth Report found that the mayor and council members spent more than $167,000 on taxpayer-funded travel in less than two years. Its review of fiscal years 2022 and 2023 found at least $145,000 in city-related travel across more than 70 trips to at least six Texas cities, nine states and seven countries.
