It is not clear if the City of Dallas will attempt to overcome accusations that the City of Dallas is now advancing another social equity goal which is both not realistic and will not do anything to overcome the economic gaps it purports to fix.
The city website says:
Equity means that each person has the resources and services necessary to thrive in each person’s own unique identities, circumstances, and histories.
Equity focuses on eliminating disparities while improving outcomes for all.
Racial equity is a situation that is achieved when people are thriving and neither race nor ethnicity statistically dictates, determines, or predicts one’s social outcome or ability to thrive.
Dallas Racial Equity Plan
Critics point to a series of mismanaged steps by current leadership in Dallas and on City Council.
They point to bait and switch economic development programs run by the former director, Dr. Eric Anthony Johnson, and a South Dallas/Fair Park Opportunity Fund which has been missing trust since it was founded, but has been a cash cow for politically connected minority political operatives.
Response to COVID19 may have hit a road block locally after a Dallas City Council rap song is going viral.
The live “music” performance was performed by Alex Stein, a graduate of Highland Park High School who seemed to be coaxing Instagram followers for himself.
Alex once wanted to be the “most epic villain in reality tv history.” It is possible this stunt was designed to become the most epic villain in city council open microphone history.
Dallas City Council Rap
The one positive to come out of the video is it was intended to be positive. It is hard to make the same call for Renee Hall’s Take A Knee video in 2020.
Alexandra Guio is not missing – she is just ghosting Paula Blackmon and city staff – after her appointment to the Dallas Redistricting Commission and recent decision to launch a campaign for House District 114.
Guio was appointed to the Redistricting Commission in early March 2021. Local city rules prohibit city council appointees from being candidates or treasurers for political campaigns.
Guio’s news comes after Paul Ridley demanded the removal of former D14 City Council Member David Blewett’s appointee to the Redistricting Commission.
Alexandra Guio
Guio did not respond to a call from Other Side Dallas, but at least one other candidate was not surprised.
“Alex thinks she is going to roll into progressive HD114 as a former Republican with a commitment problem and we’re going to let that slide,” said a local Democratic activist.
Currently, there are four announced candidates in the race for HD114: Charlie Gearing, Chris Leal, and Kendall Scudder. There is the possibility of a fifth candidate entering the race shortly.
Future crime data will be limited by a move by Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia.
The otherwise public information is used by both news outlets including Other Side Dallas and by neighborhood groups to monitor community based crime will be harder to access in Dallas based on the secretive police chief’s decisions.
In recent weeks, Garcia has been said to be living on Eddie Garcia Island, by his own staff members. They allude to him being out of touch with both citizens and officers.
Crime Data Accountability
This move puts Garcia squarely at odds with groups seeking police accountability after incidents like the George Floyd protest and lack of responsibility taken by the department after its officers injured bystanders and protestors alike. The city and the department have both been quiet about the Dallas data breach which endangered thousands of prosecutions locally.
It also does not reflect recent actions by Dallas police officers who were caught beating civilians on the streets of Deep Ellum without cause or the recent detention of a family, who were in their own home, in an incident that reminds us of the Botham Jean murder.
The Dallas City Council gives more tax breaks to billionaires in one more corportate giveaway while simultaneously telling the homeless they can not ask for money on street corners.
City Council approved an “incentive” to facilitate a new mixed-use and mixed-income development project proposed by Kroger Co. and its development partner Southeastern called One City View at N. Hall Street and Flora Street.
The project, the second in collaboration with Kroger in recent years, will bring a full-service grocery store and affordable housing to the downtown/uptown area.
“The mixed income component of this project brings 375 new housing units, including a much needed 75 affordable units to Dallas,” District 14 City Council Member Paul Ridley said. “I welcome such opportunities to partner with the private sector to achieve the city’s objective of creating more affordable housing close to jobs, transportation and community resources.”
The new five-story development will include a Kroger grocery store (approximately 80,000 square feet) on the ground level and almost four hundred apartments on the upper four levels. At least seventy-five of these apartments will be rent restricted for households earning a maximum of 60% Area Median Family Income (AMFI). The total project cost is estimated at $108 million.
The incentive approved by the City Council to facilitate the project authorizes a real property tax abatement agreement for a period of ten years in an amount equal to the City’s taxes assessed on 50% of the increased value of the property.
“This partnership is a step towards greater economic and equitable development in communities with untapped potential. We look forward to collaborating with Kroger and Southeastern and hope this project will serve as a beacon to attract similar partnerships,” Chief of Economic Development & Neighborhood Services Dr. Eric Anthony Johnson said.
In 2019, the City Council approved an initial partnership with Kroger for a new $100 million fulfillment center located at 4241 Telephone Road in the Southern Dallas Inland Port. The Dallas-based automated fulfillment center, in partnership with Ocado Solutions USA Inc., will source, package and prepare grocery products for direct delivery to consumers throughout Dallas and neighboring communities.
Tennell Atkins was overjoyed by the news saying in a city issued statement, “this partnership will lift and leverage our efforts to achieve equitable development in Dallas. We are happy to support Kroger in this project, and hope to see more positive and impactful collaborations like this one in our City.”
Atkins is Chair of the Economic Development Committee.
The City of Dallas also provided $3M to a South Dallas grocer with almost no strings attached after city council intercession. It reeked of the economic devlopment problems of the old South Dallas/Fair Park Trust Fund and todate has not provided additional jobs or additional food options.
That move has since been lambasted as another giveaway to developer friends of local city council members.
Construction of the latest taxpayer funded boondoggle is reported to be nearing completion. 350 full-time positions for the new facility will begin to ramp up in the coming months.
