Tag: City Budget

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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.

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City Council To Defund DPD Overtime?

Defund DPD

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.

Defund DPD

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.

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