Fact check: Did Fort Worth council member miss meetings, and pay himself from his campaign?

Harrison Mantas
·2 min read

Fort Worth city council member Jared Williams doesn’t appear to have an attendance problem, but he might have violated state election law.

Williams is running for re-election to the Fort Worth City Council District 6 seat after upsetting eight-term incumbent Jungus Jordan in the June 2021 runoff.

The claims about Williams came from two mailers sent out by Colleyville-based Fort Worth Excellence PAC in support of Italia De La Cruz. Tonya Carter is also in the race.

The group alleged Williams was either late or absent from a third of city council meetings, and has personally enriched himself with campaign funds by using his own political consulting company.

A review of campaign finance filings finds Williams has paid Blackland & Meadows Consulting $5,830 from his campaign contributions since July 2021. All payments are listed as “campaign advising services,” on the forms Williams has filed with the Fort Worth city secretary office. Williams lists himself as a co-owner of the group on his LinkedIn Page.

According to the Texas Ethics Commission, a candidate or officeholder may not make a payment to their business “if the payment is for personal services rendered by the candidate or officeholder or by the spouse or dependent child of the candidate or officeholder.”

Williams’ spending raises the appearance of impropriety, said Matthew Wilson, an associate political science professor at SMU.

Williams did not respond to a phone call and three text messages requesting comment.

Fort Worth Excellence PAC cited City Council minutes between June 22, 2021 and Feb. 21, 2023 to back up its claims about Williams’ attendance.

A copy of the campaign mailer from Colleyville-based Fort Worth Excellence PAC that made misleading claims about Fort Worth city council member Jared Williams.
A copy of the campaign mailer from Colleyville-based Fort Worth Excellence PAC that made misleading claims about Fort Worth city council member Jared Williams.

A Star-Telegram review of those minutes shows Williams was late or absent 12 times, or roughly 17% of the time, and attended virtually 10 times, roughly 14%.

Fort Worth Excellence PAC treasurer Fred Tate requested that questions about the claims be sent in an email so they could be forwarded to the group’s research team. He said the group would provide a timely response, but it had not responded by Thursday afternoon.

Early voting continues until May 2 with election day coming on May 6.