City Budget – Page 3 – The Other Side Dallas

September 16, 2020September 16, 2020

Trust Missing Still From South Dallas-Fair Park Opportunity Fund

Some things don’t change. Trust missing from South Dallas-Fair Park Opportunity Fund it seems.

As the Mayor and City Council debate today the Defund DPD or pay cuts to top level employees the economic development staff issued a Notice of Funding Availability that side stepped normal city procurement policy despite a long history of South Dallas-Fair Park Opportunity Fund being poor accountants of the public’s tax dollars.

Trust Missing Still From South Dallas Fair Park Opportunity Fund

Staff for the South Dallas-Fair Park Opportunity Fund also extended the deadline for applications. An anonymous city staff member noted the advisory board mostly applauded, but who and what is being funded is still up in the air. Previously the fund has mostly been a cash cow for certain connected individuals who use the fund as a low cost loan provider at taxpayer expense.

The advisory board has previously avoided a majore reform proposed by City Manager TC Broadnax – axing the ongoing social-services grants and focusing on loans.

It isn’t clear what actions the advisory board is taking to improve the outlook for the Fair Park area, but to date, it appears they are only providing acquiesence and not advice.

Trust Missing…Still and Forever?

Decades’ of city audits reveal the fund is broken and almost broke, after dispensing some $7 million of taxpayer money. The results? There is little to show for it except unpaid-loan lawsuits and just a handful of success stories fueled with forgivable loans.

September 11, 2020September 16, 2020

Mayor Eric Johnson’s Plans to Defund Dallas Bloated Bureaucracy

Defund Dallas may be the new cry against Defund DPD. Mayor Eric Johnson has recently stirred up controversy for trying to cut government salaries. It all started on September 1st when the mayor posted a tweet highlighting the discrepancy of salaries of Dallas among other government salaries.

Defund Dallas: Mayor Eric Johnson's chart showing government salaries

Apparently the Dallas City Manager, T.C Broadnax, makes more than the President of the United States. Which is certainly odd, considering the wide gap in responsibility between the two jobs. As well as the fact that even the top 10% of City Managers earn significantly less than what T.C Broadnax is currently earning (according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019)

Should this be the case? Is the wage worth the work? Mayor Eric Johnson doesn’t think so. In fact, the mayor himself wrote an opinion piece on The Dallas Morning News defending his budget amendment.

In it he states his proposal to decrease the salary of some Dallas government officials amidst the pandemic to make room for more services and lower taxes.

Mayor Eric Johnson’s Defund Dallas Program

The budget amendment in a nutshell cuts 10% off the salary of anyone who makes more than $60,000 annually (including the mayor himself who makes $80,000). This does not include anyone working for emergency services.

Cuts made from the salaries are to help fund more services such as better infrastructure (better roads and streetlights), better policing/ public safety, and lower property taxes.

Unfortunately there is no specifics as to what he means by better policing. Nor if the lower property taxes will be a main focus point or simply an extra treat in case there is left over funds. More details will be unveiled once he formally proposes the budget amendment on the 23rd.

Public Perception

When the straw vote was conducted not a single council member voted on even discussing a cut to salaries. Some people agreed with the mayor and where disappointed by the council. Some said the mayor should have also proposed to cut salaries from the Dallas police, and other cuts in general. Others made fun of the mayor for leaving after the straw vote. And a handful questioned the validity of his bloated bureaucracy claim.

As is with government in general, ineffectiveness and useless spending often persevere. Seeing as how the Dallas council has voted in the past its unlikely that the budget amendment will go through despite the COVID-19 struggle and mayor Eric Johnson’s attempts.

“If this is not the time … to trim the top 10% of salaries at the city of Dallas … then there will never be a time,” -Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson

September 10, 2020September 10, 2020

BREAKING: Defund DPD 2.0 May Take $77M From Police Budget

Is a second Defund DPD moment coming to Dallas?

Next Generation Action Network is seeking a Seventy-seven million dollar decrease in the Dallas Police budget per two separate persons with knowledge of the situation.

Defund DPD has been a rallying cry since the George Floyd death with several members of city council vocally supporting fewer dollars headed to DPD. At yesterday’s meeting of Dallas City Council it appeared there were enough votes to move $7M in overtime from the Dallas Police budget.

Mayor Eric Johnson tweets about measures defunding DPD

Mayor Eric Johnson has tweeted that more than 500 people have emailed City Council about defunding police during the violent crime spike. It is unclear how the Dallas Budget will end up with members of Dallas City Council openly attacking one another in meetings and on social media.

Defund DPD 2.0 – Reaction to Alexander Arrest?

One source who reported NGAN may be seeking this level of funding change said it may be related to the arrest this past weekend of Dominique Alexander.

Neither Next Generation Action Network nor Mayor Johnson has responded to an email for comment.

Dominique Alexander may push for Defund DPD 2

September 9, 2020September 9, 2020

City Council To Defund DPD Overtime?

Defund DPD looks like it is becoming an election issue afterall.

Several members of Dallas City Council, including Adam Baladua and Chad West, are circulating the graphic below showing the reallocation of Dallas Police overtime to other focus areas. The argument they make is that crime prevention dollars are better spent than crime response.

It is not clear how some of these measures are anything except for pet projects in the city. Bike infrastructure and new solar panels have not been linked towards crime prevention in any way and arts funding, useful to the community at large, has little to nothing to do with crime prevention either.

One recent social media post noted it appears some members of city council are trying to balance the budget deficit on the backs of cops after the city council voted to waste millions on Visit Dallas earlier this summer.

Another poster noted that city council knows overtime is hard to budget for and with COVID19 and ongoing George Floyd protests these dollars are being used more quickly than usual.

Defund DPD – Not Really

One issue that is being raised very lightly is the total budget cut from the police force. Despite multiple city council members saying their budget priority was to Defund DPD in June the current reallocation argument amounts to only 0.8%. Where is the real ‘Defund’ movement and will these same members of city council continue to buy armored vehicles for the police as they did earlier this year.

September 3, 2020September 3, 2020

Have You Seen Our Missing Mayor?

Eric Johnson was a Missing Mayor at yesterday’s budget markup after approximately 1:30 PM when Mayor Pro Tem Adam Medrano took over the gavel and Eric Johnson was nowhere to be found.

Dallas City Council was to take up eighty-four budget amendments and did so in many cases without the Mayor. Mayor Johnson left proceedings when his amendments were defeated.

The city currently has a $3.8B budget with numerous holes given the loss of tax revenue from COVID19. During that time the City Council nearly unaimously gave Visit Dallas a new five year contract despite no evidence of actually succeeding in bringing convention or visitors to Dallas and a long history of marketing suburban hotels and events.

Missing Mayor – Again

Eric Johnson’s tenures as Mayor and as a State Representative have been marred by a frequent absenteeism. He was named to Pepperdine University’s Board of Regents further fueling speculation about his focus on Dallas.