Removal of attendees, Christmas tree lighting plans punctuate Fort Worth council meeting

Two attendees were removed from the Fort Worth City Council chambers Tuesday night after yelling during a meeting and questioning city marshals. 

EJ Carrion and Alexander Montalvo are familiar faces at City Hall, often attending public comment meetings to advocate for issues and critique city leadership. 

City marshals instructed Carrion to exit the chambers after he shouted from the audience, “Your time’s up. They took your time,” when a speaker’s allotted time to address the council ran out. The comment referenced the shortened time residents were given to speak that night. 

Montalvo, who was nearby, questioned the marshals as Carrion complied with their order to exit. 

“I simply asked the question, ‘Why is he having to leave?’ And the response was, ‘Do you want to be next?’” Montalvo said, recounting the incident to the Fort Worth Report after the meeting. 

At that point, a marshal told Montalvo, “It’s time to go” because he was disrupting another speaker’s comments, according to video footage of the interaction reviewed by the Fort Worth Report. 

Journalists from the Report at the meeting observed Montalvo refusing to leave until marshals began physically pushing his shoulder to nudge him out of the seat, at which point he walked with them to the foyer outside the council chambers. While in the foyer, the reporters saw marshals appear to push Montalvo against the wall as he tried to reenter the chambers.

Marshals eventually allowed Montalvo to reenter and take his turn to address the council, saying it was up to Mayor Mattie Parker whether he’d be allowed back in. The mayor’s spokesperson, Kinsey Clemmer, confirmed that Parker gave the green light for Montalvo to return to the chambers but did not comment further. 

Carrion was not allowed to reenter the meeting. 

Marshals at the meeting declined to comment. Fort Worth Police spokesperson Buddy Calzada said via email the department had no information on the incident. 

Carrion and Montalvo said the night’s events would not prevent them from attending future meetings but could impact how they feel about being at City Hall. 

“I will not be bullied by these thugs in uniform, but do I feel safe? No,” Montalvo said. He said he wants a public apology from the Fort Worth Police Department and the marshals involved.

The incident came toward the end of an already tense meeting marked by residents’ frustrations over recent meeting changes that some community activists have described as an attempt to stifle the public’s voices.

City officials moved the Dec. 2 meeting’s start time up an hour from the usual 6 p.m. to allow council members to attend the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Sundance Square, scheduled for 6:30 p.m., according to a Dec. 1 news release. 

Attendees were given 90 seconds to address the council instead of the usual three minutes allotted per speaker. Tuesday’s speakers addressed a variety of topics including funding for affordable housing, a community arts center’s future and maternal health in Tarrant County.

Several criticized the night’s changes made in accommodation of the Christmas tree lighting, saying the council should have prioritized hearing from residents as it was the last public comment meeting of the year.

City spokesperson Sana Syed declined to comment on the criticism about the night’s meeting, deferring to the mayor and council members. 

Public comment meetings allow residents to speak directly to the council in a public forum on any topic. The council’s recently adopted 2026 meeting schedule reduces the number of such meetings from the 15 offered this year to 10 next year.

Carrion noted that his and Montalvo’s removal from the meeting came amid their ongoing criticism of that reduced schedule.

“The fact that this was the last one, and you treated the community’s voices as a sidepiece to the Sundance Square tree lights — I just think there’s a lot of angst,” Carrion told the Fort Worth Report. 

Montalvo was the last of about 50 speakers. Addressing the council after his interaction with marshals, he told members he was “bullied by law enforcement” and criticized Parker for “this crusade against public comments.” 

Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org. 

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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