In addition to providing the tax break for Kroger and Company, the City of Dallas is also coordinating with the company to use tax dollars to provide employees to Kroger via city run job fairs.
Mayor of Dallas Eric Johnson test positive for COVID19 per a statement issued a short while ago.
“I appreciate your thoughts and prayers on behalf of my family, and I look forward to a speedy recovery so I can get back to work with my colleagues on behalf of the people of Dallas,” Johnson, 46, said in the statement. “In addition, I want to take this opportunity to again encourage residents of Dallas to get vaccinated if they have not yet done so — and to receive a booster shot when they are eligible.”
Eric Johnson Tests Positive Despite Vaccination
Mayor Johnson was vaccinated at UT Southwestern Medical Center in January 2021 due to an underlying medical condition not disclosed.
Despite county mask requirements, the City of Dallas has been less strict with enforcing masks locally including at popular gathering places such as The Majestic Theatre.
The Mayor has cancelled a number of appointments including tomorrow’s city council meeting as he recovers.
Erin Nealy Cox takes over the city investigation into IT losses which deleted millions of police files used in criminal prosecutions.
Nealy Cox is the former US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas and was recommended by Dallas officials hoping to find answers to the data loss jeopardizing upwards of 17,000 criminal cases.
Council members on Thursday also questioned the head of the city’s IT department about a 131-page report released two weeks ago that found the country’s ninth-largest city lacked basic policies and procedures for backing up archived data.
The City Council’s general investigating and ethics committee unanimously agreed Thursday to recommend law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP to conduct the independent review. The City Council will have to approve the decision to make it official.
“The data loss incident may have originated with a single employee who broke the rules,” said council member Cara Mendelsohn, who is chair of the committee. “But it’s clear from this report that there are no rules.
“The discovery of the data loss is horrific to the victims of family violence, and I’m not sure that we can ever fully apologize for any of the cases that don’t move forward because of these errors.”
Erin Nealy Cox – No Stranger To Dallas Police
Nealy Cox, resigned from North Texas’ U.S. Attorney’s Office in December estimated the review and report would take three months to complete and cost taxpayers more than half a million dollars.
Dallas Police Executive Assistant Chief Albert Martinez said an investigation continues alongside the Dallas FBI Field Office.
The Dallas data loss report dropped late Thursday in a quiet press release. The report aims to answer questions about the 20TB+ loss of data that is halting prosecutions of murder suspects and interupting city functions.
A press release noted a review and analysis conducted into the mass data loss first discovered by the City in April 2021, the City of Dallas IT Department Thursday provided City Manager TC Broadnax a report giving further details around the events leading to the data loss, the efforts to recover data, and making recommendations for changes to reduce the risk of potential future data loss.
Broadnax noted in a statement, “The City understands the seriousness and potential impacts of this data loss and we are committed to improving how we manage our data to ensure its security and integrity,” said City Manager TC Broadnax. “In this report, our IT Department provides a path forward with a series of direct and actionable recommendations to improve our management of data and guard against any future data loss.”
The statement continues that the report confirms that the City lost 20.9 terabytes (TB) of data, totaling 8.26 million individual files in two events during the month of March 2021. The report cites actions taken by a City IT employee as the cause of the archive deletions and examines other factors and conditions contributing to the events. The data loss impacted archive files of the Dallas Police Department (DPD) and consisted of archived images, videos, audio files, case notes and other administrative documents gathered by the Department. Additionally, it delineates thorough reviews conducted of other backup and archive processes and confirms that other City systems were unaffected by these events.
Data Loss Report Out, But No Answers
The report does not address employee disciplinary actions, nor does it describe the details of any investigatory actions completed or underway related to the data loss. Multiple sources confirm an investigation by the Dallas Field Office of the FBI.
Dallas crime up and DPD overtime is down per a Dallas City Council vote earlier which removed additional funds from the Dallas City budget.
City Council is putting the finishing touches on next year’s budget which will be finalized on September 22, 2021.
The biggest fireworks were when Dallas Police Department’s overtime budget was cut by $10M and moved into city reserves awaiting results of an audit. The vote was 8-7 in favor of defunding the department and ignores recent failures of officer availability to respond to three children assaulted last week.
Crime Up And DPD Overtime Down – Again
Citizens can still contact their member of City Council prior to the final vote on September 22, 2021.
Former Richardson Mayor Laura Jordan, and her developer husband Mark Jordan, were found guilty Friday, July 23 of bribery and tax evasion.
Prosecutors said the former mayor accepted cash, vacations, and home renovations from Jordan and had sex with him in exchange for her votes to change the city’s zoning on land fronting Central Expressway. She also voted to approve hundreds of apartments that Jordan wanted to build there.
Early in the trial, prosecutors told jurors that the Jordans “corruptly convinced the city of Richardson to approve a multi-million dollar real estate deal.” Prosecutors also said that they “used their adulterous affair and subsequent marriage to cover up corruption and get away with this.”
But the Jordans’ attorneys told the jury that the former mayor voted for the project because it was in the best interest of the city, and that a majority of council members approved the project too.
The conviction comes just weeks after the conviction of Ruel Hamilton on similar charges.
Laura Jordan
Laura Jordan was the Mayor of Richardson, Texas from 2013 to 2015. She had previously become the first woman elected to the post of Mayor Pro Tem in the City’s 57-year history as a home rule city.
Laura Jordan, then Laura Maczka, was initially elected to the Richardson City Council, Place 4 in May 2011, defeating Karl Voigtsberger by 74.97% to 25.03%. She is believed to be only the 6th woman elected to the city council in the last forty years.
In 2013, Maczka was elected mayor in the first direct election of the mayor since the city became a home rule city in 1956.
