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City of Dallas CFO resigns in middle of budget planning

Ritu Manoj Jethani
/
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The City of Dallas budget process will be continuing without Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Reich, who has announced her resignation.

Elizabeth Reich, the chief financial officer for the City of Dallas, has announced her resignation.

City Mgr. T.C. Broadnax, wrote in a letter to the mayor and city council that Reich is leaving her position June 30 for a job outside the city.

Reich wrote in her resignation letter that her team would sustain the financial programs she established during her six years as CFO.

“I am fully confident in my executives and staff and grateful that they are united in the mission to serve and improve our community,” she wrote.

Jack Ireland, the city’s director of budget and management services, will take over from Reich as CFO on July 1. Broadnax wrote in his letter that Ireland has been in his current job for 12 years and has overseen the development of the city’s annual operating budget.

The CFO is one of the key negotiators between the mayor and council members and the city’s departments during budget talks. Broadnax is expected to present his recommended budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, on Aug. 9 to council.

Having one of the key players at the negotiating table leave during budget planning will make an already complex process a little more complicated, said Dr. Timothy Bray, the director of the Institute of Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas.

“You pull one person out, you put somebody else in, you’ve built a new team, and that new team has to gel” Bray said. “...That doesn’t happen when we don’t change players out.”

Broadnax, who also plays a role in the budget process, could also be on his way out. Mayor Eric Johnson and some Dallas city council members have voiced criticism of how he's handled city services. A job performance evaluation for Broadnax by the council has been scheduled for next week.

Still, Bray said even if Broadnax and Reich both leave in the middle of the budget negotiation process, the impact of their absence won’t be major.

“These things happen, and city hall staff has learned to be fluid when these different sorts of complications arise,” he said.

Got a tip? Caroline Love is a Report For America corps member for KERA News. Email Caroline at  clove@kera.org. You can follow Caroline on Twitter @carolinelove37.

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Caroline Love covers Collin County for KERA and is a member of the Report for America corps. Previously, Caroline covered daily news at Houston Public Media. She has a master's degree from Northwestern University with an emphasis on investigative social justice journalism. During grad school, she reported three feature stories for KERA. She also has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas Christian University and interned with KERA's Think in 2019.